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Garden Gate:  Easy Grow potatoes!  |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22943 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22943 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 11:24:26 AM
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http://grandmotherwren.com/?p=84
Remember what potatoes used to be like…hot and steaming from the oven, full of fluffy white goodness, and with an earthy flavor that didn’t need the help of butter or sour cream? Well, you can raise your own spuds, and recapture that special flavor, and you won’t have to do a lot of backbreaking digging, either.
You can grow potatoes in a barrel - placed in any sunny part of your patio, backyard, or apartment balcony - and that container can be filled with sawdust, dirt, mulch, or rotting leaves. Here’s how its done.
First, get a barrel, a discarded keg, or even a metal or plastic trash can. (The larger the container, the more spuds you’ll eventually harvest, so make your selection accordingly.) To prepare your growing bin, punch several holes, spaced about six inches apart, in the bottom of the container. The drainage these provide will help keep your crop’s “feet”dry, which is an important consideration. Then spread a layer of large pebbles in the bottom of the barrel, and put about six inches of soil over that. Next, put in a four-inch layer of well-rotted (not fresh) sawdust, and you can also add some soil if you’d like. Now you’re ready to plant.
Potatoes, unlike most vegetables, aren’t usually raised from seed…they’re sprouted from the eyes of fully grown tubers that are known as seed potatoes. If you, or someone you know, grew a crop of spuds last year and set some of the beauties aside, you’re ahead of the game as these can be your source of new potatoes. But if you don’t have this advantage, you’ll need to visit a garden shop, nursery, or farm supply store that sells seed potatoes. Those store-bought spuds that may be hibernating in the pantry won’t do. These commercial tubers have usually been sprayed with an antisprouting chemical, so even the ones that do put forth new growth will do poorly.
Slice your seed potatoes so that each chunk contains two eyes, and let the pieces sit for a day or two while their cut surfaces dry. Next, take the “seeds” and push them down into the layer of planting medium in the barrel - just far enough so they’re covered - and dampen the soil. In only a few days you should find little plants sprouting through. Each time these sprouts grow a couple of inches, dump in enough well-rotted sawdust (possibly mixed with soil) to cover them up, and give the crop a soaking. Since the new potatoes form above their parent eye, you are- in effect - creating room for more down-home delicacies each time you bury the plant. By the time the container is full, you’ll have two or three feet of barrel-grown beauties to harvest.
Come September, when it’s time to gather your spring planted crop, you can forget about your spading fork. Simply tilt the barrel over on its side, give it a shake or two, and pour out the most beautiful spuds you’ve ever seen!
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
Please come visit Nora and me on our new blog:
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com |
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Bear5
True Blue Farmgirl
13055 Posts
Louisiana/Texas
USA
13055 Posts |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 6:48:58 PM
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Alee:
Did you do this? I'd be afraid of what else might be in that barrel!!!
Marly |
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 7:47:18 PM
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This would be a perfect addition to my raised bed garden. Saving space and leaving the bigger beds for the tomatoes and crawling stuff. I'm going to get a few of those large trash cans for next year! I could just toss grass clippings or straw into the barrel after each new growth, too, couldn't I?
Farmgirl Sister #35
"If you can not do great things, do small things in a great way." Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
my blog: http://lisamariesbasketry.blogspot.com/
My Website:
http://www.freewebs.com/lisamariesbasketry/index.htm |
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gramadinah
True Blue Farmgirl
3557 Posts
Diana
Orofino
ID
USA
3557 Posts |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 8:17:51 PM
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You can do it in a much smaller container. I took short fence the type you put aroud a flower bed to keep out the pets. I put a black heavy trash bag in a circle of it and filled it with dirt. Every time the green part of the potato got about 2 inches above the dirt I added more until they were filled up.I set them out side my KItchen and have new potatoes at a quick dig. You can alsoput them in 5 gallon containers and do the the same thing without the trash bag. I will reuse the dirt next year after I add compost to it and get the dirt back to having some nutrients.
Diana
Farmgirl Sister #273 |
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ranchmama
True Blue Farmgirl
360 Posts
Elise
Rosebud
MT
USA
360 Posts |
Posted - Aug 13 2008 : 8:20:16 PM
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Another easy way is with tires. You stack the tires up, and for each tire you plant a few spuds. The top tire sprots and grows and when all the potatoes are gone from that layer, you take it off and give a chance for the next tire to grown. Keep taking them off and you can have potatoes in a longer growing season and a shorter space.
Every Child Deserves Our Love &
A Bear of Their Own
http://ATeddyForKeeps.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranchmama/ |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22943 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22943 Posts |
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gramadinah
True Blue Farmgirl
3557 Posts
Diana
Orofino
ID
USA
3557 Posts |
Posted - Aug 14 2008 : 07:41:34 AM
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I was a bit worried about the toxic resins in tires and the weight. An empty tire weighs a lot let alone filled with dirt. And storage of the tires. This can be done with chicken wire and newspaper too a round of chicken wire and newspaper to keep the dirt in. In my garden this year I have a 2 foot chicken wire fence and have planted the potatoes in the dirt then have covered the whole thing with Straw and everytime the green sprouts of the spuds get up out of the straw I put on another layer. This week I had to see what was happening under there and dug up some beautiful potatoes they joined a nice big onion in the frying pan and became dinner. I do not have a doubt that there will be a snake or two in there also, so when it comes time to dig them all DH will be here to help.
I love to grow things and will try anything to see if it will work.
Diana
Farmgirl Sister #273 |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22943 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22943 Posts |
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Aug 14 2008 : 11:10:39 AM
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Alee, I was just wondering the same thing. After all, if you're covering the new growth every time it pokes through, just how much sun does it really need, then? I'm thinking of trying the same thing in a couple of 5 gallon buckets (easy to move if necessary).
Farmgirl Sister #35
"If you can not do great things, do small things in a great way." Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
my blog: http://lisamariesbasketry.blogspot.com/
My Website:
http://www.freewebs.com/lisamariesbasketry/index.htm |
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La Patite Ferme
True Blue Farmgirl
623 Posts
Jenn
CA
USA
623 Posts |
Posted - Aug 15 2008 : 11:10:49 AM
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One of our 4-H members did an educational display at the fair on sweet potatoes. She used those plastic wash tubs or party barrels to grow her's. We used an old retangular storage bin that had cracked. Both worked well. Now we're just waiting for harvest time.
The other good thing is the vines are up off the ground, so bugs are minimal.
I'll let you know what our harvest looks like.
Jenn |
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Garden Gate: Easy Grow potatoes! |
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Easy Grow potatoes!
