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Hi All,

My Congo potatoes are now finally ready for their first earthing up however I did discover something unusual about this potato, it produces runner roots which then surface to become plant stalks. At first I thought that it was potatoes left in the soil after harvest as does happen, but there were quite a few.

Now as I had deep dug the soil prior to planting the mini-tubers I decided to pull up one or two. This was when I found out that they were coming from my Congo plants. In all of my seasons of cultivation I have never seen such a thing. There were at least 4 of these root shoots per plant surfacing from the soil. I therefore decided to bury them again with some VAM granules.

Now I know that this particular potato is said to have a massive root system, hence the slow growth of initial foliage. However nothing which I read mentioned such an occurrence. On beginning to earth up I found that about 9 inches away from the plants That I was unearthing a mass of potato roots. I immediately stopped and used a wheel barrow to bring soil from the back end of my plot for the purpose.

Before earthing up again I sprinkled VAM granules over the exposed roots, My thoughts being the more VAM's attached to said roots the greater the possible harvest. Will this action result in a greater crop, only time will tell.

To think that such small tubers are capable of producing such an massive amount of roots Is astonishing!!! Obviously the watering of the manure and trench with EM's and sprinkling the tubers with VAM granules was a plus to growth. However I believe that this was maybe how they grew in their native soil. I should also add that the distance from the mother plant to surfacing of foliage is approximately 7 inches to a foot!!!

I asked my old mentor if he had encountered anything like this, he just shook his head when he saw what was happening and asked for some tubers for next season. This I granted as long as he would use EM's supplied by myself to water his crops with. I only said this as a joke, however he agreed, at this point I had to tell him that they needed to be cooked in a pressure cooker. To which he replied that he had be using one for years.

He's a secretive old fox, I would never have thought of him buying something like that, he just winked and departed my plot!!!

However it was obvious that he saw something which took his fancy, he came back to my plot next dry day( there haven't been all that many) to have a further look. They will be late to lift he said, to which I replied that they should have been planted much earlier, but the ground had not been prepared due to deep weeding the soil. Aye he said, the lass that last had this plot just let it go, and the one before her was just as bad, but I think you'll be OK here. He patted me on the shoulder and once more departed my plot.

To me this was an accolade of worth, I was really chuffed, I think that he likes what I cultivate and how I nurture the soil. Now I am sure that once he starts using EM's that he will be back asking more questions. Is the teacher just about ready to be taught by the pupil, we will see???.

According to some of the older members he hasn't bought seeds, tubers, onion sets or garlic bulbs for 30 odd years, I really need to know what he knows!!

I must admit that I was expecting greater growth given the care taken to pre-treat the soil with neat EM's before planting out. Alas with the almost constant rain, and cold temperatures, its hardly been above 16 deg C up here, I fear the worst.!!! Having said that my VAM inoculated Garlic is looking really good and will hopefully provide a great harvest!!

PS:- I have now tested the use of dried spent coffee grounds on unearthed wireworms in a plastic container with some moist earth. Sad to say it seems to have had no perceptible effect on these armour plated villains!!

Although most of you in England will be ready to, or have already, harvested your Garlic, up here in the northern territories we are usually a month behind.

However this season I will be saving the best of my VAM Garlic crop for planting out in the early Autumn. The same will be done with my VAM potato crop, drying beans and peas in the spring. This is how I intend to continue whereby I can grow better crops at no cost other than buying Molasses, chicken manure and growing a better soil with inoculated charcoal.

My real test will come when I render down 40 kilo's of charcoal and subject it to my latest liquid recipe. This I will over winter In 2 sealed black plastic containers and allow to soak up this nutrient.

I have already started to add comfrey leaves in a net bag suspended in one of my water butts to create a strong comfrey tea. I have also planted 7 of the comfrey root plants grown from said root cuttings. These were planted with inoculated charcoal and a good handful of EM saturated manure and a sprinkling of VAM's.

This should see them grow deep roots very quickly and be harvestable next season for stems.

The mind is like a parachute its totally useless unless open

uriel13