Grey and blue.... weather and potatoes. And some asparagus too.

Last week I finally got my much dreamed of blue potatoes. They came in a shipment from Pinetree along with  some big healthy looking asparagus and strawberries. Here's a pic of the asparagus crowns in the box.

I took the plastic off the crowns and set them in water up to the top of the roots, and put them into a shady spot to hydrate for a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, the potatoes were half rotted. I got out my Swiss army knife and cut off most of the rot,  and lost about half the 'eyes' -- the growing sprouts.

Then I put the cut potatoes in the garage to dry for a day before planting.
Later I planted the asparagus crowns in several beds I had prepped. I added aged horse manure, compost, 10-10-10 fertilizer, and dug them deeply, removing any tree roots and rocks I encountered (there were a lot, this is New England).

 The crowns went in about a foot apart, with the tops just exposed. As they grow I'm supposed to hill up soil around the stems.  I should not pick any asparagus for a couple of years to let the crowns build up strength, but if they get well established I'll be eating  my own asparagus every spring for the next twenty years.
The next morning I planted the potatoes. Sol came over while I was digging and  picked one up experimentally, then dropped it back onto the bin lid I was using to dry them.  Definitely not to his taste, by the grimace on his face.

 Planting the potatoes was much like planting the asparagus, except that I don't have to fence the potato bed; just like Sol, the woodchucks and rabbits have no taste for potato.

I called Pinetree and they are sending me replacement potatoes, but not blue ones; they were out of stock.  It takes about three weeks for potatoes to sprout, and we've had the first good rain storm of the season  in the week since I planted them-- three inches of rain on April 22.
Whether the current cool grey weather will rot the blue potatoes or speed their growth, only about another two weeks will tell. All my earlier potatoes  planted on April 4 ( Rose Finn, Russet, Katahdin whites, Yukon Gold) are all sprouting as of today, so even if the blues don't survive, I'll have plenty of  home grown potatoes  in late summer.