Potatoes

From my want list:

I am not a big fan of vegetables. I blame my father. He didn't like certain kinds of cooked vegetables, so we never had them at the table. And it was hard enough to get us kids to eat meatloaf (which had onion soup packets in it) or fish, which my dad did like, to force salads on us. I however adore the basics: corn, potatoes and tomato paste. I'll eat raw mushrooms, if they're provided, but they're usually not. Or I'll much the occasional leafy green thing, but that's a leaf here and there, not a salad of them.

Corn is hard to grow in a little bit of space and tomato plants are so finicky. Potatoes on the other hand are relatively easy to grow. I know because my dad, in a fit of curiosity tucked some eyes from potatoes that had been kept a bit too long into the ground and we got a decent potato crop. The experiment wasn't repeated.

But it strikes me that these would be easy enough to grow in a container. Especially since the container would also corral the tubers so that it would be easy to harvest them. A little research on the web, such as here or over here, reveals that they are, in fact, container friendly. Although, it should be a washtub sized container or a barrel container. Potatoes need room to grow. Most sites recommend planting seed potatoes, since they are certified free of disease and pests, but also because most supermarket potatoes are treated with a growth retardant. I guess nobody wants to buy potatoes with roots growing out of the eyes.

For starting seed potatoes, or any potato, place them somewhere warm in the house where they will get lots of light and warmth. After they start sprouting, cut them so that there are a couple eyes and a fair bit of starchy middle in a chunk. Let it sit and get a skin on the meat of the potato. Then placing 4-6 inches of dirt in the container, then placing the seed potatoes into the dirt, cut side down. Then mounding another 3-4 inches of dirt above that. If you plan to enrich the soil with organics, place it beneath the seed potatoes. It will burn your tender young plants otherwise.

After your potatoes sprout, add another 3-4 inches or let it grow out about 8 inches and bury the half of the stalk. The trick to potatoes is that they grow the tubers between the seed and the top of the soil, so adding more soil increases the harvest. Just don't bury too many of the leaves, the plant still needs light to have the energy to make nice big tubers. And make sure that the little baby tubers don't stick out of the soil. This can lead to them turning green and producing lots of toxins. If you see any peeping out of the soil, mound more dirt on to them.

Make sure you keep your potatoes moist. Not sopping, but make sure they don't dry out. And be careful not to let the leaves stay wet. That weakens the plant and makes it suseptable to disease. Water up until the leaves die back, then cease watering to let the tubers "mature" for harvesting.

Harvest can begin as early as 3 weeks after the flowers die for small "new" potatoes. Three weeks after the leaves die is a better choice for bigger potatoes. Use caution when digging up potatoes so you don't bruise or cut them with your spade. Or just use your hands to sift that dirt. Let the harvested potatoes dry out for a day or two, either on the ground next to the plant, or in the basement.

Then throw the dirt from the container into your garden. Don't reuse it for potatoes later. Or before letting it age for three years. Take the time to let potato specific diseases and pests die off or leave that soil.

An interesting note, is that potatoes, like tomatoes, are part of the nightshade family and can be poisonous. So, if your potatoes start looking green, pitch them.


Oh, and a side note: why do I restate information from websites? One, I want it in my blog so I can find it easy. Two, I don't trust the websites, especially from news outlets to remain up till I need them. I had a bad experience with CNN removing a nice sunflower article I wanted. Not to mention all the talk of domain name registration lapsing and the site disappearing. That happens too. So I try and "save" the information where I control its existance.


Yesterday's precipitation: scattered sprinkles -- trace