So today was spent evaluating the damage from the cool nights we have had this past week. And by cool, I mean it’s getting into the low 30’s. The potato tops were toasted this week so some harvesting was on the agenda today. Not all of the potatoes were harvested, I’m hoping if I cut water to the potatoes, the skins will set and they will store a bit longer than freshly harvested. I pulled up the Red Sangre, Russian Banana Fingerlings and Mountain Rose potatoes. All together, it was probably close to 35-40 pounds of potatoes. Since I know we cannot eat all of those potatoes, I have been providing one of our local restaurants (The Wandering Moose) with fresh potatoes for their menu. It’s not every restaurant up here that can say they source local produce. After harvesting, I pulled all the weeds and put some pine mulch on the part of the potato patch that was harvested. All summer, I have been lamenting the fact that none of my Colorado Rose, Yukon Gold or Red McClure potatoes came up. But it pays to weed the garden…….there are 7 Colorado Rose and Yukon Gold plants coming up and one Red McClure. Now, I do know that it is quite late in the season for these to just be starting, but I am hoping that with the thick layer of mulch that was put down today, they can overwinter and produce next spring/summer. Last weekend I harvested all the volunteer potatoes from the garlic/allium bed and had quite a haul from just the volunteers that had overwintered under the mulch.
Toasted potato tops
The tomatoes under the floating row cover were doing well, but with the cold nights, the tops of the tomatoes did get a bit nipped even under the row cover. The row cover is not insulating, but rather protecting. And it did protect the plants from total ruination. I am hopeful that I will still be able to get some tomatoes off of several of the plants before Mother Nature puts her cold hand on them. There are still quite a few flowers and last week when I checked, there has been some fruit set. The fruit set is on the lower portions of the plants, so we’ll see if we can get them to ripen soon.
The bottom photo is of the potato patch after harvesting, weeding and mulching.
Tomato tops frostbit under the row cover
Mountain Gardening: Not for the faint of heart 