Mutant alien eggs? No, these are potatoes that I found in my garage. They were left over from last fall! (It’s very easy for things to get lost in my garage! I’ve been planning a garage sale for just about a year now – a garage sale intended to get rid of 20 years of accumulated junk. I hope to someday have a place to put my car again.)
With these teeny little taters popping out, I thought I might stick them in the ground and see what happens.
I planted them in the one bed where there are a couple square feet that haven’t yet been taken over by the cantaloupe vine.
So….never having grown potatoes before, what’s next? Do you think they’ll grow? Will I be able to harvest them before frost? What should I mulch them with? Any tips/advice/cautions are welcome!
With these teeny little taters popping out, I thought I might stick them in the ground and see what happens.
I planted them in the one bed where there are a couple square feet that haven’t yet been taken over by the cantaloupe vine.
So….never having grown potatoes before, what’s next? Do you think they’ll grow? Will I be able to harvest them before frost? What should I mulch them with? Any tips/advice/cautions are welcome!
10 comments:
Potatoes are tough (as in hard to kill) - - but I'm not sure you'll have any by frost.... you usually plant them in the spring. However, don't be surprised if you have some next year in the place you planted these. As for mulch - use anything - we use straw.
w
I'm with midwestgreen. You'll have plants come up in early spring and will probably never get rid of them. I had planted potatoes in an out of the way area more then 3 years ago and they still come up. I was digging in that area just yesterday and found about 6 new potatoes. Yum. They come back if you are not diligent in getting every single potato out at harvest time. I mulch mine with hay or straw. They are fun to grow.
It would be fun for my readers to hear your potato story....and the outcome of your "experiment."
They will grow alright I think. Not only because you plant them but for survival... They will give out the last kick to sprout and to survive.
Good Luck
~ bangchik
Great idea. And I agree w/ everyone else. They'll grow. Yeah, I know that garage. Full o' stuff, gathering dust and crud and spider webs. Full of everything but a car.
We planted our potatoes pretty late last year. I'm pretty sure it was early August or late July and we didn't think we'd produce much. Harvest came around November since there were no hard frosts yet and we produced about 50 lbs of potatoes that lasted us till March. Don't forget to hill them for more production and you can start "grabbling" for new potatoes 2 weeks after the flowers die back.
Jen! I wish you luck with your potato experiment - since we've had such a cool and wet summer, maybe we'll have a warm fall (always hopeful!). I must say that I'm not sure I would have put anything in the ground that looked so... well... ugly!
I hope you get a great potato harvest from it though... Looking forward to reading about it later this year!
Hi Jen, hope you get some potatoes from those yucky looking things. (And sell enough garage stuff to get your car in the garage!) HA This was our first year growing potatoes, just harvested the last of them. We read that you should keep adding soil or straw a total of three times. But the other comments seem to say just planting them should be sufficient. Good luck!
Frances
Thanks Pam. Can't wait to GRABBLE. (love that word)
Viviane, it seems like August might be warming up a little (?!) Like you, I'm hopeful.
Frances, I've heard that too - about adding more soil. There's definitely room in the bed, so I'll probably try a couple more layers eventually.
What happened with the potatoes? Did they work out?
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