March 17th Potatoes

I heard that today, St Patrick's Day, was a good date to plant potatoes.

I am using a rubble sack, actually a sack made of woven plastic that I think originally contained 50 lbs of grass seed. It measures about 15 by 15 and almost 30 inches tall. I rolled the top edge down by half and then by half again, then filled the bottom with about 5 inches of really wet Mel's Mix, unfortunately this lot of Mel's Mix was unprotected in the wheelbarrow and we have had over 8 inches of rain already this month.

I had four grocery store baby yukon gold potatoes purchased some time ago, that had been left in a net bag and each had at least one sprout that was about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long. I did cut two of them in half as those each had two sets of sprouts. Then the six pieces of sprouted potatoes were placed in the rubble sack over the 5 inches of MM, covered with another 5 inches of wet MM and now I will hope for the best.

If I find some seed potatoes for those all purple potatoes, I will try them in another container of some sort. We don't eat a lot of potatoes in our house, but the idea of deep purple and gold potatoes is enough to make me want to try growing them.


Rubble Sack of Yukon Gold. Hope they look like something more than a bag of dirt for the next picture

Looks almost like the potato bags that I just bought. Kudos! We don't eat a lot of taters either, but everyone says that once you have home grown there is no comparison, so I'm hoping it's true!

What an awesome idea! Now you need to snag a milk box to put them in so that it doesn't roll over when the top growth gets tall and wet.

AWESOME FBmom

Debs who has been so busy she just now cut up them taters. . . . but the guys JUST finished making and leveling box 6. They are taking me out for a load of dirt (MM makings) for my b-day (really...that is what I was hoping for). They tell me there will be enough to fill at least one if not both 4'x8'x12"s and the big pots and the potato tower Chris made for me last year. Wonder if I can talk them into picking up a bale of hay when we get vermiculite at the farmers co-op? Maybe I can sneak in a Rhubarb when we stop at the nursery.

Ray got a soil block maker for me. Now I gotta learn how to use it instead of just telling him how kewl they are.

Debs....who has peas coming up everywhere. . . .and hoping everyone else stays on subject, don’t wanna hijack the thread just because I’m so jazzed.

Thanks for thinking of the milk box, just so happens I know where some are. That bag might decide to take a walk or a tumble in the event of tall growth and Liquid Oregon Sunshine. (wish we had a smiley for big clouds and raindrops)

I just did a very similar thing in old wheat bags! I hope it works! Keep me posted

March 19. The potatoes I cut up on the 17th were ready to go into the ground on the 19. But, I didn't really have any fresh mix until then so no big deal. I am wishing I had done what Ander did, half of the Potatoes planted for traditions sake and the other half held back to plant when the moon is right....but hold on, they are supposed to go in just after the full moon. I should be fine; mine went in on the day of the full moon, soooo.

I would post a picture, but they look a whole lot like FBmom's bag of dirt...mine are big pots of dirt.

Deborah....dumb luck to the rescue ....again!

Caution: should you grow both yellow and purple potatoes, cook and mash them separately, the kids get a kick out of purple mashed potatoes. However, cook both yellow and purple together then mash them.....I'm here to tell you, no one liked the looks of the resulting dirty Army khaki green mash!

Nonna, Now that you mention it, even my husband probably would not eat potatoes that looked like that.

Thanks for the tip.

Furbalsmom wrote: wish we had a smiley for big clouds and raindrops

And look on page 5, there is just what I wanted It is just so appropriate for us in the PNW

I just planted my spuds this morning.... I used old tires and stacked two together, on top of each other.... filled them with soil, and planted the potatoes. I used the tires last year and loved them, when its time to dig 'em up you just pull off the top tire and ta-da! Spuds.....
Have a great day!

tracyjayne wrote:I just planted my spuds this morning.... I used old tires and stacked two together, on top of each other.... filled them with soil, and planted the potatoes. I used the tires last year and loved them, when its time to dig 'em up you just pull off the top tire and ta-da! Spuds.....
Have a great day!

Nice! That is what I am doing too....all I had to do was walk down to the creek and I came back with about 8 tires after only half an hour of searching. Retrieved from nature and put to a good purpose!

I had to grow my spuds in bags and containers last year and we changed the tyres on the car so we brought them home to give it a go.

I start two or three early spuds in the house in February in tubs because we can get ground frost until mid May. I put them outside during the day and brought them in at night until they were too big to move then left them out in a warm spot by the house wall covered with fleece at night - I picked my first harvest from them on 1st May.

In early March I filled the two halves of a large barrel to about 12" with multi=purpose compost and set five spuds in each with the tops 4" below the surface and covered with polystyrene packaging and a dustbin (trashcan) lid overnight...it was a case of using what I had not by design.

At the end of March I filled the tyres and put in a salad variety which is rarely seen in shops. That's the neat thing about growing your own, you can pick tastier varieties that are hard to harvest by machine or don't travel well which commercial growers shun. I've since read that the tyres could give off chemicals but the cavity made it difficult to firkle around and take a few spuds out as needed so I won't bother with tyres again.

I also tried growing a few earlies in plastic sacks but they dried out quickly so they needed more watering than the barrel halves. There's a thrill in picking your own as you need them and from garden to plate in 20 minutes can't get fresher than that.

Here are my yukon gold potato sprouts, planted on March 17th. I planted 6 pieces and have visible sprouts on 4, but they are teeny tiny. It is a dark, cloudy, and misty day today. Just wait until we get some sun.

Joy joy JOY! I just ran and had a look, I still have buckets of dirt, but you give me hope.

Planted mine on 15 Mar and they are about 2" tall. Except the one that is just now peeking through. But all 5 are coming up. YEA!!!!