Free Burma
In Solidarity with the Burmese Struggle for Freedom and Democracy
We help organize and empower those who are working for a free and democratic Burma. (home) Many of these organizations are based in Thailand, because of the high number of refugees who have fled Burma (Myanmar). Burma has been ruled by a military dictatorship since 1962. Under the mismanagement and corruption of the military dictatorship, Burma, once the ri ...learn more
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Created: Oct 01, 2007
Updated: Sep 03, 2009
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Purple Potatoes
Purple Potatoes - Sue Girard
Last month as the potatoes in the back of the cupboard began sprouting, I was once again prompted to seek out the new varieties of seed potatoes in various plant catalogues. This year I am going purple.
Purple fleshed round shaped Sapphire and cigar shaped Blue Congo, plus a purple skinned but white fleshed variety with a name I can no longer remember. Around the time of my annual doodling-planning of ‘what to go where’ in my Spring/Summer garden, I discovered an article by Liz Sinnamon in a 1989 Earth Garden Magazine. I need to confess that I am never organised enough to call my system real crop rotation. Anyway, this article relayed the results of a series of trials of potato plantings comparing mulching techniques. These involving either a green mulch of weeds; against partially decayed leaves; freshly mowed grass clippings; and straw that had been left out over winter - against a control plot that was weeded twice during the space of the experiment and not mulched. Which was the most productive harvest when the tops had died down after ten weeks?
I was not surprised that the mulched plots produced substantially better; personally I have always used straw. But I had always thought fresh grass clipping had to be composted down before adding to garden beds. So I was surprised to discover that under the fresh grass clippings the plants maintained a greater vigour of both colour and plant size compared to the others.
And all in all they produced an average of 22.5 kg from 57 plants. I don’t have grass clippings as such anyway because we have guinea pigs as lawn mowers. So I am going to use the next best thing which was 15cm of decayed leaves. That gave them twenty kilograms of potatoes compared to the average 16 kg from under the straw mulch that they produced and a sad 7 kg from the weeded patch. While the unmulched and weed infested plot managed 12.5kg. For the record the potatoes where 60cm X 150 cm in 3 rows.
Comments (1 - 3 of 3)
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Flag comment for removal csalter 16 days ago
If you like purple - Brian also wrote an article on Dark Energy Foods which tend to be purple as well
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Great! I am an old fan of purple potatoes. My ones are an unknown variety, maybe purple congo, that I found in a garden where I rented some years ago. They look a bit pooish, ranging from small drops to large contorted lumpy things. When cooked, they are dry, a bit like yams or white sweet potatoes, a texture which I personally love but if you prefer moist then boil them. The young ones are nice in a salad mixed in with other colours. Being purple, they are high in antioxidants (apparently, I am no scientist). They don't literally go green but do age, more a browny golden sort of hue. I have tried different ways of growing potatoes, the easiest being burying them deep in the rich, red loam of Mt Tomah. On the other end of the spectrum, I have planted them on top of a lawn and covered them with straw and manure, adding layers gradually. This was surprisingly productive and also considerably improved the 'soil' (very poor thin sand infested with roots of grass and conifer). My experience is that they do need lots of water in the hot dry times, but obviously less so when well mulched. Something else I have discovered is that 'weed' potatoes, the ones that you miss in Autumn, will give you a nice small crop in Spring. Theoretically this may promote disease but it seems more sustainable to me to plant back at least some of my crop rather than buying all new stock every year, and the only disease I have come across so far is scab which is alright if you don't plant replant the affected potatoes. And with the 'weeds' they just need to be kept away from tomatoes etc because of shared diseases and also apples - apparently these two species can inhibit each other. For seed potatoes I specifically choose some of the best looking, egg-sized potatoes from my harvest and store them dry, cool and dark so they don't rot or sprout too early. The ones 'from the spud drawer' are often too far gone. |
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That sounds lovely purple is my favourite colour and i have had success at Woodford with the purple congo potatoes Guinea pigs are the best lawn mowers, i cant get my mower started so i move my guinea pigs pen around and honestly they are quicker than a lawn mower and cute too Do you only use seed potato and not ones that sprout in the spud drawer ? |
