Potatoes are an essential food for most households. And if you, like me, are on a journey towards discovering how to grow more of your own food, you might just be delighted to know that growing potatoes is far easier than you might think.
Initially, I thought that growing potatoes was a bit of an impossible feat. To be honest, I was intimidated by the spud. Then one later summer afternoon, I noticed that a number of potatoes at the bottom of a pocket I had bought, had sprouted shoots, and that these shoots were thick and green and not long and clear like I was used to seeing them.
I placed the potatoes in a dark spot in my pantry cupboard, and almost forgot about them for about 2 months. Then, when rummaging around for something, I rediscovered them, and thus started my learning curve.
With my experience, and some helpful tips from my Welsh uncle, I am going to simplify this mystifying crop so that you too can start growing your favourite starch. It is not that hard, and with a little planning and practice you can grow your potatoes successfully.
Step 1
If you have bought some potatoes for cooking, put a couple, about 3 or 4, to one side in a dark place. Keep an eye on them. Within about a month you should have some shoots (a process known as chitting). Alternatively, if you buy a big pocket of potatoes each month, by the time you get to the bottom of the bag, you are likely to have some that have sprouted. Take these out of the bag, and put them in a dark place.
Step 2
When your potatoes have shoots that have grown thick, you need to prep them for planting. Some people like to plant the whole thing in the ground, and you can absolutely do that, but I have trust issues so I cut the shoot off, in a sizeable chunk, and place it in a a small pot in a potting or seed germination mix.
Step 3
Within a few weeks, those shoots will have grown into long stems, complete with leaves.
Step 4
Now it is time to plant! Creating a little mound is a good idea although you can also explore planting in a car tyre. Personally, I just plant them straight in the ground.
Since potatoes grow under the ground, you will want to give them enough space to grow. With a mound of compost and sand, you can create the extra space your potatoes need to flourish. Build your mound at least 10 to 20 cm above the ground and loosen the ground beneath the mound too.
If you are going to just plant them directly into the ground, make sure that you loosen the soil (a lot).
Now, carefully remove your potato plant from the pot and plant it.
To ensure that your plant doesn’t dry out completely in our hot sun, tuck it in with some straw.
Step 5
Don’t let your potato plants completely dry out and try not to let anything disturb the roots (like a mole).
Potatoes are ready to harvest when the plant has flowered and died back. In some cases this is within 120 days of planting.
To ensure that you have a continuous crop, prepare a number of “seeds” and set aside a decent space for them to be planted in.
You can plant one row of as many as you like, and then a month later plant the next row, and so on.
