POTATO POTAHTO

What do you get when you buy 10 pounds of seed potato because you are so damn excited you can buy ten pounds of seed potato? The ability to grow over 600 pounds of potatoes..then one must wonder where the heck is that gonna happen on a portion of 1/10th of an acre. HA.

Well I decided, my eye was bigger than my plate, and my yard. One plus, I am growing all of my potatoes in containers this year. So I will not have to plow my yard to grow said potatoes, but I am instead growing them in garbage bags. Brilliant! But that would be about 20 freaking bags in my yard....not brilliant. I have simply resolved to plant less and share more. So I thought long and hard and given the research and the leg work, I decided to take my extra seed potato and make little kits consisting of some directions on cute paper, 6 ready to drop in the dirt, seed potatoes, and a clean garbage bag put it all together for $5.00. If they don't sell I will grow them myself and make potato flour. ( yes I realize I was numerically challenged and took a picture of 5 potatoes...there are 6 in the bag.)

I put together my first two potato bags and have about 8 more to construct. It is probably important to really consider placement because I will constantly have to add material to mound up under the plants and don't want to be trucking all over with dirt, although I am fairly certain compostable material will suffice and generally that is pretty light. I also don't think I will need near as much dirt as I did when I put the potatoes in the ground. So it is pretty conservative I think:) You also want to consider that it will be too heavy to move when it is harvest time so all that dirt is gonna be spilled out where it sits...plan appropriatly, although I am sure you could put it anywhere and accomodate that with a tarp or or a drop cloth when the time comes.

So here is how it went. I took my bag and put four 12 ounce empty water bottles from the recycling bin in the bottom. I then put a good six inches of sod I pulled up the other day on top of that. At this point I poked holes for water drainage, because I am cheap and utilize what ever the heck it seems might work, and because I have 4 boys roaming about my house and scissors or knives were out, grabbed an old kabob stick thing I had in my knife drawer and used that. I have never made a kabob so I am thinking it will not be missed. I poked hold through the bottom and along the sides. As the plant grows I will poke more holes in the side for drainage. The bottles in the bottom function to assist drainage too and it helps lower the amount of soil we need.

Next I dug up some fresh soil from last years sunflower bed and put about 2 inches of that in. I put the seed directly onto of the soil, with the "eyes" up with one in the middle and the other 5 at least 4 inches part in a circle around the one in the middle careful to mind my distance from the edge of the bag too. I covered that with about another 2-3 inches of soil and put some dry material from my compost bin and some leaves on top of that. Watered well and now we wait:)