farmblog towards actually sustainable farming in Ahualoa

Here’s the chronology on the potato trial:

2020.07.20: planting day

2020.08.16 (day 16): all the potatoes have emerged and are growing nicely, except for the smallest varieties (Laratte and Papa Cacho), which are barely emerged and tiny plants.

2020.09.03 (day 38): The plants have been mounded (hilled) with regular garden soil.  Nearly all plants are showing early signs of some kind of blight, starting with brown spots on the leaves: 

One of the yukon golds is already completely blighted, down to bare stems:

2020.09.12 (day 47): Almost all the plants are completely blighted to the point of losing almost all their leaves:

The only exception is three plants in the middle of the bed, I believe they are the Kennebec, which appears almost unaffected by any blight:

This is a good result.  It is difficult to find details on Kennebec, but one reference did suggest it has “good field resistance to late blight”.  The little “Papa Cacho” variety at the end of the bed also appears to be relatively unblighted, but since the plants are so small, it’s not as promising for yield.