This cute specimen of Greyhound beauty is Lenny, who's 12 years young. You wouldn't think a bag full of raw, mud covered Maris Pipers would have so much appeal to the canine nose would you?This pile of spuds is from the middle bed, and is about 4/5 rows worth. I was hampered in my harvest by having had my first horse riding lesson the day before (argh my poor legs!). Still it was exciting to dig in and unearth handfuls of Maris Pipers, rolling out like pale yellow treasure.
Issues: A few had tiny holes in which I am presuming to be Keel slug damage (as Maris Pipers are susceptible anyway), but to be fair that was only a tiny number which I ditched. Most are affected by common scab (also common both with Maris Pipers and sandy higher pH soil) but it's only cosmetic so who cares! I am trying nemaslug next year as after a slow start the garden is now a slug haven...and my beer traps don't work in the rain!
All in all, a mighty fine treasure haul!
Those potatoes look realy great and much better that mine this year, I ended up discarding over 80% due to slug damage (that is teh problem with heavy clay soil an potatoes). Unfortunatley I do no think that your beer traps will help with the little criiters thathave a bite of the spuds as they live underground most of the time.
ReplyDeleteOur slugs seem to prefer the above ground leaves to the potatoes... they're a menace, but Bex has cunning ideas for control for next year!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the comment on the potatoes - they taste just as good as they look :)
Yes, caught a few brown slugs scoffing the kale and other green leafy veg, but the keel slugs are totally getting nemaslugged next year.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I went out and got another bucket pull of taters out of the ground. I have potatoes coming out of my ears...better than them growing in your ears I guess...