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Friday, April 6, 2012

Another Stab at Planting Potatoes: Step One Planting in Containers

Visit My Youtube Tomato and Vegetable Garden Video Channel: Videos About Everything Vegetable Gardening

Last year I made 2 mistakes. I started too late and I baked my potatoes by using green grass to cover potato growth. Basically the black trash bag and green grass began a compost process that raised the temperature of the cut grass to well over 100 degrees. In the middle of the heat was my potato stalks. Baked potatoes and not in a good way!

This year my old potatoes began sprouting in their pots. I took that as Nature's cue to plant potatoes now.

You basically want to plant potatoes 2-4 inches below the surface in 6-8 inches of soil when using containers. As the growth (stalks) reach 6 to 8 inches, you cover 1/2 the stalks with soil. You raise the soil up 3 to 4 inches every time the stalks get (as stated) 6 to 8 inches high.

The reason you do that is to increase the yield of your potato plant. Potatoes grow out from the stalk. The more you cover the stalk by 1/2 with soil... the more potatoes you will get.

Here is the planting step of potatoes in containers. Ill show the other steps as these grow. I hope.


Seed Potatoes from Walmart- The Rusted Garden: Gary Pilarchik

The seed potatoes have stalk growth on them. The reason they have so much is because they sat in my car trunk for 7 days. Who knew?  The container below has about 6-8 inches of fluffed soil in it. It is very loose.


3 Potatoes for this Container: Gary Pilarchik
Potatoes 2-4 Inches Deep - The Rusted Garden: Gary Pilarchik

Fill a 5 gallon container about 1/3 the way and plant a potato in the middle about 2-4 inches deep. Two potatoes would be fine... just space them out. The potatoes in the 5 gallon bucket probably will be smaller but this fine for baby potatoes. I am not a seasoned potato grower! One day maybe but the great thing about gardening is there is always something to learn. Advice is appreciated.


Potatoes in 5 Gallon Containers: Gary Pilarchik

VIDEO: How to Protect Your Vegetables from Frost: It Works Well!

Visted My Youtube Tomato and Vegetable Garden Video Channel: Videos About Everything Vegetable Gardening


What's Growing On at The Rusted Garden: Frost and Plans

Visted My Youtube Tomato and Vegetable Garden Video Channel: Videos About Everything Vegetable Gardening

 
Friday and Saturday night are iffy for frost in the Maryland area. Argh! I have plants to put out!

 
I just bought an external drive with 1.5 tetra-bytes of space. I remember when 1 giga-byte was something. At least gardening doesn't change too much over time. I will now be able to create HD videos and not have to worry about storage for years.

 
This weekend I hope to get a blog entry up on potatoes - that is the new vegetable I am learning to grow.

 
I will be making several videos on the following topics.
  1. How to Protect Your Garden Vegetables From Frost
  2. How to Make the Ultimate Garden Slug Beer Trap and Use Iron Phosphate
  3. How to Transplant Your Cool Weather Crops (Kale and Cabbage)
  4. How to Start Tomatoes Indoors and Transplant Them to Cups

 
And that is about enough...

 
Good Luck with Your Garden!