Boxing Day is not about the sales for the SH and I. For the past 4 years the day after Christmas has seen us out in the garden digging our Agria potatoes. I have a feeling Boxing Day 2022 will be the same.
A few years ago a local garden centre owner told me that you need to plant your spuds early so that they develop before the dreaded psyllid can decimate them. So, for the past 4 years, we have planted ours in August. This year it was Sunday August the 21st when we buried around 39 seed potatoes in three rows.
Since that time we have covered them several times with frost cloth when the forecast was for overnights less than 4 degrees, I heaped them up with soil and compost three times, we've given them a bit of potato fertiliser on the side and I have tickled more than a few for a taste of early spuddies.
But as you can see they have not completely died down yet - in fact there is one stubborn stalk sticking up that continues to flower.
We like our potatoes to be keepers and the general rule is that, if you want them to keep, you shouldn't dig them until you can't rub the skin off them with your thumb. This shows that the skins have set and they are ready to be dug and stored.
We have had a lot of success with our spuds (touch wood) and this year we were eating our own potatoes until September - after we planted our next crop!
Once again these babies are looking good to be harvested on Boxing Day.
It's a great way of working off the previous day's Christmas dinner and maybe a few extra glasses of bubbles!
In the photo's the top is our newly planted crop from 2018, middle some of the 55 kilo's we harvested in 2019 and at the bottom this year's crop today... just waiting for the 26th of December.
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