I've been meaning to show you this -

[digitS']

I dug this out of my compost pile earlier this week. There was another one, about the size of a marble. I left that.

I had been watching the plant for quite a few weeks. Sometime in September, it bloomed. That is supposed to indicate that the plant is "bulking up" the tubers. It was an awfully small plant thru its life but I looked at it favorably.

Really, I thought it must be from some trimmings from a store-bought potato purchased way back when. However, it is obviously a Yukon Gold. I know we didn't buy any Yukon Gold potatoes at the store. I bought some Yukon Gold seed potatoes back in late winter.

Now, the entire compost pile had been gone thru twice, during the summer. By that I mean, I dug everything out of my compost trench, buried "compostables" and refilled. Then, I went thru a 3rd time but, by then, the little potato plant was growing. So, I was careful to avoid it as I reburied more compostables.

What I figure is that it grew from - New Potatoes - that were harvested about the 1st of July. Some of a new potato made it into the compostables bucket and found itself in the compost pile in early July. It then grew and produced this!!!

You see what this means, right?! It means I can grow 2 crops of potatoes in a single year!!

I once tried to do that . . . I grew a very early variety - Caribe. They were harvest as a mature crop the last few days of July. The foliage was going down hard on them by that time. Some of the tubers were moved to another bed and re-planted. There they stayed with absolutely NOTHING poking above ground for 8 months!! Then they came up . . . . so, that was a failure!

But, here you see I harvested NEW POTATOES about the 1st of July! Three weeks earlier than I got the Caribe outta the ground and moved. The result of replanting one of those - a tuber . . .

Okay, so maybe I can't plan on much production from this approach to things . . .

Steve :/

 

[897tgigvib]

That makes me think I could double crop potatoes, especially because I like the smaller not completely ready potatoes best anyway.

At the patch where the Pink Bolitas Beans finished early on, A few plants sprouted from dropped seeds. I will get a few more from them soon.

Pink Bolitas filled a 12 ounce coffee can in 90 days, a 4 X 4 patch of 25 plants, bush, and could have repeated had I replanted the patch.
Orange Speckled Tepary did the same from the same size patch, but is still producing. Its coffee can feels heavier, and they are 30% protein.

I think it'll depend on what variety of potato Digit.
Also, how do you encourage a potato to sprout right after picking it? One red potato I grew is only now making like its thinking of growing, and i harvested it months ago.

 

[thistlebloom]

Congratulations on your second harvest Steve! It's almost a whopper.
Actually, I'm impressed, maybe I'll try composting mine next year....

 

[digitS']

I remember Vfem telling us a year or 2 ago about Black Beans that she grew, they produced mature seed, she planted those . . . and, they produced another crop of mature seeds!!

I was soooo jealous! Now. Marshall is telling us the same thing !

Maybe I should live with Hoodat down in San Diego! Probably can't garden 12 months outta the year down there either. Or, pack my bags & migrate between the southern & northern hemispheres . . .

See, a seed sprouts & grows leaves. Later, it flowers. After some time, a fruit develops. Finally, seed matures.

I can get from seed sprouting to growing leaves . . . then, I'm just pleased as punch to get more seed in the ground and grow some more leaves! Maaaybe, I can get a plant to the flowering stage, fruiting stage and seed. But, for crying out loud: It takes a full season (almost) for a radish to complete its full growth cycle. A radish! Then, I have seed for next year . . . yeah, and a 5 month wait.

Maybe I just stirred up that compost pile enuf times the little tuber decided it better grow before it got kicked out. I don't know where the original seed went. Maybe it was the "marble." But, even with potato tuber clones . . . oh well . . . I'll just go back to eating leaves.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

I wonder if Vfem's beans were a variety called Black Coco, one of the best tasting dry beans, also very quick, and not a small one either.

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, you give me hope for a second crop. This year I planted potatoes in a 15 gal. container and they did very well. They never flowered though. Thistle suggested that I plant a second crop to see what would happen. Well I found a couple potatoes that were sprouting so I put those in the container. So far they have grown and I'm waiting for them to die to harvest. Hope I get something.

Mary

 

[baymule]

After I harvested my new potatoes, I planted some leftover eyes just to see what happened. They made vines, but did not bloom and finally wilted and died from the heat. I dug them up and found......nothing.
It is outstanding that you actually got a potato. Maybe the compost pile is trying to lead you in the right direction.

 

[lesa]

I usually have a very early harvest of potatoes... they are all volunteers. No matter how careful we are digging them up- we always leaves some tiny potatoes in the ground. When I am first pulling weeds in the spring, I have to remember what potato plants look like- so I don't pull them up!

 

[hoodat]

We can harvest every day of the year here in San Diego. It's just different crops depending on the season. I've heard it said we don't have four seasons in San Diego;just two - rainy season and dry season.