Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

Beautiful colorful organic potato varieties!

(Taken from PVFS October In the Loop Newsletter) if you would like to receive this newsletter email us at orderdesk@groworganic.com with your full name and email address.

First of all, a Customer Success Story:
Bill Bird and his wife Venus planted one pound of potatoes in their 4′x8′ raised bed and harvested nearly 100 pounds of potatoes this summer! They enjoyed many Cranberry Red and All Blue potatoes this year.

Bill said he fertilizerd two to three times a month with a mixture of Omega 2000 and diluted Maxicrop, which he believes aided in their success. Great job Bill & Venus!

And Now….How-to Grow Potatoes:
by Dan Lake, Peaceful Valley Employee

Since I was 12 years old, my family has grown about 4 or 5 different varieties of potatoes in our garden at home every year. I would love to brag about my tater planting abilities, and with all of that experience one would think that I was a spud growing expert, but after reflecting on what I knew, I came to a different conclusion: I devoted most of my time harvesting & eating the delicious potatoes and have a lot to learn about the process of planting them!

Now that I have my own garden, I’ve done some research, talked to a friend who happens to be a farmer, and have compiled some good tips below.

Crop Rotation: When planting potatoes from season to season, they should be kept on a 3 year rotating cycle in terms of location in your garden where you choose to plant as to not plant in the same location. This means, 3-4 suitable sites are needed if you want to grow potatoes every year, rotating the site where you plant every season.

Soil & Sun: When it comes to soil, potatoes are not very picky. They are very adaptable and will usually produce a decent crop even when the soil conditions are less than perfect. What they do require, however, is as much sun as possible because of how aggressive their root systems are, so keep that in mind when picking your spot(s) to plant.

Preparing Seed Potatoes: When you have your seed, which are potatoes certified for growing, set them somewhere where they will be exposed to some light and warmth (between 60 and 70 degrees F). This will help them to start sprouting. A day or two before planting, use a clean knife to slice the larger potatoes into smaller sections that contain at least 1 or 2 “eyes” or buds on them (seeds). Each seed should be approximately 1 1/2-2 inches square, and the smaller potatoes may be planted whole. In the next day or so, your seed will form a thick callous over the cuts, which will help to prevent it from rotting once planted.

Planting Seed Potatoes: After you have trenched a 4′” deep furrow, plant the seeds or small potatoes 4″ deep in the furrow about 12″ apart and cover lightly with soil. The soil should be evenly moist, but not wet or soggy. If the soil is water logged when you dig, your seed potatoes will probably rot before they even get started. Depending on how cold it gets in your area, it might be a good idea to put a layer of mulch or straw on top of the furrow for a little extra frost protection. Two to Four months later, you will hopefully be enjoying some of the most delicious potatoes ever!

You can also reference our Potato Planting & Growing Guide online.

Peaceful Valley employee extraordinaire Linnie McNaughton is teaching “Growing Cool Season Veggies; Starting Summer Veggies” this Saturday!

If you live in the Grass Valley, CA area, come on by to get this years garden off to a good start.

9:30-11:30am $12. Please call (888)784-1722 ext. 116 to sign up.

Now is the time to create lasting enjoyment all fall and winter long by planting flower bulbs. We’ve created a new page here that tells you all about how to prepare your soil and plant bulbs! Bulbs make great gifts btw

Olive & Citrus trees just arrived in stock here at Peaceful Valley and they are waiting to grace your landscape with their lovely foliage.

I had the opportunity to talk to Steve McCulley of Apollo Olive Oil, which produces world class, highly sought after oil. Their delicious selections have won many awards. What followed was an informal interview about how to grow olive oils, and what you might use them for.

Q. What do people need to know about growing olive trees, (ie. climate, establishment, etc.)?

A. The first thing to know is that they do well in a Mediterranean climate… they like hot dry summers and a wet winter & fall which we have here (Nevada County).

They establish best on drip irrigation, and if you are able to experiment with mist-ers instead of drip irrigation they seem to like that. Our neighbors have used mist-ers and it seems to work well for them. You can dry farm, but olive trees do best on drip during the summer.

The reason for this is that olive tree roots do not tend to go very deep, they stay just below the surface. Because of this it is better to prep the soil in a wide radius around the tree. You’ll want to rip the soil pretty thoroughly to give the roots a chance to spread. While not very particular, olive trees like rocky soil in general.

Q. Is it different if you are growing olive trees for ornamental reasons (vs. oil or olive production)?

A. It’s different for ornamental growing. You can’t really do anything wrong… in fact they tend to do well. I have eighteen 100-year-old olive trees on our property. Their not for olive production, but they have very nice foliage. The black olives can be nice for ornamental growing, but even without they are nice to look at.

Ornamental olive trees are very low up-keep. They are very drought tolerant, there are very few diseases, and do well on drip.

Q. How easy would it be for our customers to make their own olive oil?

A. Well, each tree that is fruiting can produce 50-100 lbs. of olives at maturity, which takes about 4 years. Pressing olives is very difficult, so most people would take them to a miller, who will generally have a one ton minimum. So, for most people it’s not easy.

It is easy, however, to cure your own olives. There are all kinds of methods and recipes available. We teach workshops on curing olives and it is really a great way to enjoy really fresh, really interesting flavors of olives. Mission is a good pick for curing.

Visit Apollo Olive Oil’s Site Here.

Growing great garlic involves a lot of different tricks and special techniques (see the book; Growing Great Garlic ), around this time of year there are a few things that you need to do to your garlic plants to get the most out of them.

First as you get closer to harvest time you should cut back on the water you give to your garlic. About two weeks prior to harvest you should stop watering altogether. This will promote nice dry skins and will prevent any mold from forming.

When to harvest is a much debated subject. Some say when the bottom leaves are partially brown, others say when the plant is 40% brown / 60% green. For me it’s more like once I see some browning happening on my garlic I put harvesting it on my garden “To Do” list. The reality is that the home gardener can’t always harvest at just the right time… a week on either side of perfect is not going to be very noticeable, so don’t sweat it.

The second thing you should be doing in the next month or so is cutting off your scapes. Scapes are the stalk and flower buds that form on garlic, these buds will eventually become “bulbils” which are a garlic flower (not a true flower). These flower stalks only appear on hardneck and elephant varieties. The scapes usually show up as a small bud with a short stalk, then, as they grow they will turn a few loops. After they make these loops it’s the perfect time to cut them off. As long as you do not plan to grow from bulbils (which can take upto 2 years) cutting off these scapes will focus all of the plants energy on the bulb production. (note: Elephant garlic will not turn loops, the scape can be cut when it is 8 – 10″ long.)

My garlic just put on scapes in the last week or so, they have not made any loops yet. Here is a photo:

I would recommend letting at least one of your garlic stocks go through its full natural cycle. It’s interesting to see how it all works and some varieties have beautiful flowers. Some Elephant garlic will put on a stalk that is near 6 feet tall and flower the size of a grapefruit.

As a great bonus the scapes are good eating! Stir fry, grill, sautéed, just about anything you’d do with garlic. You can expect a similar taste to garlic without the “hot” bite fresh garlic has. Combine scapes in a dish with squash flowers for a real pre-harvest treat! I like the two with a little goat cheese in an omelet …mmmm delicious!

Stay “In the loop” for more tips on garlic as the time comes.