It's time to plant one of my favourite foods, the humble Potato, or 'Spud' as we call the in Australia.
The eye is where a new shoot will come from. Potatoes are so easy to grow that, after reading this, you'll wonder why you've never tried?
The traditional method of growing means a lot of digging and fuss but this way is quick, clean and gives your muscles a break.
I used to plant our potatoes in buckets and tubs but this year have decided to use bags. You can get away with hessian sacks or even the open weave grain sacks but our local garden centre had these dedicated Potato growing bags on sale for less than the price of a plain sack.
How to plant spuds in bags.
One tip is to roll down the edges of the bag to let more light get while the bag is filled up. To start, get a sturdy bag ad roll the sides down about 1/3 of the height of the bag.
As the plants start to grow this will let a little more light reach the leaves. As you add compost to the bag and it starts to fill, unroll the bag as needed. I use straight compost but some folks like potting mix, soil or a blend.
Choose potatoes that have more than one eye.
Choose some potatoes with more than one eye or one, really well developed one on each of them.
10 cm of compostPut compost in the bag until it is about 10 cm deep. This'll give the roots space to develop.
Evenly distribute the spuds.
Lay out the potatoes on the surface of the compost with the parts with the most, or best developed eyes upwards.
Cover with 5 - 10 cm of compost. Cover the potatoes with another 5 - 10 cm of compost and water well.
Leave the bags in a sunny place that allows them to drain well.
Now all you have to do is to watch and when shoots have grown from the potatoes and there are leaves on the shoots, cover them again with a light layer of fresh compost.
Repeat again and again until the bag is full. Keep well watered but not waterlogged and wait until the hotter weather when the shoots and leaves die off.
Harvest
In the warm weather when the above ground growth dies back, empty the bag onto your garden and harvest fresh potatoes to your heart's content.
You can also 'Bandicoot' your potatoes. That's an Aussie expression for when you dig in the soil around the base of the plant with your hands and pull out one or two potatoes as needed.
To chit or not to chit?
Chitting is where you leave the potatoes that you are going to plant in a sunny, warm place such as on a windowsill until shoots develop from the eyes of the potatoes and start to grow.
Some people insist on chitting but I like to keep things simple. I think that the spuds know what they are doing and if there are some healthy eyes on the potato, they'll know what to do.
It's up to you if you want to give it a try. Some folks swear that it gives better growth but I've not found much difference. Maybe it doesn't help much at the small scale that we work at.
Looking good, I grow up it also this morning.
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Thanks for the step by step for planting potatoes in a different way than the regular in the ground method!
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no worries
Never grown potatoes before. Always feel like there will be so much digging and wasted, tilled soil at the end of harvest. Many vegetables cannot be planted near them. I could use the same volume of soil to grow so many other things that will offer multiple harvests within the growing season.
If I were to grow potatoes, I think this would be a great method for the small garden space I have. Containers are also great for moving plants into better light conditions later in the season, when other nearby plants and trees are usually shading everything nearby.
Glad you like the idea (though its not mine originally). You're right about the wasted effort and time digging. We've got no space to dig for them at Ligaya Garden. Being able to move things is another huge advantage too. Good luck growing yours
wow cool! i was going to plant mine tomorrow in the garden .... great tips!
Synchronicity! You must be destined to have a bountiful crop this year! Good luck with it.