Jadelynx
If you want to grow your own potatoes, but you don’t have a yard, or your soil is too hard, or even if you just don’t want the work of having to dig them up, I have a great and easy solution!
Grow your potatoes in a bag! I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is actually easy and fun. It’s also a great way to get lots of tasty and healthy spuds to eat! Anyone can do it, you don’t even need to buy any seeds because potatoes are grown from other adult potatoes.
How to Sprout Potatoes to Plant:
It is best to start with organic potatoes, since they are less likely to be a funky hybrid that can’t be sprouted or have toxic insecticides on them or even in them. You can use red or brown potatoes.
1. Wash the potatoes well and then place them in direct sunlight.
2. In two to three weeks you will have sprouts. When they get an inch or so long, you are ready to cut.
3. Cut the potatoes, with one sprout on each piece. Leave the potato connected to the sprout, because as it rots it will be fertilizer to the new plant
4. It is very important that you let the cut potatoes sit for two or three days so the cut portion of the potato can dry out and form a protective layer. If you plant newly cut potatoes, diseases, fungus, worms and insects can easily burrow into the fresh cut flesh and kill the sprout.
5. When the potato pieces have cured sufficiently, it is time to plant them.
I plant my potatoes in bags. I got them off Amazon for about $3.00 a piece. They look like this:
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How to Grow Potatoes in Bags:
1. Fold the bag down till it is about 6 inches tall.
2. Put 3 inches of good dirt in the bottom of the bag.
3. Set your four potato halves in the dirt with the cut side down, sprout side up and cover with 3 inches of dirt.
4. Water well.
5. Keep the soil moist but not mud and when the plants are 6 inches tall, unroll the bag about 4 inches and add more dirt, up to the bottom leaves.
8. When the plant has grown to 8 inches above the dirt, unroll the bag again, and add more dirt, up to the bottom leaves.
9. Keep doing this until the bag has dirt three inches from the top.
10. When the potato vines turn yellow and look wilted, stop watering them and wait about two weeks.
11. Pick up the bag and turn it upside down in a wheelbarrow or washtub and you will find fresh, tasty and pesticide free home grown potatoes.
This is what one of my bags looked like when the plants came up:
Don’t be upset if all 4 plants don’t come up. The fewer the plants the more room there is for the remaining plants to grow bigger potatoes. As you can see only three of them came up in this bag.
Make sure to keep them watered, if they get too dry, the potatoes will shrivel up and be ruined.
You don’t have to use these bags, you can use any kind of bag that will take to weight of dirt pressing against the sides of it. Canvas tote bags, plastic feed bags, reusable grocery bags, any kind of bag will do.
This is a great way to grow some of your own food in a very small space. You can even do it on an apartment balcony or condo patio. You don’t need ground to grow your own, all you need is a bag, dirt and some potatoes.
Give it a try!
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Image Credits: Flickr
The other photos are my own.
How big was the potato which was used?
I really have to try this!
That makes it look so easy.
What a great idea! I wonder if it works the same way for sweet potatoes! They are getting quite expensive. What time of year is it best to plant these?
very useful information. Thank you for sharing