The Czech word okopaniny is derived from word “kopat”, which means “to dig”, where “kopa” is the root and the “t” at the end signifies that the word is a verb. When the end is changed to “niny” it is no longer a verb, but a plural of a noun. This particular noun “Kopaniny” does not mean anything in itself, except that it is the name of a village near my hometown. The prefix “O” changes the word again; in this case, it indicates that the aforementioned digging is performed in close proximity to the thing the whole noun describes.
As far as pronunciation goes: “o” is pronounced as in “odd”. “ko” is pronounced as “co” in “cork”. “pa” is pronounced as in “pass”. “niny” is probably unpronounceable for an English speaker, because the n before i is pronounced as Spanish ñ but as regular n before y, and both i and y make the same sound, as i in “bit”.
The word “okopaniny” is a collective noun for a group of tuber or root vegetables that require fluffy soil that needs to be worked with a hoe, often in close proximity to the crops to both control weeds and to loosen the soil for better performance. And the main crop in this category is potatoes.
Which is why I was thinking about all this linguistic nonsense today, because I have spent several hours with a broad hoe in hand, hilling up my indeterminate potatoes.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I planted them in deep-ish trenches, and now I essentially reversed that – what was initially a trench is now a valley and vice versa. In the first picture you can see unhilled potatoes on the left, and hilled up on the right
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
This work is, of course, a great opportunity to expand my collection of stones of various sizes. I almost have another bucket full, hooray.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I fear I overdid it with fertilizer, despite following the instructions on the packaging and actually weighing it; the potatoes are a bit too tall for comfort, especially the variety “Agrie”. Many plants are so tall that I could not hill them up effectively, so there is a serious risk of getting green tubers. It would be ideal to fill the valleys now with rotten straw, moss, or hay, or something similar capable of retaining moisture but not containing too many nutrients. Alas, I do not have anything like that. I might have some nutrient-rich compost in about a month or so, because I am hot composting all my mown grass again. But if I overdid it with fertilizer, adding nutrient-rich compost will only compound the problem. It won’t kill the plants; it will just mean I get a lot of useless foliage at the cost of tubers.
We shall see. Tomorrow, it should rain, and I really hope it will; the garden needs it. After the rain passes, I will spray everything with fungicide to prevent blight.
might okapi (the elusive giraffe cousin) have a meaning in czech?
and my husband wants to know what you use for fungicide
I am so glad “English” is such a sensible, easy to learn language./sarcasm
When I had a garden…(MUCH smaller than yours)
we could accommodate maybe 9-16 “hills” of potatoes
our method was to dig a hole, put the potato in, cover with a bit of soil, as it put out stems and leaves, add more dirt, continue until it’s time to dig them up…
it worked
My partner (at the time, bless his heart) said this method was from his paternal grandparents. (Sudetenland)
Charly
Your post title is “reater” not “Greater”
My soil is not great for potatoes. Which is currently irrelevant anyway. I’m experimenting with adding cheap clay pellets to the soil to make it lighter and retain more water.
@ Bébé Mélange, okapi, in Czech, means the same as in English, since in both languages it comes from the same source.
However, “okap” has a meaning. The root comes from the verb “kapat” (to drip). The “O” again means that whatever it is doing with dripping, it happens around or in close proximity of something. In this specific case, it means “thing that collects water dripping from the edge of the roof,” i.e. “gutter”
I am using four fungicides in my garden:
1) an organic one that targets blight spores and reduces their mobility.
2) a copper-oxide-based inorganic one that prevents the spread of spores from infecting the leaves es and the blight from spreading.
3) another inorganic one based on potassium polysulphide that serves as a fertilizer and targets fungi in the soil.
4) During sunny days, low-fat milk spray on the leaves prevents powdery mildew. The milk protein contains sulphur, and in sunlight it dissolves into fungicidal chemicals.
@chigau, English has insanely stupid spelling, but other than that, it is definitely easy compared to Czech. Czech has easy spelling with very few catches, but insanely complicated grammar.
I am living in Sudetenland, and I am 1/4 Sudetendeutsch, but I learned this from a book. I would like to continue hilling these up, but I ran out of material rather quickly; they grew much faster than I expected.
@Giliell, when the time is right, you might have success with the Ruth Stout method, or grow bags. Potatoes are one of the easiest crops to grow.
@Bébé Mélange, I forgot to say that the plural of “okap” is “okapy”, whose pronunciation is exactly the same as “okapi” (I and Y make the same sound in Czech). And also, when I say “organic fungicide,” I am using the term “organic” in its chemistry sense, not the marketing one.
There was I time, where I live, that a method of preparing a patch of ground for planting a lawn, was to grow potatoes on it.
When you purchased a house on a lot that was in a new housing place, you put in potatoes in the spring, harvested the in the autumn, and planted a lawn the next spring.
(upon reflection, I realise that this was a looooong time ago)
The soil around where I live in the northeastern USA is very rocky too. There’s an old joke that our most reliable crop is rocks.