Yam harvest - Winter 2016

There have been a few frosts and the yams have died back, so it's time to start harvesting before the grubs eat them all.  Last year's harvest was a debacle and the grubs got most of them.

I planted late in January, as I had read that they don't really start growing until late anyway.  Previous years I've put them in, in the Spring.  But it doesn't seem necessary.  I can't find the photos on flickr, so labelled and uploaded them.

2016-01-07: The bed has been dug and 90% of the stones put aside.  The yams saved from last weeks harvest are sitting there in the egg cartons.  They're survived the Winter pretty well, and the ones with cuts or damage were dipped in ash which seemed to do the trick.

2016-01-07: The yams all planted out.

2016-01-07: The netting has been laid down to prevent the free-ranging chickens from scratching the beds out, and a covering of hay has been scattered over top.

The bed pre-harvest today.  Not bad looking considering the one time it was weeded, and perhaps two times it was watered.  The problem with weeding was that pulling out the grass or whatever the weeds were, would easily pull out the yam roots.  So it wasn't really possible to weed without damaging the crop.

Just pulling the netting off pulled out some of the better yams.

The recipient of the yams doing his own cleaning with the sieve I bought on recommendation from Rowan.

And the cleaned yams.  I picked out 12 of the best and put them in a cupboard in an egg carton for next Spring's planting.  I'll probably pick at least another two dozen as I harvest more.

Not bad for just the effort of one light weeding, perhaps two waterings (the Spring, Summer and Autumn were not that dry here), and the harvest of course.

Yam/oca planting Summer 2016

Last year's yam (or oca if you do not live in New Zealand) planting, resulted in a poor harvest. The tubers were badly attacked by grubs or beetles or whatever likes the taste of yams. There were only enough for one small meal, and to keep for the next year's planting. Following "internet advice" I dipped the damaged/partially eaten tubers in wood ash, and they kept and sprouted as well as any that were stored intact.

As I don't expect a great harvest this year either, I'm trying out some more "internet advice". The tubers I have are descendants of some bought several years ago at Mitre 10, if I recall correctly.

This is the prepared ground with yams in storage vessels (egg cartons). It was cleared several months ago, and compost spread over it, and the chickens have been coming and going and scratching it up since then. The wire netting will be laid over top and prevents the chickens from scratching the garden beds. If you're considering unfenced chickens and planting garden beds which they can scratch around the verges of, but not in, you'll need to lock them away from when the bed is prepared until the netting is laid.

This is the bed planted out, with one sprouted tuber still uncovered. The tuber itself has shrunken and been used for producing the long sprouts.

And finally, the bed covered. The chicken fencing on the coop was opened some time earlier, and the chickens tend to follow anyone around with a tool, having learnt it means they can get underneath it and scratch. They've since scratched around the edges of the bed, but were unable to actually scratch in the bed itself.

This bed I will be weeding, and the growth of the yams will likely make the netting problematic. So at some stage, the covering of netting will need to be removed, and a fencing solution that will exclude the chickens will most likely be needed.