Monday, I posted my Loaded Potato Soup recipe. I mentioned we grew about 50 lbs of potatoes this year, but I didn't tell you how we grew them. Some time over the winter, I saw a Pinterest board about growing potatoes. There was a pin about growing them in feed sacks. I thought it was genius! No more digging and digging-just cut the bag open and potatoes would fall all around me! It was a grand vision. I had high hopes.
So when we began our garden we decided we would plant some in feed sacks and the rest in the ground. Both groups were hilled up as the foliage grew, and both were watered regularly. I poked small holes in the feed sacks to ensure good drainage. The feed sacks were unrolled as the plants grew. By late summer, I was sure we were going to have hundreds of pounds of potatoes.
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| Mid season potato growth |
When we finally opened the sacks, I was so disappointed to find only 2 or 3 potatoes per sack. We grew three varieties-purple, red and fingerling. There was no difference in the type of plant-each produced about the same amount. The plants put all of their energy into growing upwards. But, our potatoes in the ground went crazy! We were digging up potatoes for what seemed like hours! It took me about 2 hours to get them all cleaned and ready to be stored in the basement.
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| Washing potatoes is one of the most boring tasks. I should have pawned this off on one of the kids. |
I'm not sure what went wrong with the feed sack method. It's possible I didn't really read the directions on the post the image was pinned from. I've done that before, with disastrous results. Has anyone had success with this method? Any suggestions on how I could improve that method?
1 comment:
Growing anything in a container will stunt it's growth. I don't know if you remember the tiny peppers, cantaloup, and Whatnots I had that year. I've had better lunch when I've fed the soil and pruned the plant way down.
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