Last of the Sarpo Mira Spuds dug up & Moles!

Lovely sunny day today, luckily I had planned to dig up the last of the Sarpo Mira Potatoes and that's just what I did.
You will have to excuse the weeds & grass that has sprung up, but I made the mistake of mulching the growing shoots back in the spring with freshly cut grass, this must have contained seeds and they germinated and grass popped up everywhere!

But after and hour or so, it was clear of all weeds, grass and Potatoes, my trusty Potato fork did its job well and not one spud was speared.
The fleece tunnel to the left still has some Carrots growing, so will be keeping them there for a little while yet, well until the ground freezes that is.

So from the 2 rows I dug up, the yield was about 30.5lb so I estimate the total yield to be 45lb as I planted 3 rows, not bad from 30 seed tubers.

I have left them in the Greenhouse to dry out & harden the skins, for a few days only, don't want them to turn green! 

Compared to the Cara I dug up last month, only 40lb from 72 seed tubers. 

But next year I will be trying 2 different Main crop potatoes, see last Blog entry.
My main reason for choosing Sarpo Mira was because of it high resistance to Blight.

Earlier in the week, when I visited my plot I was surprised to see Moles had visited my neatly planted Red Onion patch, a few Onions had been taken from underneath, but most of the damage was from the mole hills.
I managed to flatten the soil and replant most of the dislodged Onions.

Typical the Moles chose the neatest, dug over patch to invade!

So I quickly made a few of these from things in my shed:

A Bamboo cane, split at the top, a CD pushed into the split & tied to the cane, then another disc loosely tied to the string loop made from attaching the fixed disk.

Hopefully in the wind the fixed disk will vibrate the cane and the loose disk will fly about also shaking the cane, Moles don't like vibrations in the soil. So today I took note and no more Mole Hills had appeared, will see long term if they work.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian