Potato Planting Bags

As the temperature slowly rises on the thermometer and the sun rises earlier each day we start to get the gardening itch around our house. The itch is hard to scratch and is intensified with the myriad seed catalogues and gardening supply magazines we receive in the mail. We pour through them, plotting and planning how we're going to lay out the garden and dreaming about how good everything is going to taste and often come upon new ways of growing and harvesting and that's what today's story is about - Growing Great Potatoes!

We've done the traditional in the ground, a single seed potato to a hole for years to mixed results - mostly depending on the soil. In the prairies the dirt can range from excellent black loam to hard pan gumbo clay so it takes a little science to grow those tubers.  A couple of years ago we heard about someone growing spuds in a straw bed. So we thought we'd experiment with that because our spuds in the ground were coming out with little scales or a scab or two on them and the missus is pretty fussy about her potatoes.

We had some great dirt  on the farm but it was pretty strong because it had been a place where they put the horse manure out the end of an old stable that had been long gone. It grew sunflowers up to 14 feet high and tomato plants with a bushel of tomatoes on each vine but the potatoes didn't like it. Maybe straw would do the trick I thought so off to the neighbors to get some small square bales of wheat straw (our bales were big round ones weighing in the 1200 pound range and all hay so not suitable and too big to lift by hand).

With a new load of straw we laid down a bed between 4 to 6 inches thick and then placed the potatoes on top like laying eggs in a nest. Then we covered them over with another layer of straw about the same depth. The hose came out next and we gave them a good watering. Not a soaking but enough the ground beneath would be damp. To make a long story short, we ended up with some beautiful potatoes without any scab and they were certainly easy to harvest. Just reach in the straw and rustle around the base of the plant and pick what you needed for a meal. Oh and one of our heifers got out and toured the yard and saw the straw thinking it was her feed pile and began nuzzling around in the straw and discovered a couple of seed potatoes which she must have eaten because those two spots were bare.

We eventually moved off the farm and into town and bought a place with a great looking garden space unfortunately, the dirt was dead. It had been cropped and summerfallowed (left black) in rotation from one half to the other but nothing had been put back in (green stuff) and the neighbor said there wasn't any fertilizer used either. So it was up to us to breath new life into that soil with good amendments such as leaves and grass clippings and vegetable peals and more straw. It was amazing how much material we put into that soil and it all disappeared each year. This is our sixth season coming up so we're hoping we've added enough now and we're looking for a bumper crop. It was still a little bit hard last year in spots but the earthworms have returned and we're hopeful.

Our Head Garden Inspector on her daily tour.

In the meantime, we still wanted potatoes so we thought we'd use the straw bed idea again. This time we got some damp and heavier barley straw and built our bed then laid the potatoes in as before. We're not sure if it was the weather, the straw or the different dirt but the results were not very good. Small potatoes, scabs on the skin and just plain frustrating. We even tried the straw beds again in different locations in the garden to no avail. Last year we planted them in the ground. Again mediocre results. What to do now.

Potato Bags In Bloom!

The solution showed up in one of our spring catalogs from the local hardware store. Potato Bags! Not the kind you store them in but the kind you grow them in. They are about 2 feet square on the bottom and made of a recycled plastic material that can breath and that allows water to run through it. You put about 4 inches of good dirt and compost on the bottom, place about 5 seed potatoes - eyes up, evenly spaced on the bottom in a square with one in the middle. Add a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of slow release fertilizer around the potatoes then cover them with another 4 to 6 inches of good dirt and just enough water to keep the dirt moist. As the potatoes begin growing (about 12 inches up), add more dirt beneath the foliage and let them grow some more rolling the sides of the bag upward to accommodate the growing spud pile.  Once its nearly unfurled, that's it. No hilling, no weeding, no hoeing just keep them moist, not soaked. the dirt should just feel damp to your hands and crumble away easily.  Once the tops start to die off, you can just open the handy trapdoor on the side of the bag and dig the dirt out with your potatoes and your harvesting.   You could actually sneak a few younger potatoes in case you can't wait. Just wait until the blossoms are on the potatoes and the spuds are about the size of eggs. Then reach in that trap door and dig around with your hand to see if there's any spuds of eating size. Pick a pot full just like picking eggs in the hen house. Close the door putting the dirt back in and get cooking.  We're ordering ours from Home Hardware ($10. each) and they have been recognized and approved by Marc Cullen their corporate gardening expert. Hope you enjoyed the videos and pictures. We'll let you know how we make out as the summer progresses. Happy Gardening!

Here's a video on growing potatoes in a bag. Enjoy. Potatoes in a Bag!

Here's those planting instructions again courtesy of the folks at West Coast Seeds!

Reusable Potato Grow Bags

Grow potatoes right on your home balcony! Three durable polypropylene grow bags come with reinforced top rims and drainage holes. Add a few inches of soil to the bottom of each bag, and place up to five seed potatoes on that soil. Add a further 3-4 inches of soil. When the plants are 12" tall, add 6 inches of soil to the bags, so the plants are half buried. Once they are 12" above the soil, repeat this process until the bags are nearly full. Keep them well watered, especially in dry weather. Each bag holds 54L (48 quarts) of soil. (3 bags). Great for Kids.