If you live in an area with poor soil or extreme weather try growing potatoes in pots. You can control the soil quality, move the pots before inclement weather and the potatoes are much easier to harvest.
I used fabric pots this year, but I’m transitioning to recycled plastic trugs. The sides of the fabric pots tend to collapse and make watering tricky; however, they fold flat and are easy to store. The fabric pots and trugs are around 11 gallons, enough to hold three potato plants.
Place several inches of soil into the pots and plant two or three seed potatoes. After they sprout and start growing add more soil into the pot, leaving a couple of inches of plant showing. Keep adding soil as the plants grow, which encourages more root growth resulting in more potatoes.
When the plants begin to die back it’s time to harvest. Dump the pots out and just pick up the potatoes from the soil. Much easier than digging the potatoes out and possibly damaging the potatoes with your fork or shovel.
Next season I’m going to buy organic potatoes at the store rather than ordering seed potatoes. I haven’t been impressed by the quality of the seed potatoes available in my area.
We had boiled potatoes with butter, salt and pepper for supper. Yum!
God bless,
Pam
