Thursday, April 15, 2010

Planting Potatoes ~ Outdoor Challenge Day 10

Planting Potatoes

Well the good weather just keeps on coming :)
It's time to start planting the potatoes and my dad thought that our field would be the best one to plow for planting.

Planting Potatoes

He ran our old 1952 Massey Ferguson with the plow attached to the back and dug a nice channel for planting in and then K went along it after with the shovel and dug in little holes so that they could be filled with manure.

Planting Potatoes

On each little hole of manure L helped Opa cover it with a bit of dirt and then placed one of last years potatoes on top. You can see that they are definitely ready to go into the ground as they are covered in lots of long 'eyes'. Those are the sprouts shooting out of the potatoes :)

Have you ever grown your own potatoes and they have come out scabby when you've dug them up? Well if you used manure to fertilize them and you planted your potato right in the manure this could be the cause. In the past we have done this which resulted in lovely big potatoes but they were always covered in scabs. It won't hurt you but they're not as pretty *grin*. We started covering the manure with a little dusting of dirt before planting the potato on top and we cured the scab problem!

Planting Potatoes

Everyone wanted to help so Opa had a lot of helpers :)
They planted 3 rows and just over 300 potatoes and they're not done yet!! If the weather holds they're going to finish on Saturday and I'll have to get some photos of the tractor in action :)

Do you have photos of your children enjoying the outdoors? Visit The Great Outdoors Challenge to join in the fun and you can also visit other participants and see what sort of nature fun they have been having by clicking on the names below :)

~ Rosina

Fellow Nature Players:lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy, elizabeth, sarah, eileen, lisa, stacy, jennifer, tulsileaf, lisa C, morticia, angela, rana, jamie, lisa c, luz, charley, heather, valerie, kirsten, rachel, annie, kendra, beth s, lindsey, michelle, megan, renee

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

300 potatoes? Oh my! My husband just about fell out of his chair when I told him that. :)
We are doing ours tomorrow...athough we might be getting some wet snow. YUCK! Our "eyes" are nowhere near as big as yours. Let's hope they sprout once they are in the ground. :)-Debbie