I always seed some early red Norland potatoes in my city garden. There's not much room with the other veggies so I seed potatoes at my farm. Potatoes a low maintenance and do really well with the long days in North Central Alberta. I live in Calgary and the farm is about 6 hours drive NE. There is a huge garden space at the farm so I like to plant quite a few different varieties

I've read that mustard is a good companion plant for potatoes, but this was a little out of control.

The farm is in North Eastern Alberta, about 6 hours drive from Calgary. This was taken Fall, 2008

This is a picture from 1978 when I was a kid living there.

Wow, Joanne, it looks beautiful. Do you go to the farm often? Who maintains it for you? What else do you grow there?

Karen

Thanks Karen, I have been wondering the same things, just didn't know how to ask.
I can't imagine having a 6 hours drive away from anything I have to keep maintained. Vacation is an exception.

We go to the farm about 5 or 6 times a year. The only maintenance is cattle fencing. The fellow that runs his cows on the property is there every week during the summer. We only plant potatoes since they are good on what mother nature provides. We usually go the the beginning of May & end of May. 2 weekend in June and end of June. Mid July and Mid August, 1st weekend Sept and sometimes in October. February and March or April.

That looks great and next to a water source!

I have tried the Norlands here, Reno NV but was not overly impressed. Most likely my growing Techniques ie watering. (splitting)

Last year I did try some Bintje the Kerrs Pink with good success along with my favorites the Kennebec and the Yukon Gold varieties. I am on Well Water, so I did play it abit stingy with my watering last year and I really think that my few hills could have produced more than what they did. But it is all good, my family loves Potatoes!

edit: I too had Mustard growing in the same garden area but nothing near what your picture shows. wow!

last year I had some fun.. grew some potatoes in garbage cans

the results were ok

Nice, Allison.

Karen

I pulled them early because I panicked over blight ... the first one I pulled out the day before that shot ... was a mushy mess... I wanted to cry... but I said to my honey.. I am going to get rid of the nasty rotten potatoes... took a garbage bag over... and dumped the 1st can over on the tarp... and to my surprise... they were mostly ok

there were only a few I tossed in the garbage

We finally got the potatoes in at the garden on the farm

This year DH insisted that I use string to make sure the rows were straight.

mine are growing fast this year... hope that's a good thing

That looks like a huge space, Joanne. Do you just harvest and store them, or do you sell some after you harvest? We're probably at least a month away yet from harvesting our earlier varieties. I was not very diligent about "hilling up" this year, so don't know that that will do to my yield. I've also learned I cannot let my potato vines sprawl--they take up too much room, and get run over by the lawn cutting guys occasionally. All will be caged next year.

As this is my first year growing potatoes I have a newbie question. What do you call the "fruits" that form on the plant. They look like green tomatoes. They've all fallen off, are somewhat buried and are forming... well, potatoes!

Hi, Evan:

Those little fruits that look like tomatoes are in fact the true "fruits" of potato plants (as opposed to the tubors that grow underground). These fruits are not edible, and in fact contain large amounts of solanine, which is poisonous. I would not recommend eating them. Certain varieties of potatoes seem to set more of these fruits than others. (Yukon Golds are known for setting them).

Linda

Hi Linda, oops too late. Some of them had fallen on the soil and brushed the dirt off of one and other than the exposed part, which was green, it looked like a new potato. So boiled up, s&p and down she went. No ill effects yet. I'll look for the rest and toss. Thanks.