Potatoes

I'm doing an experiment this year by planting my potatoes in containers. I've heard that the yield is a lot higher in containers, not to mention easier to harvest. I picked up three seed potatoes from the garden center and cut them up before planting. It's good to let them sit for a day or two to let the cut harden off, and I separated the three varieties with onions so I could keep them separate.

When I was time to plant, I got all of my bins out and made sure there were enough drainage holes. I also plotted out how many potato plants would realistically fit in each bin.

The best place for our containers is in the orchard between the trees. I set landscaping blocks down as a base, and then set the bin on top. The internet says to start with 4 inches of soil before putting your potato pieces sprout side up. Sprinkle sulphur on top, then cover with six more inches of soil.

I ran out of potting soil and had to run out and get ingredients to make more. I used a combination of peat and compost.

Finally sprinkle bone meal on top and water it in. 

This is one of my sweet potato plants with the bone meal before I watered it.

I ended up with three sweet potato varieties and three regular potato varieties ( kennebec, and two red potatoes that I don't know the names of). I still had some potatoes left from last fall's harvest and I thought, " why not give it a try? " So I cut up and planted one of those. Each bin is labeled so I can keep track of how they're growing! As the plants get bigger, I will add more soil to the bins to make bigger hills. As long as I can keep up on watering them and pests aren't too bad, I should have a pretty decent harvest.