potato growing

Thanks all looking forward to later in the year when we can try them yumyum

 

Ive just discovered some rooster spuds have started sprouting in the bottom of the bag, im quite tempted to plant them, is it a good idea ?

 

No idea honey!

I planted my grow your own's yesterday. We had a really hard frost overnight - grrrr! hope they survive!

 

I do my potatoes mostly in large pots. I make tons of oak leaf compost and get buckets of sand from the beach and make the soil.

First I go to the supermarket and buy a one pound bag of tiny purple potatoes. I do not bother with chitting and just put 3 inches of soil in the tubs and bury the potatoes in that. (they are half the size of a golf ball and bright purple all the way through) when they grow up I bury them partially and do so till they get to the top of the pot about a foot higher up. Now they are all above the top and bushing up. I was given some red seed potatoes and did a pot of them too. (traded them for some purple ones) Also one 4 foot row in my raised bed garden done in a trench that I filled as they grew.

If I get a good crop I plan to boil them and vacuum pack them with a lump of butter and some parsley (garden grown) in meal portions and freeze as potatoes do not keep well here because of the heat.
I have sweet potatoes chitting on the window sill because one does not plant the sweet potato but removes the sprouts, then put the 5 inch long sprouts in a vase of water till they grow roots - and those are planted.

 

Starting the small purple potatoes in pots a couple months ago. I did not sprout them first, just a bag of them from the market - they are not seed potatoes. I then fill the pot as they grow and now they are above the pot rim.

The soil is 3 parts composted oak leaves (I compost 3000 lbs a year) to 1 part beach sand.