Our personal history with trying to grow potatoes:
3 years ago - Husband and I have attempted potatoes on the deck of our apartment in a plastic "pot" type thingy we found at the nursery. Nothing.
2 years ago - The first year with the garden, we tried them in a felt container that was sold as a potato growing kit from Tagawa. Hilling (see video below) potatoes in a flexible felt "pot" was a challenge. Again, nada.
1 year ago - Put potato cages outside of the garden. Great concept, but this pregnant lady did not have the time, resources, or inclination to hill. Also realized potato greens are technically poisonous to animals. Violently pulled them out, pissed off husband, pissed off pregnant lady.
You are caught up to now. While I'm not as excited about the prospect of potatoes, hubby is, so I'm trying to do some due diligence and figure out how to make these bad boys grow dammit.
Step 1. I'm going to have a supply of hilling dirt at the ready. I talked to some random dudes at O'Toole's Garden Center and they made some dirt recommendations. Went with a 1:1 of compost and topsoil. Bags are by the potato cages.
Step 2. I have wire cages that serve as my potato habitat. For animal safety, these need to be covered with something to prevent dog-poisonous potato contact. I was thinking plastic, but dropped that idea because potatoes apparently like cooler temperatures, which is a perfect segway into what I call.
What the heck potato?! The Irish grew you, how complicated can you be?! Apparently the answer is very. VERY.
Problem 1. Potatoes do not like temperatures above 90. Ok, this makes sense for why Ireland working well right? Unfortunately, Colorado does experience temps over 90, not for months on end, but here and there. The garden is also in a very sunny spot, which does not help with that temperate thing. However, they can't be planted in ground that is less than 45 degrees. Potatoes are Goldilocks apparently. Not too warm, not too cold.
Problem 2. Potatoes need good irrigation. Too much water rots the potato, too little and they don't grow. Unfortunately, I meant to get the potatoes in the ground several weeks ago, but guess what? It's been raining every day for like 2-3 weeks, so I've held off. Now, this upcoming week, we are expecting temperatures in the 80s. So that's fun.
Problem 3. Potatoes are susceptible to various different plant plagues/bugs. Will put powdered fungicide on seed potatoes in hope of preventing plagues. We'll handle bugs if and when they occur. So far I haven't seen anything but aphids in our garden.
I hope to get them in the ground this week, along with everything else. The next post will be one long "this is what I planted" journal post.
3 years ago - Husband and I have attempted potatoes on the deck of our apartment in a plastic "pot" type thingy we found at the nursery. Nothing.
2 years ago - The first year with the garden, we tried them in a felt container that was sold as a potato growing kit from Tagawa. Hilling (see video below) potatoes in a flexible felt "pot" was a challenge. Again, nada.
1 year ago - Put potato cages outside of the garden. Great concept, but this pregnant lady did not have the time, resources, or inclination to hill. Also realized potato greens are technically poisonous to animals. Violently pulled them out, pissed off husband, pissed off pregnant lady.
You are caught up to now. While I'm not as excited about the prospect of potatoes, hubby is, so I'm trying to do some due diligence and figure out how to make these bad boys grow dammit.
Step 1. I'm going to have a supply of hilling dirt at the ready. I talked to some random dudes at O'Toole's Garden Center and they made some dirt recommendations. Went with a 1:1 of compost and topsoil. Bags are by the potato cages.
Step 2. I have wire cages that serve as my potato habitat. For animal safety, these need to be covered with something to prevent dog-poisonous potato contact. I was thinking plastic, but dropped that idea because potatoes apparently like cooler temperatures, which is a perfect segway into what I call.
What the heck potato?! The Irish grew you, how complicated can you be?! Apparently the answer is very. VERY.
Problem 1. Potatoes do not like temperatures above 90. Ok, this makes sense for why Ireland working well right? Unfortunately, Colorado does experience temps over 90, not for months on end, but here and there. The garden is also in a very sunny spot, which does not help with that temperate thing. However, they can't be planted in ground that is less than 45 degrees. Potatoes are Goldilocks apparently. Not too warm, not too cold.
Problem 2. Potatoes need good irrigation. Too much water rots the potato, too little and they don't grow. Unfortunately, I meant to get the potatoes in the ground several weeks ago, but guess what? It's been raining every day for like 2-3 weeks, so I've held off. Now, this upcoming week, we are expecting temperatures in the 80s. So that's fun.
Problem 3. Potatoes are susceptible to various different plant plagues/bugs. Will put powdered fungicide on seed potatoes in hope of preventing plagues. We'll handle bugs if and when they occur. So far I haven't seen anything but aphids in our garden.
I hope to get them in the ground this week, along with everything else. The next post will be one long "this is what I planted" journal post.
Comments
Post a Comment