Time to plant

It is almost time to plant potatoes in Central Texas and across all of zone 8.

We usually plant around the middle of the month. So this week is a good time to loosen your soil, and make it easy to just drop those potato chunks into their spot.

In preparation, I am brewing some more compost tea using worm castings. It is cool outside where most of us would do such an activity so it will take longer for it to reproduce a lot of beneficial and protective bacteria and fungi.

The morning before I plant, I will soak my cut seeds in the tea. If the seeds happen to carry any hidden fungus or disease, soaking them will help to either completely rid them of the problem, or give them a head start in fighting it. 

If you could make enough tea to drench the beds sometime this week, it would begin the process of growing beneficial bacteria in the soil also aiding healthy plant growth.

Do you plant root plants in the dark of the moon cycle? Then you have ten to twelve days to make preparations.   

The darkest night this year is February 21^st., the night of the new moon.  Nothing is supposed to be planted on either the new moon or the full moon.