How to Plant Potatoes
In early February I decided to experiment with planting potatoes. I had attended a local gardening workshop where the class planted pieces of organic grocery potatoes in a sunken garden. It was cheap and easy enough to do. Why not give it a shot?
How I planted my potatoes:
- Purchase one organic red potato (any potato will do) with lots of eye dimples. I should note that some gardeners say you should only plant seed potatoes, but I'll try these store bought red potatoes this year.
- Cut the potato into a few pieces, making sure there are at least 2-3 eyes on each piece.
- Lay the pieces in a sunny dry spot to scab over — I let them stay out in the sun for 2 days.
- Prepare a bed for the potatoes. In the workshop they had dug twice the depth of the shovel head and added compost to the soil. For my purposes, I planted them in large pots using potting soil for veggies because I had already run out of room in my raised garden bed. I placed some small rocks at the bottom of the pots to aid in moisture drainage.
- Plant the potato pieces. It doesn't matter if the eyes point up, down, left, or right — just toss them in! I placed one piece in each pot at a depth of about 8 inches. At the workshop garden, we planted them about 12-18 inches apart at a depth of 8-10 inches.
- Water thoroughly, place pots in a sunny spot, and wait patiently. The leader at the workshop said I should be able to harvest in June.
I wasn't sure if this would work in my pots but, as you can see below, they finally sprouted after about 4 weeks.
And this is what they look like today....
The only thing I will do differently next time is plant in a bigger pot. These pots were only 16 inch diameter which will probably cramp the development of the potatoes. Next time I will find a much larger pot. I think a plastic storage bin with holes drilled in the bottom would work nicely. I will post more when I harvest.
