No. 141: Potato talk

It's a hive of activity here! Many incoming products (more on that later), new employees to handle the influx of orders, and a shop that's almost always full. Every year, we find ourselves racing against time to make everyone happy with our seeds, bulbs, and seed potatoes. The "Bollentoren" (Bulb Tower) has been renovated, now it just needs to be further furnished (in between all the other tasks), and it will get a fresh coat of paint in the summer.

This coming Monday, hundreds of packages with Hellebore plants, which you ordered, will arrive. It's going to be a busy time for my colleagues to pack everything, but you'll see: they are beautiful once again!

Our team isn't quite complete yet, as some colleagues are ill for longer than they and we had hoped, but we still have some job applications in progress, so it will all work out! I myself am mainly busy with information tasks via email or live in my office (nicknamed BonTon), giving lectures on location, ordering seeds, and adding new varieties. My favorite tasks, actually!

Almost all summer-flowering bulbs and tubers have now arrived. It's another large collection that we are proud of, but which we especially want to make you happy with! The assortment of Dahlias (for example) is larger than ever, from bright to soft hues, a color for every taste. Besides the (satisfying) cultivation from seed, it's nice to have bulbs and tubers that require less preliminary work. From March until the end of June they can go into the ground; March-April is optimal. You can plant them in your garden, in your flower boxes, and some even in a pot indoors.

Speaking of that last group (the bulbs that can be potted indoors): we still have a small number of very beautiful Amaryllis bulbs. If you grow them now, they will develop fine compact stems and will provide you with weeks of bloom. Not a bad idea instead of a bunch of flowers... Will you help us get rid of the last beauties? We are now offering them at a "clearance price"!

Soon, all seed potatoes will be with us. Every year it's a challenge to encourage all growers to deliver quickly. I understand why, as they often want to run the stock through the sorting line in February to check for common scab, silver scurf, black scurf, and some other defects that become visible during storage. This visual inspection is especially important for organically grown potatoes.

This year, I drove my trailer to various growers myself to pick up a few pallets and say goodbye to them. Years of business relationships create a bond! The last 3 pallets will arrive next week, but you can already order what is currently available.

You can give some extra attention to our "trial garden varieties", as this is their last year! These are rare and/or scarce varieties, which we have maintained for years as a kind of gene bank and with which both growers and thousands of hobbyists have enriched their collections. I put an enormous amount of time into this, and it's impossible for my colleagues to take over all that work. It saddens my love for potatoes, but we will get something beautiful in return: I am trying to make the assortment of "resistant" potatoes as complete as possible by searching for several tens of missing varieties and securing them in time. In the meantime, you can (now or never) still order many of these (now still 54!) trial garden varieties; you can save seed potatoes from the tastiest ones yourself. You can find them here:

Potatoes have two different sprouting moments. The first, which can occur as early as autumn, is the so-called "apical sprout". This is a robust sprout, sometimes two, that grows from the head end (where most of the eyes are) of the tuber. The sprout can grow to be 10-40 cm long and consumes so much energy that the other eyes have difficulty emerging. A potato that only grows on its apical sprout will produce few stems and thus few (albeit coarse!) tubers. It is therefore better to break off the apical sprout immediately. Then, place the tubers back at a slightly higher temperature, and the other eyes will now emerge. This second sprouting produces many more sprouts and later many more growth stems: a higher yield with a more uniform sorting. When as many eyes as possible have emerged during this process (indicated by the "white dots" in the eyes), place the seed potatoes in the light and at room temperature. This will result in nice, uniform sprouts of 0.5-1 cm in length.

As soon as the outdoor temperature allows (10-15°C), the seed potatoes can be moved outside to harden the sprouts, so that they do not break off during planting. Of course, there can sometimes be significant differences in sprouting behavior between different varieties; there are even varieties with hardly any dormancy, which start to sprout as early as November. The earlier the potato, the shorter the dormancy. In practice, the correct timing will have to be determined by experience. Forget the calendar and only plant (with the sprouts facing upwards!) when the soil temperature rises above 10°C and the soil feels comfortable to the bare hands.

I have summarized the general cultivation of potatoes in this PDF, and specific tips for growing them on sandy soil can be found here.

And after harvesting? Then you'll want to store them as long and as well as possible. Give them a cool place for this, 4°C is ideal, dark, dry, and preferably with some ventilation. Check your stock every month for rotten or damaged tubers and remove any sprouts (for consumption tubers). And what it's all about: delicious eating! Potatoes are very healthy and are absolutely not fattening... You can read more about this here, for example: www.lekkervanbijons.be

Our assortment truly contains gems: rare or much-loved varieties that will spoil your garden!
I received some more tips. I can make an offer for 4 types, we bought a lot of these gems! Here they are:

• 3x Wild Garlic plants. (worth € 8.85)
  The special seasoning for shade and perennial too! Elegant when they bloom and with a mysterious flavor combination of garlic, leek and spring onions. Click here for more info
• 5x Jerusalem Artichoke 'Herman' tubers (worth € 3.95)
  The smooth brother of the Jerusalem Artichoke, guaranteed to bloom in late summer with dozens of yellow flowers. It is direct family of the Sunflower... The tubers are just as edible and tasty as Jerusalem Artichokes! A perennial plant for the sun. Click here for more info
• 3x Perennial Leek 'Lusthof Optimal' plants (worth € 11.85)
  The bulbs of this wild leek are a delicacy that you will surely appreciate. An easy, perennial plant for the sun. Click here for more info
• 1x Bronze Elder 'Serenade' (worth € 7.95)
  An Elderberry bush grows easily, this variety has beautiful bronze-colored leaves. You harvest the blossoms and fruits annually. A perennial shrub for the sun. Click here for more info

We call this package "Garden Gems" and it has a retail value of € 32.60, we offer it for € 25.00

When the sun occasionally breaks through, it's so lovely to be in the garden; we see and smell spring! The buds on the trees and shrubs are bursting, some are already flowering. Snowdrops, winter aconites, spring snowflakes, crocuses, but also cyclamen and deadnettles are blooming beautifully!

For the vegetable garden, it's now time for the final soil preparation. The soil is dry enough to work with a rake. Be sure to create raised beds with paths in between; it works so well: more warmth in summer and natural drainage during heavy rain. Spread some nice compost compost or worm castings over it, and as a finishing touch, sprinkle with Lime

In March, you can go wild with planting and sowing, but keep an eye on the temperature and the weather forecast!