Hello,
Thursday afternoon we have been harvesting our potatoes! We got some help from Farmer Erik, who had all the right equipment!

Becuase of the dry weather during the last months the soil was very clumpy and together with our potatoes we harvested quite some soil clumps!
All together we have filled about 12 big boxes - of about 500 kg each. I guess about 50 % of this are potatoes!
Not bad, if you realise that we had such a challenging season with the Colorado beetles and the drought!
For all the people that ordered potatoes, thanks a lot! and we'll contact you really soon about the delivery or pick-up!

15th of May - When you are on your knees in between the potato plants to "harvest" the colorado beetles, you suddenly see how much other life there is in between the plants. There are soo many different beatles, spiders, worms and mites. Also lady bugs (dutch: lieveheersbeestje) were already present in large quantities. They are know as organic pest control and might be predators of the larve of the colorado beetles? Let's see!
One of the most special creatures i found in the field was this yellow green spider whcih you see on the picture. It seemed to be the cucumber green spider (dutch: de normale komkommerspin).

10th of May - Last week, Juliane saw them walking through the young potato plants: Colorado Potato Beetles. They look very beautiful and harmless but they are one of the worst possible enemies of the potato plant. The beetles survive in the soil during winter and get out in spring to eat and lay eggs. A female beetle can lay up to 800 eggs. They can have up to 3 cycles in a year…… you can do the math!

We cannot allow our potatoes to be eaten already by beetles! Yesterday, I have been going through the rows and pick the beetles by hand. I collected about 100 beetles. Not much but if they all were to lay eggs it would be very crowded in a few weeks!

Na de droge periode was het afgelopen week erg koud op het aardappelveldje. Op zaterdag waren we aan het werk en kwamen er een aantal krachtige hagelbuien over. Als het goed is ontwikkelen de piepers zich onder de grond, waar ze het lekker warm hebben.

Voorkiemen:

De pootgoed bestelling is aangekomen. De Allouette pootaardappelen zitten prachtig verpakt in jute zakken van 25 kilo per stuk. Het voorkiemen van de aardappels is belangrijk. Door voor te kiemen hebben de piepers voorsprong op direct gepootte aardappels. Daardoor krijg je naast minder onkruiddruk ook een hogere opbrengst. Je hebt allerlei supermooie voorkiemsystemen maar voor nu heb ik multifunctionele oude houten aardappelkistjes gekocht.

Kijk, hier liggen ze in de schuur: Droog en een beetje in het licht. Laat dat voorkiemen maar beginnen!