Planting Potatoes Before the Rain

With rain in the forecast starting last Thursday night we were focused on getting our potatoes planted.

We didn’t know how much rain we would be getting but we are very happy we got our potatoes planted before the rain. If we had waited, it likely would be another week before we could plant potatoes.

Since Thursday evening we have gotten over three inches of rain on the farm meaning our work we can do in the field is limited.

The rain was exciting but even more exciting was seeing the snow on the hills Friday morning as we were harvesting. All the snow was at a much higher altitude to us but it was so nice to see.

The variety of potatoes we got are a white potato called Sifra and we planted 200 pounds of the seed potatoes. The creamy flavor is excellent on these potatoes and we really enjoyed them last year.

To plant the potatoes we just dug a trench with the tractor and tossed the potatoes spaced out into the trenches before covering them up and letting the rain water them. The main task over the next two months for the potatoes will be hilling them to help them grow.

We also got our second planting of tomatoes seeded in the greenhouse this week. It is a larger planting than our first one with more varieties in it. We will plant two more successions of tomatoes this year.

While we were seeding those tomatoes and lettuce in the greenhouse we were able to listen and watch the CA Small Farm Conference put on by CAFF.

It turned out great that it was rainy weather and we couldn’t do much in the field so were able to see large portions of the conference.

After what seemed like a few weeks of temperatures warming up we are back down to cooler weather with nights in the 30s so all the plants are growing slower.

Additionally, it will take longer for the soil to dry out so we are able to do weeding and direct seeding. But there is no complaints about the rain from us.