Winter Garden Activities - Part 2 (Potatoes)

This year I decided to grow my own potatoes. Not nearly as many as we eat, but at least some. Part of my problem is that I don't have enough garden space to grow everything I would like to try. Crop rotation helps. So I bought "seed" potatoes at OSH last fall. Seed potatoes are not literally seeds. You take a potato and cut them up so there are at least 2 "eyes" to each chunk.

Knife point points to budding "eye".

 I let the chunks dry for about a day just so they wouldn't rot in the soil. Then because it was raining so much and I couldn't plant in the garden, I filled some cardboard soda flats about 1/2 full of potting mix. Then I just laid the chunks on top. I didn't leave much space in between because I plan on putting them in the ground once sprouts come up and the plants start leafing out. Then I covered them with about 1 1/2 inches of potting soil. Then I watered them and set them under my grow light. Once they started to sprout, I moved them to my makeshift greenhouse. I planted Russet Potatoes, Red Potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes. The Russets are great for baking or frying; the Reds are good for potato salad or boiled potatoes as they're a little firmer textured; and the Golds are great for mashing - they look and taste like they have butter even without it.

I plan to put my starts in the ground sometime this week. The conventional way to plant potatoes is to dig a trench and backfill with some good compost mixed with aged manure. Lay your potato "seeds" with the eyes up and cover with a few inches of soil, compost or straw. If you cover with straw, fertilize well as the straw will use some of the available nitrogen in the soil to decompose. As the potatoes grow taller, add more straw around the plants. Just keep mounding straw around the plants and adding fertilizer until the plant flowers then stop. After the potatoes flower, they will eventually start to turn yellow and die. That's okay, they're building potatoes. Once the plant dies, give it a few weeks and then carefully dig up your crop. These are the basics since there are lots of methods to grow potatoes. You can use/create all kinds of containers. Here are just a few.

Potatoes in 5-gallon buckets. Be
sure to drill drainage hole in the bottom.

Potatoes growing in tires.



Potatoes in tires - start with layer one and keep building up.





If you don't have tires, build a box.





Commercial container - build your own. This would
be a great science project for your kids.





And here are some websites for additional instructions:

Growing Potatoes in a Barrel

Growing Potatoes in a Box

100 Pounds of Potatoes for a Buck

So try growing your own potatoes - they taste better than store bought. And don't forget to save a few for your next crop.