Friday, June 16, 2017

Container Potato Experiment Update

The potato plants had withered away, so I planned on digging them up  this morning.  I was not sure whether they had died from the heat wave that had gone through or whether they had died as a natural part of the life of a potato plant.  I dug them up and this what I've found. I'll share what I've learned from this budget balcony potato experiment.

In February,  I decided to plant the potatoes that I had found sprouted in my kitchen and the Budget Balcony Garden Potato Experiment began.

What I Learned from My Potato Experiment


On my budget balcony, I tend to move my plants around frequently, depending on how they seem to be responding to the amount of light they are getting. I have learned that potato plants are very brittle and can break easily.  I broke two of the plants during re-positioning of the container. In the future, I will place the container where I want it and leave it alone.

Due to these potato plants being more brittle than other plants, their tendency to hang over the edge of the tub, and my nosy dogs, I will use a tomato cage to keep my plants upright and off the floor of the balcony (and out from under the feet of my nosy dogs) during my next potato experiment.

After reading about companion plants, I planted green beans in the container also. The beans are doing great. I will plant them this way in the future. But, I will not start the potatoes in the center of the tub.  I will plant the potatoes more to one side.

Having the green beans so close to the potato plants made digging the taters a bit more difficult. But only a bit. I'll spread them further apart next time.

Other than the proximity of the bean plants, the taters were so easy to dig! Much better than my failed attempts in gardens in the yard.

In the future, I will continue to plant potatoes in containers.  I like the ease of care, lack of bugs, and had the best-looking potato harvest I've ever had.  I think with practice, it will only get better.

container garden - half taters, half beans

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6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful treat to have your own home-grown potatoes with your meals. Interesting to note what you learned by doing! Enjoy eating your first crop of potatoes!

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  2. Awesome to know that the potato experiment turned out so well! Good to keep a garden journal (or a balcony-garden journal) with lessons learned. Thanks so much for sharing! So, mashed, baked, boiled??

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  3. How fabulous that your container gardening with potatoes experiment was so successful! Your success is quite interesting to me. I would never have considered planting potatoes in a container myself. I love that we have all learned something new by your experimentation.

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  4. Wow! great post, Thanks.This is very informative post. Thanks for sharing.

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