This weekend I harvested my first container-grown potatoes.
I’ve never grown potatoes before, and didn’t mean to this year. In late May, I was looking for something in a pantry I rarely use, and I found some potatoes I’d purchased and forgotten.
By June, I had gotten around to planting them in 1-gallon buckets.
In July, I transplanted the taters into a 50-gallon pot and crossed my fingers.
In August, I had a full and flowering potato plant and was growing anxious to find out if I had any tubers in my soil, or just matted roots and stems.
Once the flowers died, and the plant started looking scrappy, it was harvest time. The first attempt at pulling up the stems was fruitless, but as I dug blindly around the soil I started to feel hard little nuggets. POTATOES!! I only harvested a few, but felt quite a lot still growing. We are going to cook them up, and try them out and then leave the rest in the pot to use on-demand.
I’ve read that growing potatoes in a trash can or large bin is easy to do even in apartments, but it took a forgetful accident to get me to try it. Thanks crappy memory, this spud’s for you.
Lilikoi says
Nice crop!
Lauren says
Awesome! Turning lemons into lemonade! (and not to make you paranoid or anything, but make sure to check for green spots. Green potatoes can be toxic! eek!)
radmegan says
Thanks Lilikoi and Lauren
Yep, I keep an eye out for green spots, but my mom said that growing up on the farm, they would dig up potatoes, cut any green bits off and eat the taters raw after lightly salting them. Have not tried that yet
radmegan says
Update! We ate these first spuds last night and they were so creamy and delish! Gold star spuds.