Perpetual Potato Harvest, New Sunchoke Varieties, Seed Crops are In
November 13, 2019
This year has been a reminder that fall is always full of surprises including a lot of new crops that we trialed and a lot of improvements done with our propagation last year. Here are a few:
Diversity Perpetual Potato: I heard a visitor say, “I didn’t know you could grow potatoes in the shade.” I kept quiet but I was thinking, ” I didn’t either”. Wedged on the edges of our tree crops, our diploid open pollinated seed potatoes grown from true seed produced a small but vibrant crop of small potatoes.
The Pawpaw Crop: The late season combined with the good rain really improved the size and quality of the seeds this year. You can really see the size of the fruits from our seed selections made over 20 years ago.
American Persimmons: This year the early ripening seedlings are about three weeks behind normal but seem to be catching up. The seedlings from the Early Golden groups are the best with a sweet creamy texture. We are producing a lot of seed of them now with the Dybvig going full blast.
The Perennial Thicket Bean: This late season has reduced the seed crop to an all time low. The seeds we saved last year went towards the production of roots of which we were very successful. You can now purchase in bulk should you need a perennial bean forest.
Sunchokes: Here are a couple of new ones worth growing-
Homestead: This large leaved stout sunchoke comes from the northern part of its range. From Vermont this seedling was found near an old homestead. It has the largest leaves I have ever seen on a sunchoke being almost twice that of most selections. Nice smooth easy to clean
Weisse Truffel: A small round sunchoke from Germany, Weisse Truffel is a perfect round tuber clustered in small pockets just under the soil. Plants tend to be compact growing.
Enjoy the fall into winter with these new crops shippable this fall yet or next spring. We will be harvesting until mid November. Our seeds are available throughout the winter as well.
