Up here, the potato farmers have sprayed/killed some of the vines, getting ready to dig, but years ago they never did that, they waited till nearly October, when the air temperature was cool, and you could ware house the spuds and blow in cool air at night so you could keep them, now they start earlier somehow, and get the harvest done much quicker.

most of the potatoes up here go to the Golden arches distribution so they start to dig early and pay a premium to off-set the yield differences.
some years in the fall rains and early frost have lost those late crops production

By spraying and killing the vines, the sugars go into the spud and the skins harden more for longer and better storage. I have visited one of the largest potato farms in WI and the technology they use is amazing. They harvest when the soil gets below a very specific temperature, which is why a lot of harvesting is done at night. They have a major contract with Frito Lay and they breed for and manage for a very specific size potato to make the right sized chips. The odd sizes get sold for other uses. They have temperature and humidty controlled storage facilities.

Bryce

Size does matter......in pataters
The feed lots can only take so many for feed

A lot of potatoes here are raised for foundation seed potatoes, and size is important....they dont want them too big.

Pickled some hot pepper rings and pick some more tomatoes today

Garden here is still chugging along. Been watering but it’s finally raining today. Corn is just about ready to eat (planted super late), beans are wrapping up, carrots are finally big, grape tomatoes are going crazy, and sicker cukes are still going strong.

The last couple days I’ve been noticing a real uptick in rodent chewing. Yesterday they got two carrot tops, chewed one right off. They also started nibbling on a squash bottom and some kohlrabi. Guessing it’s shrews but gonna set some traps and hopefully find out.

Happy trapping! ScottW

Boy whatever it is slaughtered my squash last night! What do you all think it is? Maybe rabbit, rare, screw? Haven’t seen any rabbits since I blasted one earlier this year and my problems disappeared. Happy trapping! ScottW

Deer are doing that to my pumpkins.^

Put out 5 weasel boxes with rat traps and 5 cage traps last night…….3/5 on the weasel boxes with rat traps. Redback Voles! Wonder how many more I gotta catch to get em in check. Happy trapping! ScottW

I've seen that on squash before, mice/shrew, mole/ rodent

Darn voles exploded one night and bit a bunch of squash up but I’ve caught 6 now in 2 days. Deer also started eating the butternuts. Been covering the last couple nights but when it’s 32 or colder for 12 hours overnight it’s tough to keep from extensive damage. Covered the maters and squash.

Potato digging day here! Lotsa scabbing unfortunately. Happy trapping! ScottW

I live in an area with higher pH which is conducive to scabbing also and I dig mine earlier than I would prefer but the seem to hold up well with the system I now use. I put the taters in flat boxes with no stacking on each other. I only rub the dirt off when dry. I can keep them at basement room temperature until mid-February last year. I can pick out the ones going bad easily this way.
I am about finished. My tomatoes are about done with almost all the deterninite ones dying back. I only have a handful of jars left for more speggetti sauce. I did wind up canning 36 quarts for my son's family this year too as the crop was really good. picked a bunch of jalopena peppers today so I can make a few jars of jalepeno pepper pickles.

I was not good at watering this year so the plants that can do well with less water or timely water did very well. Those crops that needed more moisture did not do nearly as well. All in all a good year with boon to bust crops. It was 40 degrees here this AM and will get into the 70s by the weekend so a killing frost is a week or two away at least.

Bryce

Buttercup squash day! Still have beets, carrots, and rutabagas going strong. Happy trapping! ScottW

Meadow voles those are, Red-backs have a red back and are under canopy of trees. I described over on Wilderness forum how to make a vole swimming pool for Jeff.

Thanks for the clarification 50! Pain in the but voles none the less. Happy trapping! ScottW

Nice haul

110 cloves planted
I pulled up tomatoes ten days ago as it frosted nicely two nights in a row, it’s calling for 26 tomorrow night and I have 4 cabbage left to pick