How to Grow Potatoes in a Garbage Bag
Historically, potatoes have only been grown on farms and in vegetable gardens with lots of space. However, even those people in the smallest of urban lots can grow healthy and tasty potatoes with the garbage bag method. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Chit your potatoes, which means preparing them for planting. You can use potatoes from your pantry, even if they have already sprouted. Cut potatoes into at least two pieces, making sure that there is at least two eyes in each piece. A potato eye is an indentation or spot where a growing sprout will form. Leave potato pieces out to dry on a paper towel for at least 24 hours.
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Prepare your soil mixture. The soil mixture must be light and airy to allow potato roots and shoots to form and grow easily. Mix potting soil with peat moss, vermiculite or chopped dead leaves, or a mixture of all of them. Fill a garbage bag 4 inches full of the soil mixture. Roll the edges of the garbage bag down to within 2 inches of the top of the soil layer. Punch holes into the garbage bag below the soil level to allow drainage.
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Plant your potatoes. Plant five potato chits per garbage bag, one in the center and four in a circle near the outside edge of the garbage bag. Plant potato chits deep enough to just be barely covered with soil. Water thoroughly.
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Maintain your potatoes. First, the potato chits will grow roots. This is a time when there will be little visible activity. Then the chits will send up sprouts. When the sprouts get 4 inches high, add soil mixture to the garbage bag until the shoot is almost completely covered again. Roll out the edges of the garbage bag to keep up with the soil being added. Water thoroughly. Continue to add soil mixture as the shoot grows to encourage it to continue to grow upwards. Water the bags regularly so that the soil does not dry out. When the shoots have reached the top of the garbage bag, stop adding soil and allow them to bloom and mature.
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Harvest your potatoes. When the potato plant has withered and the leaves have turned brown, it's time to harvest the potatoes. Dump out or cut open the garbage bag and pull the potatoes off of the underground shoots. Brush off as much dirt as possible but do not wash. Allow skins to firm up in open air out of sunlight for at least two days. Wash potatoes only when ready to use to prolong the storage life.
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Comments
View all 11 Comments-
WOW! Boy did I get shoots. I can't wait to see the results. I f good, next year prooves to be several potatoe bags. I LOVE potatoes/.
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I'm going to try this :)
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jenuinelysweet
Apr 30, 2010
Well, this is my first year trying this. I planted my seed potatoes about 2 weeks ago and they are already looking wonderful. I found these really great Contractor heavy duty black garbage bags that are up to 55 gallon bags (I think you can get 35-55 depending on what you want). i found them at Wal Mart where the big garbage cans are that you set outside your house. Anyway -- I put about 6 inches of really good soil with some peat moss mixed in into the bottom of the sack.. then i put my potatoes in eyes up and covered them up, about 3 or 4 inches, with grass that I cut from my yard that I let turn into mulch this past year. I went out tonight and they had green little plants about 3 inches above the top of the grass so I covered them with about 6 inches of grass again.. we'll see how this works out. I'm excited! -
love2garden
Apr 22, 2010
Great info! I'm going to try this technique this year. I've also heard that leaving the potatoes in the ground for 2 weeks after the plants have died back is a good way to harden them for storage.
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radicalsue
Dec 23, 2009
Great article. Clear instructions. I will definitely be trying to grow potatoes this year using these instructions.
