My daughter, Summer, loves potatoes in any form, whether grilled, roast with our fresh herbs, mashed for pot pies, or steamed.
So I decided to try planting our own in the outdoor apartment’s gardens.
We choose small to med sized potatoes rather than large Russet potatoes for our first trial.
The larger potatoes may need a long cooler season than our weather.
To plant, we prepared to age potatoes for their “seeds” by simply placing store-bought potatoes in an airy place until “eyes” form.
The eye first appeared as a small indent on the skin. Green shoots will grow from the eye.
We divided parts of potatoes with eyes for planting instead of leaving them whole to plant because we are growing in containers instead of grounded.
In places where there is land to plant, most gardeners plant them whole.
On each cut slice, there can be more than one eye.
Roots also showed from the top of the slice.
The green shoots would grow leaves and roots grew in mass after 3 weeks.
STAGES of POTATO SEEDLING
Each potato slice with the eye is planted in soil with green shoots (eye part) facing upward.
It will be lightly covered with soil.
TIP – DO NOT over-water as it will rot
Stage 1 – From slice to planting in soil.
Ideally, it should be planted in deep wide pot from the start rather than containers like these to avoid transplant stress.
TIP – PLANT IN DEEP POT FROM START
Stage 2 – New leaves showed.
From the top view, the seedling still appeared small, but roots mass grew aggressively inside the soil.
Water when soil is dry only.
Stage 3 – One-month-old
At this stage, it is safe to water more.
If it is still in small containers, the plant should be transplanted into deeper wider pot else potatoes will not form.
Left in roots bound state, more leaves will brown.
Once transplanted into bigger pot, these plants become hardy and they grew without much fuss.
Harvest time is about 4 to 5 months.
Planting in above PET bottles were not ideal for potatoes.
We used them as incubators for school workshops to observe how they start their journey.
In our own gardens, we planted from slice part to big deep pots from the start.
We preferred well-draining soil with our own compost.
There is about four-inch of soil at the base of the pot before we plant.
As they grow, we topped up good compost every 2 weeks as they drew nutrients from the top.
Plants in soil.
Potatoes typically can be harvested in 4 months’ time.
The moment when we plant our slice of “eyes” in soil Video !
Schools’ Projects – Potatoes in DIY incubators were prepared so that its journey can be observed in these transparent containers.
No effort was spared to make sure every child has the pleasure of caring and learning from each baby plant.
Thanks for the info and sharing👍