Friday I was determined to get on with the potato harvest so down to the plot despite the cloud which provided very light rain. It was really quite cold as well. Saturday was different. It was really beautiful and quite warm. A little overcast but the sun was out for most of the afternoon.
So, onto the potato harvest. As I dug up the rows I was aware that the yield was decreasing and the amount of damaged potatoes was increasing. Larry came over and put his finger on the problem. As I was heading down the patch I was moving from the dry end to the wet end. It was actually noticeable that the plants on the dryer side of the bed had more larger potatoes and less damage than on the wetter path side.
The water basically drowned the roots and washed out nutrients reducing the crop, which is more or less the opposite of what usually happens. One of the main things with potatoes is that they need a lot of water but you can have too much of a good thing.
The last row were King Edwards and I really didn’t expect much since they were knocked down by blight earlier in the game. Happy surprise, I got about 5 Kg from them. They’re none of them big but actually there are surprisingly few damaged by slugs and bugs so at least some return on the seed potatoes.
Having finished the potatoes I grabbed a few more carrots not quite as large as the last ones but pretty good all the same and loaded six sacks of potatoes into the car. Val will go through them tomorrow and catch any bad ones I’ve missed, sorting them into use first and store for longer in the process.
If Sunday is as nice as today has been it will be a good day on the allotment.
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