If you love potatoes but have never tasted a homegrown one…now is the time!

Potatoes are very easy to grow, and speaking from experience, there is something magical about planting 1 little tuber and pulling up a basket of potatoes.  I began planting potatoes in 2002, thinking it would be a great way to begin teaching my kids how to garden.  I can't tell you how fun it was to see their faces as we kept digging and digging and pulling up one potato after another.

So, let's get started:

1. Most gardeners agree that potatoes can be planted 2 weeks before the last freeze.  The last freeze for Zone 9 is 2/24/20, which means you can put tubers in the ground any time after the first week of February.
2. First step…A trip to your local hardware store.  At a storeinVacaville, I was able to find the following tubers:
   1. ‘White Superior':  harvest 85-90 days after planting.
   2. ‘Red Borland': harvest 65 days after planting.
   3. Red, white, and blue blend:  late spring-early summer harvest. (Some pictured on package look like fingerling)
3. Preparation before planting…Once you bring your tubers home, which actually look like mini potatoes, get them ready to plant. You can choose to plant your small seed potatoes whole; however, I like to cut my seed potatoes into smaller pieces, making sure I have at least one to three eyes per piece.  (My pieces are usually about the size of an ice cube.)  Once cut, I leave them on my countertop for a few days.  This step helps your cut-pieces form a callous, reducing the risk of diseases.
4. Let's plant…Potatoes prefer rich, moist soil.  If this doesn't sound like your soil, amend the soil before planting with organic matter which will enhance growth.  I add homegrown compost to my raised beds, if I'm a bit short, I will buy a bag or two of soil amendment or bags of organic compost. This is an important step as poorly drained soil may cause your growing potatoes to rot.  Using a raised bed to grow your potatoes works great because they have a very shallow root system. This shallow root system means a light watering once or twice a week will keep them growing. Plant in a sunny spot to encourage strong growth.
5. The growing process…Once you begin to see green shoots coming up from the soil, begin to bring the dirt up around the base of the plant.  This helps to keep the tubers covered support as well as the plant.  (Sometimes, I find, I must add additional organic matter.). Bringing the dirt around the base of the plant is called ‘hilling', which helps to keep the potatoes from getting sunburned. The last hilling should be done before the potato plants bloom when the plant is about 6 inches tall.  Don't omit this step as a sunburned potato may turn green, producing a chemical called solanine.  Solanine not only makes the tubers taste bitter but more importantly…is toxic!
6. Harvest and Storage…Once you find your potato tops turning yellow and dying back, it's time to harvest.  Just keep digging until you hit the jackpot. Meaning, lots of potatoes!  One more step before eating is drying or curing your potatoes.  This can take as little as 4-5 days, allowing the surface of the potato time to harden and minor injuries to seal.  If you have a big harvest, store your potatoes in a cool, dark, well-ventilated area. Potatoes can be stored for up to 6 months.
7. If you're interested in additional information:
   1. https://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/Organic/organic_potatoes.pdf
   2. https://harvesttotable.com/potato_types_and_varieties_whi/

Number of active Master Gardeners (MGs) Statewide   6124

Number of active MGs in Solano Co.                             142

Number of Platinum Badge* MGs                                     3

Number of Gold Badge** MGs                                       17

Number of MGs from Benicia                                         18

Number of MGs from Dixon                                             7

Number of MGs from Fairfield                                        36

Number of MGs from Rio Vista                                        5

Number of MGs from Suisun                                           7

Number of MGs from Vacaville                                       45

Number of MGs from Vallejo                                          24

 *MGs who have volunteered more than 2,500 hours 

**MGs who have volunteered more than 1,000 hours 

Living in California has so many benefits but by far one of my favorites is the easy access we have to the redwood forests.  One of my favorite places to take my kids and friends from out of town is the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in Guerneville.  The park is 805 acres of beautifully preserved land covered in coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), Douglas-fir, Pacific madrone, tanoak, California bay laurel, and so many other gorgeous trees.  There are 20 miles of trails throughout the park for hikers, bicyclists, and even horseback riding. In the spring and summer months, the trails are alive with the buzzing and humming of the forest's inhabitants and flowers are in bloom but during our winter trip, we were only able to see different varieties of ferns, fungi, and lichen along the path.  Redwood sorrel, calypso orchids, and trillium all grow comfortably in the shade of the giant trees and along the waterways, you're able to spot many different types of ferns and mosses.  It's a beautiful place to pack a picnic and spend the day meandering along the paths, sitting in the forest theater, admiring the Colonel Armstrong tree and reading all of the fascinating plaques along the trails.  There's also a visitor's center where you can learn about the history of the park, the land's original inhabitants (the Kashia Pomo people), and the native wildlife.  I highly recommend everyone take a day trip up to Guerneville and take full advantage of the graceful giants and all the beauty that surrounds them, it's worth the $10 parking fee.

Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia (=Chamaesyce) maculata) is a garden weed that can seem impossible to control. It grows rapidly and starts producing seeds at a very small size. A large plant can produce thousands of seeds. If you pull the weed and leave it lying in the garden, many of the seeds left on the plant will be jumping off to your garden soil before you gather it up for disposal. Spurge seeds will likely emerge from the compost bin still viable, and most gardening sites recommend you exclude all weed seeds from composting. Other weeds that may survive the composting process are oxalis bulbs and the seeds of burclover, amaranth, and cheeseweed.)

Spotted Spurge usually, but not always, has a red or maroon colored spot in the middle of its small oval leaves. The reddish stems contain a milky juice that can cause irritation to skin and eyes upon contact. It grows like a mat, close to the ground which can reach 3 feet across. Aside from growing on any spot of bare soil no matter how poor, in is just as happy to take up residence in a crack in your sidewalk, Seeds form in a tiny triangular pod containing 3 seeds. You may not be able to see these without magnification. The plant can be found in our area from February through September, and seeds begin germination with temperatures reach 60 degrees.

Other names for this plant include Spotted Euphorbia, Spotted Sandmat, and Prostrate Spurge. There are other related forms of Spurge that are not as much of a garden pest. However, some of these spread by roots and may be considered invasive. These include Petty Spurge, Nodding Spurge, and Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula). The latter comes in many colorful varieties and is often found in seed or plant catalogs.

The best way to outmaneuver spotted spurge is to pull it by hand when it is small or use a thick mulch, to prevent or discourage its germination. There are commercial sprays that will kill the plant, but the plant will still need to be hand-pulled, wearing gloves, to keep those remaining seeds from being left in the plant's footprint. For the driveway or sidewalks, this is one application where a flame weeder /garden torch could be considered.

Folklore about spurge concerns the milky juice in the stems, which has been claimed to remove warts. Here is one such story. “When I was a very young boy (about 5 years old) I went to a gypsy camp close to Bodmin (Cornwall, England). There was a lady there complaining that the gypsy lady had failed to ‘charm' a very disfiguring wart on her face. The gypsy said she had another way provided she was given silver. Wartweed was produced and the ‘milk' applied to the wart, and she was told to do this daily. The husband refused to pay. The gypsy then cursed him and rubbed his forehead with wartweed. Later that day we saw the husband in Bodmin and there was a bright red cross on his forehead.”

For further information, go to the UC-IPM web site at:

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/WEEDS/spotted_spurge.html