Follow-ups

There are a couple of loose ends from prior posts that need tying up.  First of all, I promised a reader to post of photo of the mystery watermelon, the “pollinator” that was provided with the non-germinating “Twilight” seedless watermelons, so here it is.  It actually was a fairly good melon, a bit over 4 lbs and not excessively seedy with a striped exterior and there were several of them.  I’m not totally unhappy but seedless would have been nice.  Secondly, a final report on the French Fingerling potatoes.  I had such high hopes for them, as they were reportedly very good candidates for growing in pots.  Five pounds of “seed” potatoes were purchased ($14.95) and planted in twenty-two 4 gallon pots (2 good eyes per pot.)  They grew beautifully, in fact possibly too well because the tops were 3′ tall!  I accept the blame for this for in my eagerness to have them do well, the soil mixture was probably too rich, causing lots of leaf production but few potatoes.  The total return, of very, very small (most were marble-sized!!!) was only 7 pounds!!! However, they had a very good flavor and I think I’ll give them one more go next spring, but use no composted cow manure in the pots at all.  I did really like growing potatoes in pots rather than digging, and it makes my crop rotation easier (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers cannot follow one another since they are cousins.)  And if I’d been digging, I’d probably have missed the majority of those marble-sized ones.

I’m also wondering if our excessive heat early on in the season, and having the potatoes above ground in black pots might have contributed to the problem.  They grew well, grew tall, and promptly grew yellow, then brown and done.  Although, in pondering the situation, then the pots facing south  should have been the first to go, and they weren’t…..so, still pondering the changes for next year’s planting.  Any suggestions?