Potato Growing Hack to Double Harvests
Tips, Tricks
potatoes are one of my favorite crops to grow and harvest in my urban garden. Today I am going to show you how I grow my potatoes and double my harvest without having to increase the number of grow bags or space needed. I start my potatoes in grow bags in the garage usually 4 weeks before the last frost usually in early April. I fill the bags with 1/2 potting mix and 1/2 compost. The compost feeds the plants while the potting mix holds water. I fill them 3/4 the way full. I then toss a whole seed potato in the soil and just cover it completely. If the eyes are large enough I allow some of the eyes to poke above the soil. Those eyes will form the plant. The extra bag is fairly easy to roll down helping to prevent shading the early growth. it is important to start your potatoes as early as you can in order for this method to work. During the day I bring the potatoes out onto the drive way returning them at night until the last frost. Once the threat of frost has passed I put them in the garden area. When the plants are 30cm or 12 inches tall I add more compost and potting soil to mound them. This protects the potatoes growing below from greening which ruins them and can cause irritation if eaten. I don't fill the bags however all of the way though and you will see why in a minute. Before I get to the tip to double the potato harvest I would like to speak about potatoes in general. Most seed potatoes you can purchase such as these Rosemarie, which are pink and Purple Magic are determinant varieties. What that means is you plant them and they put on one crop all at the same time. The rosemarie potatoes are a faster producing than the purple magic helping me spread the harvests out. I should be able to harvest these from Mid-July through to late September. In order to spread out the harvest and double up on crops I have done a few things. The first is doubling up on the crop I get per bag. These two varieties are determinant so the first plant I just hilled will only produce one crop below where we hilled up the soil. Meaning you can plant another seed potato above the first effectively allowing you to double up your plants per container and hence the harvest. So when hilling I don't fill the bags all the way and plant the second seed potato again with some eyes pointing up. After these plants grow I will top off the containers. I dont do this with all of my potato bags. In fact I chose these 11 litre or 3 gallon 100 percent recycled fabric pots so that I can harvest them earlier than the ones I doubled up on. As you all know I love to spread my harvest out. It is time to harvest the double bags when the second plant begins to die back. This method can be done if you are growing your potatoes in raised beds or rows. Simply hill your potatoes and plant the new seeds between the plants. Container Potato Growing Episode: https://youtu.be/vVHADGKNx9M Container Growing for Beginners: https://youtu.be/TdIFU9301oE Check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlbertaUrbanGarden/
Comments
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would topping create more stems = more tubers
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Have you ever tried removing blossoms to see if you get a better or larger yield?
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BOB SAGGET! ROBOTS IN DISGUISE!!!
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beautiful!
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I love the channel, especially the potatoes video. nice to see someone with a passion for the garden. I have a start-up channel with a potato video as well, come check it out
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Very clever!
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That's awesome! Thank you so much for this!
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I am always learning something new from you ! Thanks for the tip about increasing the harvest.
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Pretty cool method, Stephen!
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nice share :)
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Wonderful! Thanks!
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Very interesting concept. Btw I have had the same thoughts that Mohammed expressed but I didn't quite know how to compliment you without possibly being offensive at the same time. lol
I grow my potatoes in 30L nursery pots and also fabric grow bags. I am fortunate in that I have plenty of space so I have about 30 pots. Dan of Allotment Diary was my inspiration as he manages to grow 10lbs in a single pot! He buries the pots about 3" in the ground so the roots can escape and search for more water and nutrients in the ground, yet the advantages of growing in pots is retained.
Last year was my first try and it was quite successful, some of my potatoes were huge, so this year I have expanded 'my operation'. :) I planted some pots very early with early varieties and I brought them inside and back outside until the last frost. They should be ready to harvest in early July. I followed those with mid season and late varieties (Kennebec and Yukon Gold). I am growing 9 different types of potatoes in order to choose a favourite early, mid and late variety.
Keep the great videos coming! How are your Aunt and Uncle, have they returned home? -
Hey I watch your videos occasionally and appreciate the time and effort you put in. I have a question though I build raised beds and I have them sitting on my deck. After I was done building the beds I had to figure out how I would contain the soil from the bottom so I used hardware cloth and landscape fabric to hold the soil in the beds. My concern is that when I water the plants the soil absorbs the water instantly, and it drains from the bottom. Thats not to say even half of the water leaks out, just quite some amount. Does that mean that my soil is good in retaining and draining water. P.S i used 1/3 compost 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 vermiculite. Thanks!
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Thumbs up!
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You look good, Stephen!! Great short vid! Didn't know about determinate vs indeterminate!
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Great tips buddy, and must say you're looking slimmer and trimmer (can I have a few tips on that too?).....
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Your looking thinner this year, must be all those vegetable's. 😎👍
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Great idea Stephen.
Cheers
Harold -
Great tip!
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Clever! I sure will try this out and double my potato harvest. Ta for the tip my friend.
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