My Fall Potato and Tomato Adventures

Call it luck, I suppose. I managed to grow a nice row of potatoes this fall.

I planted them around early September. The tops are about knee high right now, and a few flowers are starting to appear. That usually indicates the tubers are growing underground. I think they’ll be ready to dig in a couple of weeks.

I ran into a reader of this column a few weeks ago who told me, “You can’t grow potatoes in the fall.” I think I proved him wrong, but I won’t know until I dig them up.

The mild weather this fall certainly helped. Freezing weather kills potato plants. But we haven’t seen any of that so far. The average first frost date for this area is sometime around Nov. 15. We had a few mornings with some light jack frost, but it burned off quickly and never harmed my potatoes. I’ve been spraying them with liquid seaweed every couple of weeks, which supposedly provides a degree or two of frost protection. But I don’t really think it has gotten cold enough for that to matter.

I had to water them a few times back in September. I laid several inches of wood mulch over the row in early October. We’ve received a few showers after that, and I haven’t watered them at all since.

The mild weather this fall allowed for a few other surprises in the garden. Most notably, a few of the tomatoes I planted during the spring are still alive and loaded with fruit. Some of my tomatoes died during the heat of the summer. I tried keeping a few alive by shading and mulching them. It might have something to do with the variety. The only ones still alive are “Early Girl” and “Golden Jubilee.”

Both of these, it should be noted, are indeterminate varieties. As the name implies, they will keep growing until a frost kills them. I’ve noticed that the fruits take an extremely long time to ripen on the vine in this cooler weather. I suppose I could pick them and allow them to ripen on the counter. As of today, Wednesday, Dec. 6, there is still no freezing weather in the forecast for at least another two weeks. The coldest it’s supposed to get is 35 this Sunday.

If they can survive this weekend, they might even stay alive through Christmas.

Has the mild weather this fall led to any surprises in your garden? I’d love to hear about it. Email me at andy@fayettecountyrecord. com.