Holy Mackerel  look what I found

I grew up in Maine, a state recognized for superior potato production. I still live there today and my favorite vegetable is the potato--no matter how you cook them. My mother grew up in Bangor, Maine and she often told stories about her life as a child, and how potatoes affected her life. She told me that every spring when the season was right to plant, all schools were closed for a few days so everyone could get out into the fields and prepare for the planting season. My mother's first job--at age SIX--was to pick the rocks that she claimed grew during the winter in the potato fields. She also said that often there were more rocks in the spring than there were potatoes in the fall some years. The children picked the rocks and placed them in piles so the men could come through the fields with the tractors and pick them up and discard them, making the planting and maintenance easier.

In the fall, when the potatoes were ready to be harvested, all the schools were closed again for a week or more for the potato harvest, and she then picked the potatoes and placed them in barrels for the men to collect. Today, in many areas of Maine a similar process still exists so the farming families can harvest the crops while the weather is favorable-- the work is much easier with the help of new hybrid farming equipment but still a lot of work. Growing up, the first thing my mother did when she came home from work was fix the potatoes for supper and she often said that if she did not eat potatoes every day she would have the shakes. So you had better believe I ate a lot of potatoes growing up!

Many years ago, my parents' families both came from Canada to Maine because of the opportunity in textile mills, shoe shops and farming. Both my parents told stories of friends' families who also came to America because of the big potato famine in Ireland--and also in search of a better life for their families. My dad told me that in the mid 1800s, a terrible blight hit the potato crop in Ireland and over a million people died of starvation in just a year or two. The problem was that Ireland grew only ONE kind of potato and this blight destroyed everything in its path, due to a wet spring after the potatoes were planted, they rotted in the ground. Because the potato was the major source of food and income for most of the people in Ireland, many families lost everything to the great famine. Then social, political and economic problems hit the nation and entire families left Ireland to go to America and other parts of the world. Just a few years after the famine, the population of Ireland dropped by one half due to emigration in an attempt to escape the Great Famine in Ireland.

In America, botanists worked very hard on this problem--trying to stop the disease on the potato and end the starvation for the Irish people. Luther Burbank, a well-known horticulturist and farmer, developed a new potato he called the 'Russet Burbank' potato; his efforts are credited to introducing a blight resistant potato for the people of Ireland. Because the soil in Ireland was so rich and the climate was perfect for the production of potatoes, its people grew most of its land in potatoes. The average family had one acre of land and they were able to feed and generate income enough for a family as large as 10--but the potato blight destroyed everything and entire families died. Now you know a little bit of history about the potato, so let me tell you how to grow them in your garden.

Today's gardener has many varieties of potatoes to choose from: early, mid-season and late harvesting types. Potatoes now come in white, yellow, red or purple flesh or skin color and are used for baking, boiling or frying. With proper care, you should be able to produce one to two pounds of potatoes per each foot of row in your garden. So let's begin with your soil. It should be fertile and well-drained, as a heavy soil that is not well drained will produce fewer potatoes and those potatoes will be misshapen and of poor quality. If your soil is rich, well-drained and lighter, you can plant earlier in the season with increased crop production, and those potatoes will store longer after harvest without spoiling.

Potatoes prefer a soil that is on the acidic side with a pH, of 5.3 to 6. If your pH is higher than 7, your potatoes are more likely to develop "scab," a potato disease that will destroy the crop. A quick soil test in the spring will tell you how to adjust the soil pH to better grow potatoes before you plant. If you cannot lower the pH below 7 and you want to grow potatoes, look for the famous 'Russet Burbank' seed potatoes, as they are scab-resistant.

What is a seed potato and why should you use them? A seed potato is a specially raised potato that will produce a better crop for you. Never use potatoes from the supermarket, as they are treated with a product to help prevent sprouting while in storage. They will eventually germinate but because of the treatment, the production will be less. Look for certified seed potatoes at your local garden center or feed and grain store. When you choose your seed potatoes, select small to medium sized potatoes with at least 1 to 2 eyes or sprouts on them, and plant them whole. If you use large potatoes and cut them into pieces for planting it will take energy to heal the cut surface and produce a protective scab, resulting in less energy for growth of your crop. Dip the cut side of the seed in garden sulfur to help with the healing process to prevent rotting once planted.

Plant your seed potatoes when your soil reaches 50 degrees for the best germination. Dig your trench 6 to 8 inches deep and just as wide and then add a slow release organic fertilizer such as Vegetable-Tone or Natural Alternative 5-5-5 organic vegetable fertilizer at the rate of one pound per 10 feet of row to your trench; add it as you would add rock salt on ice. Now work the fertilizer into the soil in the trench about 2 inches deep with a cultivator. Keep the seed potatoes away from the fertilizer you have applied. Plant your seed potatoes 8 to 12 inches apart in the trench, with 3 feet between rows of potatoes.

Now fill the trench with the remaining soil and be sure to mark the planting bed with stakes to prevent walking on them. You want to prevent damage to the tender sprouting shoots and compaction of the soil--remember, loose soil means more potatoes! Once the shoots develop and grow to about 6 inches tall, add soil around the shoots and create a mound of soil down the entire row of plants. Now sprinkle the same amount of fertilizer on the ground in two bands on each side of the row and work it into the soil again keep fertilized away from the plant and mix well in the soil. You should pull some of the soil from the walkway 3 times during the year as the plants continue to grow taller and create a mound of soil 18 inches tall and just as wide to help encourage additional potatoes to form in this mound of soil. New potatoes will develop on the stems of the plant that grow in the mound of soil. NEVER use any form of animal manure around your potatoes, as it can encourage scab disease to develop in your garden.

Water weekly as the weather gets hot and keep the soil moist. If you see potatoes forming above the ground, be sure to cover them with soil as green skin on the potatoes will contain a toxic alkaloid called solanine and it will make you sick if you eat the skin, so cover the potatoes or be sure to remove the green skin when peeling your potatoes.

Potatoes are usually harvested at the end of the growing season when you have had a frost or if the foliage has dried up due to a hot dry summer and lack of watering by you. Dig carefully, so as not to damage the skin of the potato so it will keep better and longer for you. Once dug, place them in a cool dark area like your basement once you shake off the excess soil--do not wash the potato before storage.

The only major pest is the Colorado potato beetle and it is easily controlled with the new Natural insecticide called Spinosad from Fertilome or Captain Jack from Bonide. The beetle is bright orange-red with spots. It will lay a row of yellow eggs under the leaf that will in time hatch and produce a slug-like creature that will also eat the foliage. Spray whenever you see a problem, as these products are all natural and not toxic.

If you have been growing potatoes for a long time, there is a chance of an insect called the wire worm. It is copper in color and looks like a piece of wire about 1 inch long and 1/8 inch thick. It will drill holes into the potato and destroy the crop, often found in the potato but not very common. Bonide did develop a new pesticide that will control the problem, called Garden Eight granules, and it must be added to the soil at the time of planting. So, now we have a product for a serious but rare problem with this crop--but most of us won't need this product unless we had the problem last year!

Good varieties to try are: 
'Superior' a large potato and early-season.
'Kennebec' a medium potato, mid-season and good winter keeper.
'Russet Burbank' medium to large potato late-season and good winter keeper.
Also 'Red Pontiac' a red skinned potato, late-season and stores well.
'Yukon Gold' a yellow flesh potato, late-season, buttery tasting and a good winter keeper
And for the fun of gardening-the 'All Blue' with blue flesh-a late-season, small, finger-shaped potato.

Enjoy!

Peppers come from all over the world, in a wide range of colors, shapes, sizes, and flavors, so why did we grow up eating green peppers only? I am guessing that we grew up with the green bell peppers in our gardens because most greenhouses in those days chose to grow just the green bell varieties and we were never exposed to the colored varieties. Also, many older gardeners like us came from large families and the colored peppers were more expensive at the supermarket. When peppers were called for in recipes green bell peppers were used to save money. Growing up in Northern New England, I was told that our growing season was too short, the peppers would not have time to change color and ripen properly, so we were eating an unripened vegetable like green tomatoes.

Today's gardener loves variety, and if we can grow more colorful vegetables in the garden, it will bring excitement to our kitchen for the cook and the dinner table. Colored peppers are ripe peppers and will taste sweeter, are more flavorful, and higher in vitamins content. Before you go crazy and plant all the unique colored peppers in your garden this spring, buy a few different colored peppers at the supermarket and use them in your recipes.

Eat peppers that are fresh and raw in your salads or with dips. Substitute colored peppers where you once used green peppers and enjoy different taste and flavors. In the garden colored peppers need the same growing conditions, just more time to ripen.

Here are a few things to know about growing peppers in your garden. First thing to know is that peppers should always be grown in blocks and never in just a single row. Pepper plants grow better if the leaves touch each other when mature. They seem to like each other's company and this block type of growing protects the fruit they will produce from the hot summer sun, preventing sunburn of the fruit.

Never put peppers out in the garden until the soil has warmed up and the air temperature stays above 70 degrees. Once chilled the pepper plant will never fully recover and the fruit production will be less on the plant. If your pepper plants have flowers on them, remove the flowers when planting so the plant can concentrate on developing a root system FIRST and get established in the soil before making fruit. Plants with flowers will become less productive in your garden, so choose plants without flowers.

Set your seedlings out in the garden and space plants 18 to 24 inches apart. Peppers must have full sun all day long to grow properly and produce many fruits. Peppers love a warm to hot soil to grow in, so if you live in Northern New England or where the growing season is short, use a black landscape fabric or black plastic mulch around the plant to help heat up the soil. This will also keep out weeds and help hold water in the soil longer when it gets hot and dry. 

Peppers love a rich soil, so prepare it properly before planting. Use compost, animal manure, peat moss or seaweed kelp to help create a better growing environment. If your soil is well prepared before planting, it will hold more moisture when the plant needs it to make better fruit. A rich soil can support the microbes in the soil needed for root production and fruit set. The soil will determine the amount of fruit the plant can produce the size of the fruit and the taste of that fruit, so don't fool yourself, do it right the first time.

When you set plants out in your garden be sure to add to the plant hole a granular fertilizer, as transplants need to make a lot of vegetative growth early on to support large production of fruit. If the plants do not grow large they cannot develop good fruit. Also if fruit forms on the plant before the plant has grown a foot tall remove it and fertilize the plant again or the plant production will be minimal. Use Vegetable -Tone or Fertilome  gardener's special 11-15-11 , as both products contain mycorrhizae to help stimulate this much needed early growth!

Peppers love a light sandy soil that is well drained at all times. If your soil is heavy or clay-like, be sure to add extra compost or peat moss to help break it up. If your soil is on the sandy side add a pinch of Soil Moist granules to the hole when planting as they will expand 200 times in the ground and help hold moisture around the roots. Peppers love water on a weekly basis and a deep watering is preferred, so let the sprinkler run for a good 30 minutes each time you water.

Peppers are also heavy feeders and will be more productive if fed each month with a tablespoon or two to each plant of your granular fertilizer. If you're using a liquid fertilizer like Neptune's Harvest fish and seaweed fertilizer  or Fertilome Rooting and Blooming fertilizer, apply every 2 weeks.

Peppers do best in a soil slightly on the acid side to neutral, 5.5 to 7. If your soil is too acid, and you're your watering is uneven your fruit may develop blossom end rot on the underside of the fruit. If you had this brown rot on your fruit in the past add a bit of Tomato Maker plant food when planting or use it as a side dressing once planted. I always add lime or wood ash to the garden each fall to prevent this from happening. If you did not and your soil is on the acid side, you can Bonide turf turbo or Epoma lighting lime soil conditioner now as this product will do the same as lime, but change the soil acidity in just a few weeks.

Peppers also love magnesium, a mineral not common enough in our soil--but it can be added very easily by using Epsom salt. Just dissolve one tablespoon of Epsom salt to a gallon of water, pour over each plant to wet the foliage and soak the ground around the plant. This should be enough to keep the plant extra green all year long, and a lot more productive.

Harvest the peppers as soon as they grow to a mature size and the color you desire. If you leave ripe peppers on the plant too long, the plant will stop making new fruit and you will have few peppers for the fall season. Pick often and store extra peppers in the vegetable crisper. They will keep up to two weeks without losing their flavor or you can chop them up and freeze them for cooking later during the winter months.

Insect and disease problems are few as long as you do not water the garden after supper so the foliage remains wet during the evening hours. Wet foliage catches disease spores blowing in the air and encourages insects to visit the garden. If we should have several days of temperatures over 90 degrees, your pepper plants will drop their flowers and so will your tomatoes so don't panic, just add a bit of liquid fertilizer to the plants and new buds will quickly form on the plant.

Two last things to remember with peppers, never plant tomatoes, potatoes or eggplant in the same area the following year or plants will suffer because they use the same nutrition as peppers. Always cut the peppers from the plant and never pull them off, and leave a short stem on the plant or you could break the branch, as the pepper stem is very strong. Now plant some peppers this spring and enjoy the different flavors of the colored peppers!