The fella sometimes travels for work.
On his last walkabout a few years ago the fella headed to Saskatchewan where he lived for 6 months, flying home every 16 days. He lived in a typical, small Prairie town. How small? I went to visit him once and he wouldn't let me carry my purse to the town restaurant/bar/variety store/video rental place. Apparently carrying a purse, or anything other than a hoof pick, would have immediately pegged me as an outsider. It would have been "embarrassing". To carry a purse. Into a restaurant/bar/variety store/video rental place.
So I didn't. Because I'm nothing if not accommodating. Plus, you've never seen anyone pitch a fit like the fella when he gets worked up.
On this same trip, in this same town, the fella went into the grocery store/garden centre/travel agency to pick up a few things for dinner. He was making meatloaf and he wanted mashed potatoes with it. So he grabbed a few potatoes and took them up to the cash. Thelba, or whatever her name was, started to ring him up and asked him how long he was planning on staying in town. He said he wasn't sure, but he wanted to get home to make dinner. Thelba said "You aren't plannin' on eatin' them potatoes are ya? Them there are seed potatoes fella." To which the fella replied, Yeah, yeah. Seed potatoes. Whatever. Ring 'em up. Thelba then explained to the fella They're for crops. For planting. She was very nice about it apparently, but I'm sure all the while Thelba was thinking, "Holy shit Mr. City, all you're missing is the purse".
And that is my seed potato story.
SO! You wanna plant potatoes but you don't have any room? You only have a balcony? Most of your yard real estate is taken up by decorative Gnomes and a shuffleboard court? No problem.
You can plant potatoes in half bushel baskets, with 6" of dirt and a bunch of straw.
And here's how ...
The first thing you have to do is get yourself seed potatoes. You can get them this time of year at garden centres, seed stores and sometimes even hardware stores carry them. Seed potatoes have been guaranteed to be disease free. If you buy potatoes from the grocery store that happen to grow eyes, you aren't guaranteed they'll be disease free and grow into nice healthy potatoes. But ... chances are they will.
Howevever, I want to know EXACTLY what kind of potato I'm growing so I bought a variety of interesting certified seed potatoes.
Just for fun, I'm also growing a batch of Russian Blue potatoes. They're one of the varieties with the blue, almost black skin.
Most exciting, is the fact that the inside is the same colour! I'm so excited about growing these I could cry. I'm potato geeking out over these.
I'm also growing Yukon Golds and the most perfect potato ever made, The Kennebec.
Once you get your seed potatoes, you need to cut them. Depending on the size of the potato, you'll cut them into half or even 3 or 4 times. You want to make sure each chunk of potato has at least 2 eyes. If the potato is small, just leave it without cutting it.
Then let your potatoes heal for a few days. Some people say 2 days others say a week. I'll leave it up to you. The cuts need to scab over so they don't rot or get bacteria/disease in them when you plant them. So make sure you cut them several days before you plan to plant them. After a week ... they'll look all grody. Like this.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Now's the fun part. Planting. Fill your half bushel basket (ask at your grocery store or farmer's market for them) with 6 inches of soil. I used half compost and half CONTAINER SOIL. Not, garden soil! Whenever you're planting in a container ... you should use container soil.
Push your seed potatoes (I'm going with 3 of them in the basket) half way into the soil.
Then push the soil back over them, so they're halfways down in the dirt. Give them a good water and leave them. Like most vegetables, they need 6-8 hours of sun a day.
Stick them anywhere you have space and sunlight. If you just have a balcony stick them out there. If you have a yard that only gets sun on one side in the morning and sun on the other side in the afternoon, these containers are light enough you can just move them throughout the day.
After a week or two, you'll see the potato plants starting to grow out, above the soil. Let them grow until there's about 6" - 8" of growth sticking up. Then it's time to "hill" them. You can either do this with more container soil and compost OR you can use partially decomposed straw. The reason it's better to use partially decomposed straw is because you'll be able to smash it down tighter than fresh straw. You don't want a lot of air pockets, you want to use a LOT of straw and smash it down.
To hill potatoes just fill in around all the stems and lower leaves of the potatoes with your soil or straw. Only the top set of leaves should be showing when you're done.
When the potatoes have grown another 6" - 8", hill them again.
I plan to test all the potato planting methods this year. I'm doing them in half bushel baskets with straw, like you see here, I'm doing them in half bushels with all soil, and the traditional potato planting method of trenches and then hilling them in a regular garden bed.
Potatoes are fine to plant in cool weather so if you're in Southern Ontario or a similar Zone ⅚ climate ... now's the time to plant potatoes! I have a LOT of potato planting ahead of me. But for now, I'm getting kindda hungry. I'm thinking of making meatloaf for dinner tonight. With some nice mashed potatoes. As luck would have it, I happen to be out of potatoes, so I'll have to run to the store to get some. And yes. I am going to carry my purse.
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Lisa
What??..no banana potatoes?..love the Russian blues but nothing beats banana potatoes,simmered in cream and dill..:)
Nancy B
I think I will try a couple this way. I attempted another method I had found online using the cloth grocery bags - purchased at a dollar store. The instructions were to simply fill the bags with container soil; the bags were supposed to be easy to move around. Unfortunately, my bags rotted through from the moisture. I had more luck using five gallon buckets acquired for free from the local Walmart. The deli gets frosting in them, and give them away just for the asking. I drilled some holes in the bottoms, and along the bottom third on the sides. Then filled halfway with potting soil. At "hilling" time, I just threw in some more soil. Each of those produced quite well. =)
Nancy B
I read this wonderful post early last summer. I came back to this one, to see if there was an update. How did the taters do? I'm sure we would all enjoy seeing pictures and comments on your experimentation. =) Love your fresh n funny sense of humor - you have a great writing style that engages me!
Karen
Hi Nancy! You're right, I didn't get a chance to update how to potatoes in straw went. With so much going on with the garden I ran out of time to update everything. The potatoes in baskets of straw did poorly. *However* I think it was my fault, not the method. I packed the straw in really tight to make sure it would hold enough water. Seems I packed it too tight and it held a LOT of water. The potato vines ended up rotting for the most part due to too much wetness. I'm going to try it again this year with only one basket instead of the 4 or 5 I did last year. The ones in the ground with the top dressing of straw did great. And my sweet potatoes did even better! I *did* manage to get an update written about those. :) ~ karen
Carolyn
Karen I just came across this post again & I wondered how your potatoes did this year & what the results of the different growing environments were? I don't even know if the potatoes would be ready for harvest already?
Thanks!!
I never got to planting potatoes this year because the shipping charges made it crazy expensive. I'll plan ahead next year & shop around.
Jan
Just discovered your site today and have laughed and enjoyed and taken up two full hours!!! I am a Southern Ontario transplant to Southern California and it was just so refreshing to read your blog. Thank you for sharing.
Karen
Hi Jan! Welcome to my site. If you're from Southern Ontario, you've probably seen me on television here in Canada. Glad you found me and sorry I took up 2 hours of your day, LOL. Actually ... why lie? I'm kindda glad I did. ;) ~ karen
Melissa
I'm here after the jump from your best of post on 6/5. Well thank goodness I saw this! I am doing container potatoes as well, and as usual, I see new ways from you AND, more importantly, the fact that you are running experiments during your growing season to find the BEST way to do it. Woot! Please let us know what method trumped the others. (Oh, and this was one funny post! I really adore when you incorporate the fella - and his pop - into your posts) Happy Day, Karen!
Andrea T
How do I know what my climate zone in Canada is? I can never find an answer that I understand. The US climate zone numbers seem much easier.
Karen
Hi Andrea - I'm not sure what you mean. Climate Zones are the same in the US and Canada. They range from 1 - 7. If you look at this website (I just did a quick Google search) you can locate your home and climate zone. http://www.bamboobotanicals.ca/bamboo-care/light-temperature-for-bamboo.html ~ karen!
Carolyn
Karen,
I can't seem to find it here, but I thought you mentioned how many pounds of seed potatoes to get, and how many potatoes they could potentially produce??
I'm a little late in the game, but found just 2 lbs of seed potatoes for sale online at a not so bad price, and thought I'd try a container of them.
Will 2 lbs of seed potatoes be enough? How much might that grow?
Thanks in advance!
Carolyn
Karen
Hi Carolyn - 2 lbs of seed potatoes is about average for a small mesh bag. They shouldn't cost anymore than 3 or 4 dollars. It's certainly enough to plant to have fun with it, but probably not enough to feed a small village. You can put around 3 chunks of seed potato in each basket. Don't forget you can cut the potatoes so 1 potato may end up giving you 2-3 chunks. Enough for one bushel basket. Each chunk should give you around 5 potatoes. So ... in answer to your question. Yes. I think you're fine. ~ karen!
Carolyn
Thanks for the quick reply!
I found the seed potatoes for $4.50 for 2 lbs. I just have to see how much they want for shipping, because that could kill the idea.
At least the price is better than the ridiculous price gouging $18.95 for 10 "mini tubors" from a major seed company!!
Linda
I planted potatoes for the first time this year. I am not a gardener, at all. I watched a video on youtube and thought ok I can do that. So I dug a nice deep hole planted them then intended to come back and hill them up or whatever. I never did. They are fine. I don't remember to water them either. At my house you have to be able to take care of yourself. The animals are quite lucky actually. I over feed them.
mary c
Gotta love them lavender mashies.
Lisa
Every spring, I pull the potato plants right out of the compost pile! They sprout there like CRAZY. So do cucumbers. I've already potted them up!
Of course, this means that during the course of the winter you have to strategically let some potatoes and cucumbers go bad....
janey
Don't know if you are looking for feedback on the floating ad or not, but it's super annoying. Like on a grouchy day I would leave the site because it pissed me off annoying. Just say'n. If you weren't looking for ad feedback, sorry!!!!
Karen
Janey - I'm not sure what ad you're talking about. Floating ads? I'm not sure what you mean. Regardless, if I get rid of the ads, I have to get rid of the site, so the ads stay. All of the ads should have a little "X" in the upper right hand corner that allows you to close them. If it's not there let me know, because I'll alert my ad network. ~ k!
Alice
Where do you get partially decomposed straw? Did you have to get it and let it start decomposing last fall? Because I don't think I could plan that far ahead...
Karen
Alice - It doesn't take long. If you buy a bale of straw ($4) it'll do for many baskets of potatoes. Just leave it out in the elements to get rained on etc. and by the time you need to use it to hill the pototoes it'll be starting to decompose. It just needs to get a bit wet/mushy. ~ karen
Lucy
Everyone is right; you are an amazing blogger and I am educated each time I pop in for a read. (I lived in small town Saskatchewan and tried to wear red wedge shoes, which did *not* go over well. You cannot imagine the looks of disgust! *sigh* And then I dressed up as a goth punk for hallowe'en, complete with fake facial piercings and wearable handcuffs... yes, I was banished. It's a long story for another time and place) Well that's not much about anything, just wanted to say that I read your posts even because you just crack me up and keep me n' my co-workers entertained when we need a break. Props to you for making food! You rock! :D
Karen
Thanks Lucy. Don't forget your purse. ~ karen
Laura Bee
Grody, hahaha! Oh, gag me with a spoon! Are you sure we didn't go to high school together? Maybe it was in a past life that I knew you.
Winegirl
Karen,
We have a bucket planted, using soil/straw and they are cresting over the top. Don't forget to plan for that. Just bought a tomato cage today that I'll line with newspaper and keep the straw going.
Tell the Fella's dad that I grow blue TOMATOES! I have pics if he doesn't believe me... :-)
Nikki Kelly
You should make fancy chips with your Russian Blue potatoes!
Nikki
Karen
Nikki - Chips like french fries? Or chips like potato chips. Come to think of it ... who cares. Good idea on both counts. ~ karen
Nikki Kelly
Well I was meaning potatoe chips, which seem to be your favorite food ever. What does the fella's dad have to say about the chips/fries/crisps debate? What are the 3 True Chips?
Nikki
Barbie
I am a seasoned gardener and I didn't even realize that I had to let them"heal" after the cut. I don't even think my uncle realized that.. (I will have to ask him) he sometimes just does things and doesn't' tell me...he's 88 so he's allowed! lol
Also I really want to try those Kennebec and the Russian Blue. I hope they have those at Big R. I may have to hunt a bit.
I have an old garden book and one of the methods for potatoes is similar to yours with the straw, only they used fallen leaves from the previous fall and kept piling them up and watering them down as the potato plant grew...that way you didn't have to pull the whole plant up....instead you could just reach down and find the biggest and nicest potato and snap it off and leave the other smaller ones to grow. They also said that it would keep them really blemish free because they would not have any rocks or pebbles or anything in the "soil" to fight with while growing. I always thought I would try this but I never have. It does sound really cool though.
Cathy
Karen,
I discovered your website when I looking for chicken coop ideas. I love your blogs!! Not only do I learn a lot but your "funny" makes my day! Thank you! I'm going to try the green onion, celery, and potatoes in containers gardening. Take care, Cathy
Brenda j
I put my blue potatoes into a mesh-wire bedroom waste basket, lined with black garden fabric. I have full sun at the side of my home...faces south. Here's hoping I get results. I did a number of years ago by just dumping potatoes that had gone, into the garden and in the fall had quite the haul of wee taters.
I like "Sophia" of Golden Girl status....carry my purse everywhere! LOL