Re: [gardeners] Gardening in Bastrop

Allen Merten (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 29 May 2000 23:04:05 -0500 

Penny,
    It is amazing how many varieties of potatos are available nowadays. New
ones coming on all the time.
    Isn't it interesting when you think about the original potato that was
taken back to Europe by the early explorers. I read that it was small,
rough, tough, and barely edible!
    We made some great potato salad today from our LaSoda variety of red
potatos.
    La Soda's make great casserole and boiling potatos, good FF's, fair
bakers. This years potatos are better bakers. It depends upon the moisture
content of the potato. They won't be mistaken for a good Idaho baker.
    Judy bought a 15 lb. bag of "bargain" potatos a few weeks before our
potatos were ready for harvest. I would have been ashamed to give them to
people if I had grown them. They were real scabby, green under the peeling,
many had hollow heart, and most had black spots in the meat of the potato.
How did these pass any kind of quality control? I threw them away.
    Next year I am going to try to grow some of the gold or yellow potatos.
Only 3 varieties of potatos are recommended for our area. Two reds, Pontiac
and La Sodas. One white, Kennebec is it's name. We have planted all 3 kinds.
The two red ones have both done well. I would plant either variety again.
Kennebec have so few eyes that it is hard to have enough potato pieces to
plant. They did produce ok, except the fire ants seemed to prefer them to
the red ones that were planted nearby. I have not replanted Kennebec because
of the problem with not having enough eyes. I would like to find a good
baker to plant. Judy could eat baked potatos every day.(;-}
    Its about time to plant peanuts. I'm going to plant both Virginia
Jumbo's and Red Spanish peanuts. I planted the Virginia peanuts before. They
did really well although they are not recommend for Bastrop Co. They did
really well. Just east of me is a large area that grows peanuts. I have the
same soil that they do. The red Spanish peanut is the one that they grow.
    Peanuts are one of those tightly controlled crops. You must have a
permit to grow peanuts. I went to the peanut co-op over there to get some
peanuts for seed. Wouldn't sell me even a small amount of peanuts with out a
permit. They acted like I was trying to steal national secrets. I was
practically thrown out of the co-op office.
    Allen
    Bastrop Co., SE Central TX
    Zone 8