Potatoes

The Smart Pot has been my answer to the large amount of potatoes that I recieved from my sample pack.  Each pot allowed me to plant 5 seed potatoes in each pot and I should get around 25-30 pounds per pot.  Seeing as how I have 12 pots this means that I will have more potatoes than I know what to do with and they will become part of every meal.  Can anyone say potato pizza?

Well the smart pot works fairly simple.  It is a canvas bag so that means the storage is easy and it doesn't take up much room in the off season.  However when you are ready to plant just put it outside and open it up fill it up with a mixture of top soil and compost. I used a 2:1 ratio when filling the bags up.  Fill the bags about half-way or about 6 inches.  Then plant your seed potato about 4-5 inches down.  If you are unfamiliar with how to cut seed potatoes remember that each seed potatoe should be about the size of a golf ball and should have one to two eyes with sprouts froming from them.  

Once the plant shoots or the leaves reach about six inches fill the pot with more soil.  Fill up till just the top few leaves are still showing.  This will encourage the potato to create more tubers and therefore increase your garden's yield.  

You will need to continue covering the stem and leaves of the potato plants as they continue to grow.  Please remember that your potatoes will need water every week.  Pre-flowering stage they need less than one inch.  However during the flowering stage they will need somewhere between 1-2 inches of water each week.  After the flowers have been made the leaves will die back.  During this stage the plants should not recieve any water.  This will start the curing process for the potatoes to be stored for latter use in the winter.  

Potatoes are easily stored for long periods making them a wonderful choice for any garden.  But remember that there are hundreds of varieties.  Just not the three or four that you see in the supermarket.  So before growing your own check out all the different varieties to choose which ones will be the best for your household.