The Great Potato Project

It's finally stopped snowing and freezing enough during the day that I have been able to get out in the garden and PLANT! If you've read some of my previous posts regarding potatoes, you'll remember that this year, I'm growing potatoes for the first time. Because we have such icky soil here, I decided to grow them in containers after watching this video from the Farmer's Almanac website.



While I'm not using a trash can, I am using some large containers.



You can clearly see the smaller of the containers in this pic. The big blue square thing at the top of the pic is the 2nd container. It has 2 varieties of potatoes planted in it. The smaller containers each have one variety.

DH made the "sides" on the smaller containers, then we'll add chicken wire (poultry wire) to the top as we start going up with growth of the plant and the potatoes. Because the blue thing on the bottom has these HUGE indentations in the bottom where the legs are formed, we placed a layer of leaves on the bottom of the container to fill up the holes and to keep the subsequent dirt from falling through the vent/drainage holes. We then put about 6" of ammended soil in the container. I lined up my taters that I'd cut and dipped in wood ash over the weekend.



We then shoveled another 4" or so of dirt on top of the potato pieces and topped it all off with a very thin layer of leaves, just to help keep insulated against the still cool temps at night and to keep the soil from drying out too quickly during the day.



One of the really stupid things I did several weeks ago was move the potatoes from labeled containers to the egg cartons without labeling them. I just knew I'd be able to remember which variety of potato was which! Ummm....not so much! So now, I've planted my potatoes and the only ones I'm really sure about are the Kennebecs and the fingerlings. I have no idea which are the Reds and which are the Purple Vikings. The Kennebecs are planted on one side of the big container with what I think are the Purple Vikings. There's Reds in this small container (I think) and the fingerlings are in the other small container. Should provide some excitement come harvest time!