When is it time to dig up the potatoes?
In June we had great advice from Andrew Ethuru a producer Director of Cafédirect, and Chairman of Michimikuru’s Fairtrade Premium committee in Kenya about how we should tend to our tomato plants to improve their productivity.
This was very welcome. So too was the advice in the RHS Grow Your Own newsletter which warned that not watering the plants frequently enough would lead to blossom end rot or split fruit – unfortunately we didn’t heed warning, and have ended up with both – although the split fruit still do taste lovely!
The problem stems from us not being able to water the balcony garden at weekends. We’ve been overwatering on Fridays and Mondays (and washing away soil nutrients) while the plants wilt and parch at weekends. Not ideal.
The problem of too much rain, and not enough, is something that has been affecting coffee and tea growers in a much more serious way. Willington Wamayeye the Managing Director of the Gumutindo coffee co-operative in Uganda explains: “So while heavy rains are causing landslides because the ground cannot handle the downpours, key water sources for our community – like streams – are drying up”. So the problems with our tomatoes are a drop in the ocean! You can read more about our work helping smallholders to adapt to climate change here.
We have now recovered the tomato situation, and have been enjoying a few perfect sun ripened ones. In mid-July we had an impromptu vegetable harvest when we found that our potatoes were actually ready to dig up. I was amazed to discover how many potatoes could come from one coffee sack growbag – we had more than 40 in each bag!
The onions and carrots were obviously not so prolific, but still tasted fresh and flavoursome and had that unique ‘homegrown’ look !
It’s now time to start thinking about what to plant next – please send us any suggestions to our Facebook page.
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