Hello everyone! 🍆🌱😎🍅🥕
The last post about work and engagement in the field is a month old. Since then, a lot has happened, everywhere.
First, a little broader context...
To start with the weather, it has been very fickle, first drought, then big storms, even a tornado raging past a field, then rain again, and last week huge floods inundated half of Slovenia.
Well, I can say that we went through it quite happily. We were at sea for three weeks, and all the horrors I have mentioned passed us by and did not ruin anything for us.
But, it's not easy for some people. Over 4 000 houses have been completely destroyed, some people have lost their lives.
Going back to my gardening, before we went on holiday my wife and I cleared the weeds around our plants, and it looked like this, as in the picture below.
Three weeks later, when we came back from holiday, at the beginning of August, it had already rained for three days and when we went to see what was going on, the situation was completely different.
It was as if we hadn't cleaned anything at all!
The weeds literally exploded. You can't believe that such a thing is possible. I can console myself with what a friend told me - don't worry, the soil is obviously very fertile :)
Apparently, it's true, we don't use anything for weed control except hoeing around the plants, and for insect pests, we occasionally use Neem organic spray.
I'm not saying that our plants didn't grow either, but there were a lot of weeds. In fact, it has overgrown almost everything, except the green beans which have wrapped themselves around the poles. Everything else, even the potatoes, whose plants were half a meter high, was already covered with weeds.
And when there is mud, you can't do anything, you can't hoe, you have to wait for the soil to dry out a bit.
There was so much rain that the almost empty water tank was filled to the top and it was still overflowing.
Water in summer is fine, but not too much because the plants in the soil start to rot and get all sorts of diseases. This is most noticeable in green beans and tomatoes.
Courgettes and cucumbers don't have to worry about that, they just keep on growing...
Other plants, such as Hokkaido pumpkins, aubergines, and chilies, are also doing well.
Except for tomatoes. Because there has been too much rain, some plants have got diseases.
But here's the trick with tomatoes - if you notice they're sick, you have to pick them as soon as they get a little red. And you put them on the windowsill. In a couple of days, they'll be red and they won't get any sicker.
Well, now we come to the main topic. (I had a long intro 😁)
Can you imagine that here, in the picture below, there are potatoes planted in eight rows of about 12 meters each?
Probably not ...
Potatoes are the most sensitive to moisture. If it's too much, and if it lasts too long, over a week, the potato rots quickly.
As it was the fifth day of heavy rainfall here, my wife and I dug up some potatoes.
It looks OK, but it's too muddy and needs action - if it doesn't dry quickly it will start to rot, but if it's in the light it turns green and is inedible...
Atos, of course, was guarding the potatoes so that no one would steal them :) 😁
Mostly, even though it started raining again, we picked some vegetables for home.
And it was decided (of course my wife suggested it 😃) that when the rain stops and everything dries out a bit, which means at least three dry days, I will cut the potato leaves and weeds and we'll start digging the potatoes.
Not a lot of potatoes, almost half as many as last year.
We harvesting potatoes last year with a motor cultivator, but no chance this year, it's too wet...
Well, four days later, or rather last Friday, when everything had dried out for once, I mowed that mess.
And finally, yesterday afternoon we dug four crates of potatoes. Maybe that many more tomorrow and all the potatoes will be harvested.
That's my sixth post this year about how I got into gardening, and my first in the HiveGarden community.
For those of you who are more interested in my farming and gardening, here are links to my previous posts where I explain how it all started.
News From The Field, Changes In The Field, Almost everything is planted, Update - ploughing and planting potatoes, First job in the field - cleaning.
Thanks for your attention, see you when there's something new!
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