I was very happy to find seed potatoes still available last time we went to Tractor Supply. We grabbed a 5 pound bag of Kennebec Whites, and today my son helped me plant them two ways.
Above, we cleared up the back end of our "compost corner", discovering some marvelous worm-filled mulch. I laid the potatoes with their growth "pips" facing up, then covered them lightly with peat moss.
I raked up from under the rabbit hutches and around the chicken coop and layered this hay and manure on top of the peat and potatoes.
Lots of loamy soil came up with the rabbit manure, since we've been composting dirty chicken straw under the fruit trees where they are for ages. I bet the potatoes will like that!
Finally, I piled on a bunch of soiled hay that had been laying out in the sun and getting scratched around by the hens for about a month, but still had its strawlike consistency. Then I gave the new Potato Patch a good dousing with water. My son set some stakes and ziptied on some rabbit fence as well as some latticework just for good measure. No hens or bunnies allowed!
Meanwhile, between the woodpile and the mini-pasture, my son helped me set up the potato container method. He drilled holes in the bottom of the large water barrel, then placed lava rock in both containers. He mixed equal parts peat, organic garden soil, and steer manure, placing seed potatoes in at the 6" level. Then he added 6" more of this mixture and soaked the containers until water came out the bottoms. Because the barrel is translucent, I had him wrap it with landscape cloth to prevent the sun from spoiling any tubers
Voila! Potatoes are going to potate two ways. Now comes the anticipation....
First, the green leaves will sprout from the surface. We will keep adding soil mixture to the containers--and soiled hay to the patch--as the plants grow 12". We also purchased a 0-10-10 plant food so the roots will get plenty of Potassium. Then the plants are supposed to get to work flowering, indicating tuber production underneath. Eventually, the plants will mature and die off. That's when we will finally dig up our bounty of taters!
We spent $6 for 5 lbs of seed potatoes.
About $25 on the soil mixture.
The rest was stuff we have lying around the shed. The rabbit and chicken straw is a constantly renewing fountain of fertilizer, lol!
There are 4 seed potatoes in the large container, 1 in the small, and 12 in the Patch.
I am eagerly awaiting the results to weigh out and see what our return is. I've heard that farm-fresh potatoes are out of this world!
Thanks so much for reading.
Love,cat
