gardening

I have watched how to grow onion youtube videos and read a few articles about growing onions so I thought I knew relatively what I was doing.  As a first time onion grower, I thought and planned on planting my onions in the spring when it got warm just like the articles and videos say.  However, the local grandma that always makes her rounds to get the weekly gossip and just to be nosy informed me differently!

The way the Japanese, at least in my area do it is to plant sets in late November or if by seed in October.  And to let them sit under the snow all winter.  To me this sounds ridiculous because we get over a meter of snow pack here and I thought any and everthing in the garden would be frozen, smashed, and die.  But following the nosy grandma’s advice I planted 200+ onions in late November as she promised me my hard work would not be in vain.

Sure enough March came around and as the snow melted I could see the onions were still there.  Yes, they were smashed but not dead.  In fact, within a week after all the snow melted and they got some sun they were all standing straight up!

There were 5-10 onions lost due to mice or moles, but the rest looked good.  Halfway through April they have already doubled in size and are very healthy.

I still don’t see the logic in planting before winter because when the snow melted they were still the same size!  Maybe its to harvest earlier, get an established root system, or just to have less to do when spring rolls around.  If someone could explain to me the benefits of this I would be extremely grateful.  Where are all you onion experts out there?

But anyways for the time being we are looking at an early summer harvest and I  am really excited to get my first crop of onions under my belt and out of the ground.

As my family eats onions with EVERY meal this crop of upcoming batch couldn’t come sooner to provide us with some deliscious homegrown onions and to help us decrease our grocery bills.  Hopefully the next onion post you will see me standing in the middle of hundreds of nice onions.

When growing up our dinners always had some type of meat, vegetable, and of course potato.  And to this day even with my own family nothing has
changed.  That being said potatoes are an important staple in our diets.  YES…..its finally April and POTATO time.  And with the potatoes running over 50 US cents here for a medium size potato we are spending a considerable amount of money on potatoes.

In the spring of last year was when we moved here to Gujo.  I was out cleaning the weeds and trying to bring the garden back to life when the old lady that lived next door came over to introduce herself.  She was surprised to see foreigners nonetheless as neighbors.  And she expressed her surprise to see us out in the garden as well.  She offered me a box of potatoes that she wasnt going to use and I gladly accepted.  I looked in the box to see what looked like a potato expirement.  The potatoes had eyes growing everywhere and looked like deformed octopuses.  She proceeded to explain that there were two different types inside the box one was a light soft potato for salads and the other was a darker firmer type.  Im sorry I dont know the exact names, but I think one of them was called Akari in Japanese.

I was determined to be a good gardener and promptly put all the potatoes in the ground as she gave them to me.  I waited and waited and finally they all showed their little heads.  We were so happy when they were ready and we ended up having enough to last the summer.

This year having one batch of potatoes under my belt already I feel more confident for this years batch.  This year my goals are to have a bigger, better quality crop and triple my potato harvest from last year so the potatoes last into winter and have enough for next years seed.

So I had a few leftover from last year and went to the local home center to hunt for more potatoes.  I was in luck and found about 8 different varieties
being sold.  Unfortunately, my Japanese skills are limited and couldn’t read the descriptions about each of the potatoes.  So I asked one of the staff about their recommendations on a big, soft, hardy potato.  She pointed to her favorites and I bought 12 kilograms.  I also took another 12 kilograms of random potatoes that had good looking pictures shown on their descriptions.  So with the leftover potatoes and my newly bought potatoes from the home center I had about 30 Kilograms of seed to plant.

Last year I wasn’t aware that you could cut the potatoes in half and they would grow.  So I didnt have as many potatoes as I could have had or would have liked.  But that is water under the bridge at this point and I can only look forward to the upcoming batch.  I tripled the size alloted for my potatoes this year and planted my 4 different varieties on April 7th.  Now its a waiting game.

In efforts for a better, bigger crop this year I have tilled and turned the soil adding both cow and chicken manure as well as a 14-14-14 fertilizer.  I am also adding marigolds in between the rows to battle the bugs since last year they feasted on the leaves and hindered the growth.  My only worry is that I added to much nitrogen.

Was hoping to hear from you on your experiences with potatoes and if you had any soil preparation tips and/or cheap, homemade bug remedies.  Will keep you posted on the progress.