How-To: Grow Potatoes In A Container - Attempt #1

Sometimes, sprouted produce appears just begging to be planted...

So many times I've thrown away a potato because it sprouted from its eyes... a cringe-worthy waste if you ask me, but I never took the time to repurpose the sprouted spuds and it went straight into the compost. To be honest, I never tried because: a) I didn't have containers big enough, b) That's a lot of soil for just one plant, c) I always had the itch to grow them when I read things about it not being the right time of "season"...

...so here's the thing, we are very fortunate to live in Zone 9b. After having started this gardening hobby, I didn't quite understand my limitations within the boundaries Mother Nature dictated. (This is my 4th year of gardening, enough for me to be confident enough to really call myself a "Gardener".) A LOT of my mistakes were made with grocery scraps and I've learned countless lessons, so why was I so caught up over using scraps that just happened to be there? The sprouts should be an indicator of the potato being ready for planting. If I live in a climate for which will support growing things nearly every day of the year, why not?!

I read somewhere that farmers would let the cut pieces of potato dry in a bag of soil for a day before planting. This was to help prevent any premature rot before the sprouts could really take off. I took the spuds out back and had me a grand ol' stabby fun time... ;)

Having a sh*t day? Head out back to the garden for some good ol' #gardentherapy! ;)

After letting them dry overnight in a bag of my favorite potting soil, EB Stone's Recipe420, I set out to clean the containers we repurposed from a recent Spring Cleaning event in our city. Once cleaned, I mixed up my potting soil with some Kellogg Potting soil to beef up my soil medium along with some fresh homemade compost. On top of this, I sprinkled in some of EB Stone's SureStart and some Epsom salt to give them a bit of a jump start. The great thing about growing potatoes in a container is that you don't have to have ALL the soil you need at once. (You can always go out to the store to pick up some more if needed.) I'm a bit of a hoarder since I hate driving anywhere if I can avoid it, so I have 3 bags on stand-by to fill as needed.

Just make sure you do not rest the potatoes in there as you mix in your amendments. (I'm only one person and I tossed them back in to take the photo.) You don't want to break off any of the delicate sprouts from any of the spuds. ;) I spaced the potatoes 12" apart with 2-3 seed potatoes in each container to avoid overcrowding. Mix well and settle the potatoes into the bottom of the container, at least 4" from the ground. Cover lightly w/ soil and wait... patiently. Those two potatoes provided enough seed potatoes to fill up 4 of these 10-12 gal. containers I found a while ago, and I'm SUPER EXCITED to tip these bad boys over to harvest my future bounty! (It reminds me of playing Super Mario and how he would hit those coin blocks and stuff would fly all over the place... except this is with buckets... buckets of POTATOES!) =P

Project Potato started on: 10.06.2017...

Now that all of the initial set-up was done (this seriously took less than 1.5 hours) it's time to play the waiting game... Just make sure you have a depth of 4" underneath your potatoes, and a depth of 4" covering your soon to sprout spuds. ;) I made the mistake of not covering it enough and a week went by with no progress. As soon as I made sure there was enough soil atop the seed potatoes, they sprouted within the next week:

If you weren't paying attention, you could easily miss it. Allow the sprouts to get some height before covering them again. This technique is also known as "Earthing Up" - since the potato plant will send out roots and tubers along the stalk that grows tall.

The rate of growth is quite fast, so it helps to have your soil mix pre-made and ready for you to just cover as needed. After each potato put out about 4-6" of green growth, it was time to bury them to encourage potato growth. The image below has just 3 weeks worth of growth! These are definitely more exciting to grow than other edible varieties I've grown, but I think it's having to check up on it often that makes it more fun. ;)

November 6th, 2017 - Nice, GREEN & HEALTHY leaves!

We covered the green growth with about 2-4" of potting soil mixed with our homemade compost. We made sure there was a good 1" of exposed greenery - and if the plants were varying heights, we left the taller one more exposed so the shorter one could catch up. I read that it could take 70-120 days til maturity, so I figured it was fine. =)

November 6th, 2017 - Covered and watered!

I left the container alone and continued to bury as needed and one month later... we had a pretty potato plant! JUST LOOK HOW PRETTY IT GREW!!!

December 7th, 2017 - SO GREEN AND HEALTHY! =D

Then I made a boo-boo of sorts... a big one too. *sigh* How do I explain this... without going into too much detail? LOL...

...so I harvested another crop and tried to process it for consumption. The end result produced a waste water, similar to something you might compost (like water from blanching vegetables) or so I THOUGHT... I learned a VERY VALUABLE lesson doing this: NOT ALL NATURAL/ORGANIC THINGS ARE GOOD FOR THE GARDEN. I went and poured it off into each of the 4 containers thinking it would be a good "organic" soil amendment. (Boy, was I wrong!) Within DAYS, my beautiful, green and gorgeous potato plants withered away and died. You're supposed to be able to harvest your bounty after the plant dies back, but I figured the soil was DONE and DEAD... nothing more than lifeless DIRT.

Why?!??  T_T *cries* — Why?!?? T_T *cries*

There was ONE plant though at the end of the row that had the LEAST amount of the waste water poured into it... and it persisted. It held on long enough to somewhat complete a growing cycle. It wasn't lush and green (like the photo prior) but it held on longer than any of the others. It didn't look healthy, but it stayed alive the longest, so I held onto hope.

Since the other containers had already died back prematurely, I decided to dig it up and see whether we succeeded or failed... As you can see by the photo above, my bounty was a handful of PUNY POTATOES. *Sigh* - my heart sank and I resigned myself to the other 3 containers having similar situations.

I cleaned up the first of my potato harvest and this is what it looked like:

After waiting for the last container(s) to wither and die, it was time to dig them up. I was hoping for an EPIC POTATO REVEAL but these things were barely big enough to eat. With a heavy heart, I went and unearthed the containers...

...low and behold! POTOATOES! (They aren't all puny!) LOL! As you can tell by the video, I was pretty excited. Not exactly the greatest success story with my first harvest, BUT it wasn't a complete and total loss since I grew some pretty decent sized potatoes that broke me even.

March 26th, 2018 - The total harvest from our 3 small containers.

After digging up our remaining 3 containers, we pulled a humble beginner's bounty the week before Easter. I thought it would ALL be PUNY, but I managed to pull out a few nice sized potatoes that made sure I broke even with the initial 2 seed potatoes I started with. I have NO IDEA WTF TO DO with all these tinier potatoes though... would they be good as seed potatoes? I'm pretty sure I've read that you need to start w/ the biggest ones you can find for best success, but I'm tempted to try. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment/disappointment? Actually, DON'T ANSWER THAT. LOL! =P

Holding in hand for scale... NOT ALL WERE PUNY POTATOES! =D

For size, here's another image so you can see the heftier sized spuds I managed to grow this season. PROOF, SON! PROOF!!! I got more than puny potatoes! =P

If I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT! Grow some spuds! One potato... two potato... POTATO ALL THE THINGS!!! I STILL managed to triple my initial investment of 2 seed potatoes even though my plants died halfway through the growing season. You CAN'T pass up on such an easy crop to grow! Do it for the food... do it for the fact that it's easy... do it because you'll get an EPIC POTATO REVEAL that's just as fun as an Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Day. =D