Thursday, April 26, 2012

Growing Potatoes

Growing potatoes does not need to be difficult or space-intensive. My favorite technique is to grow the potatoes above ground in wire bins. I simply assemble the bin, place the potatoes on the ground, cover with 3 inches of soil and wait. As the potatoes sprout, I add compost, shredded leaves, shredded paper and other organic matter to cover and encourage the greens to grow up. Once the bins are full, I let the plants flower and then harvest the potatoes. To harvest, I simply open up the bins and sift out the potatoes.

Step One: Purchase seed potatoes (I bought mine from Sky Nursery this year) and cut the potatoes so that each piece has one eye.
Step Two: Place cut potatoes on the ground in the bins.
Step Three: Cover with soil. Once the potatoes sprout above the soil, add organic matter until the greens reach the top of the bins and wait for the plants to flower.
Step Four: Once the plants flower and the green tops start to die back, open the bins and harvest I will post photos later in the year once I harvest. Happy growing!!

5 comments:

  1. Do you make your own bins, or do they sort of come in sections at the garden/hardware store? Growing potatoes looks relatively easy. Thanks for the tips and pictorial. Nice to see you posted! Thanks, julie

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    1. Sorry for my delayed response...I make my own bins using metal fence section I have lying around!

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  2. Hello, someone from Washington state has asked me if blueberries grow well there. I garden at the Jersey Shore in zone 7a and have 5 blueberry bushes myself, but I remember reading somewhere that north west growers have better luck with huckleberries than blueberries. I've been searching this morning and can't find anything definitive to send them to support that vague memory (haha). What's your opinion? Do you grow blueberries or huckleberries? Which do you prefer? If you haven't had success, but have tried, could you tell me what you think gave you the trouble? Thanks so much! http://mynjgarden.com

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    1. Hi Lisa. I have great success with blueberries and huckleberries! For blueberries I like blue crop, Jersey, Olympia, sunshine blue, & Duke. Evergreen huckleberries are the best performing huckleberry for the Seattle-area garden. Visit www.raintreenursery.com for more great varieties.

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  3. I was pinning away for such type of blogs, thanks for posting this for us.
    iTrim4u

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