I Say Potatoes!

I have tried growing potatoes – both white and sweet…without success.  BUT I’ve only tried them in containers.  I think they’ve simply heated up the roots too much and produced zero spuds.

Well I decided to try again so I called up my mentor (Donna from Sharing Life’s Abundance) and asked her for some tips; and then I did a little Google research.  So yesterday started my Great Potato Experiment!

I’m using my standard 4×4 box, 6 inches deep.  Now the seed potato package said that they should be buried at least 8 inches deep.  But I am looking for smaller potatoes for soups and stews versus big baking potatoes so I think the smaller depth may be ok.  I will mound some dirt around early sprouts to give it a little more depth.

I filled the box about 3/4 of the way with compost that was only about 1/2 cooked and topped that off with some organic garden soil.

Then I dug down to nearly the bottom of the box and added the seed potatoes; leaving the sprouts up.  Remember potatoes grow up instead of down.   I used my handy dandy Garden Stamp to plot out the box and planted one seed in every square foot.  The rocks kept me on track as I was planting but I removed them.  At the end I had 4 seeds left and decided to add them to two 5 gallon buckets.  I filled those with the same basic mixture as I did the box but the seed potatoes were buried 8 inches deep (don’t worry they have large drainage holes at the bottom). This will be a good comparison on growth.

These are early harvest potatoes and should be ready in about 65 days (March 31st).  I’ll keep you posted on the progress. Fingers crossed and prayers for spuds!!!

Have you tried growing potatoes in a square foot garden?  Leave me a comment and tell me how it went!