I live up north and planting a garden is a lot like playing a game of Russian Roulette. You never know when that late freeze is going to get you. This year, we got an early spring up here and I decided to bite the bullet and plant my potatoes. I felt like a rebel, that was until I heard others were playing the same risky game I was.
When the sun is shining and you can be outside in a t-shirt and still be warm, it is a major temptation to get out there and start planting. Now, I will admit I only put in about half the potatoes, because, well, the family has to eat. If my little walk on the wild side didn’t turn out well and all my potatoes froze, it would be a bad deal come this fall. I really pushed the gauntlet and planted a few root crops as well. As I sit here and my phone keeps blowing up with a winter storm warning, I am confident a little snow is going to be okay. Snow is warmer than those killer temps that kill everything off.
My potato patch is an area that gets full sun. While I didn’t go out there and stick a thermometer in the ground, I felt the ground and I feel it once a day. The ground isn’t too cold, which means things should be okay. This is an old trick I learned from the old-timers around here. Technically, the ground should be about 40 degrees or more to begin the germination process. Like I said, I don’t use a thermometer, but ground that is under 40 degrees is going to be much harder to work. I held off on one area because the ground was still very wet and cold. I judged this by doing the clump test. I ran the cultivator through the area, which was already giving me a pretty strong indicator the ground wasn’t ready. I scooped up a hand full of dirt and gave it a good squeeze. It formed a ball and stayed that way. Nope, not ready. Too wet and too cold for my potato starts.
Now, the trick will be getting these bad boys to survive the next full moon. Not because some creepy things that go bump in the night will attack them, but because that will be the next round of freezing temperatures and hopefully the last chance for a late frost. I suspect (hope) they will have emerged by then. Those little green leaves are going to be susceptible to frost. I would hate to have my little game backfire after I hooted and hollered because they actually popped up. It will be time to cover the little green buds. For those that have just a few rows, row covers are a grand idea. I’m cheap and my potato patch is far too big for me to do row covers. I could buy the potatoes in the store for the price I would pay putting together enough row covers. My go-to cover is straw. It is cheap, about 4 to 5 bucks a bale and a couple of bales will cover the majority of my taters. The trick is to cover the greenery to keep the frost off. Think of it as giving your plants a little blankie.
Another trick with the straw is to use it now if your soil is still struggling to warm up and you don’t want to wait much longer. Plant the potatoes and cover the area with straw. The straw blanket will add about 10 degrees to your soil, which will speed up the germination process and get you that much closer to full grown plants ready for harvesting.
It is too early to say, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for a bountiful crop this year. Good luck to all of you out there who are hoping to become more reliant on yourself and less reliant on the grocery stores. Preparing for a time when there are no grocery stores or things like potatoes are too expensive to afford is a wise move.
PoorPrepping 