Oh, Happy, Happy Day! My potatoes are growing!!!  

Cool! Looks like I've started a trend! LOL Let's all keep in touch so we can talk about our progress and maybe help each other along the way.

Wow! Coincidence?

Yes, you have to make sure that each piece of potato that you plant has at least one eye on it. I think I planted them a few days ago... no more than three! My potato must have been itching to grow for some time now. LOL

I planted one piece per pot because you can get a lot of potatoes out of just one plant... they'll need plenty of room to grow. My pots are, I think, 3 gallon pots, but they may not even be big enough. I'm a novice at this myself! LOL

From what I've read, you build up the soil around the plant as it grows and new tubers (potatoes) will grow from the stem. I'm not sure but I think that the new potatoes grow pretty close to the surface and you want them completely blocked from the sun (or artificial light) because that's what makes them turn green under the skin and that part is actually poisonous. If they're kept away from light, they won't turn green. (Same goes for stored potatoes you buy from the store.)

Well, that's about all I know since I'm so new at this myself. If you do a search on 'Growing potatoes', you'll find all the information you need, except maybe for growing them indoors. I'm not sure if I'm the only one crazy enough to try this or not! LOL

Good luck! Maybe we can help each other as our potato plants progress!

Great! I'll start mine soon, I'll have to find a 3+ gallon pot or something..Big Lots shut down here so that's a cheap source that's gone. I hope you'll make regular updates and take some pictures!

Oh, yeah! Good idea!!! I'll take a picture of my little potato shoots now, then another as they get larger, then when I harvest my bounty (assuming that's gonna happen, of course)!

I've ordered seed potatoes already but they haven't come yet. I ordered normal white and yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, and potatoes that are blue all the way through, purple all the way through, and red all the way through. I'm going to have some interesting potato chips and mashed potatoes at the dinner table, eh?

My husband, the old 'stick in the mud', said he won't touch them if they're not 'normal'.

I wish now that my kids were still young because I think kids would ADORE eating purple, blue and red potato chips! Well, they ARE males, so they'll probably appreciate them just as much as when they were younger. (You know... males never grow up... it's a fact! )

I didn't know there was any such thing as blue, purple or red potatoes! My grown boys would love them, boys never grow up!

I'll look forward to the pictures!

That catnip will be around long after we're all gone... you know that, right? Anything in the mint family goes nuts once it's planted! LOL

I wish I could plant rice! We love both potatoes and rice equally but... hey! Wait a sec! I live on a lake! Hmmm...

Nah, too much trouble. Rice is cheap enough... as long as you don't have to have that instant kind. I'll just keep buying it at the grocery store.

I planted some lemon seeds a couple of weeks ago, just because. I bought some lemons and made some lemonade. I don't have the heart to throw out ANY seeds, unless they're from ugly weeds. (Some weeds are VERY pretty!) So, I planted them. Of course, I'll probably have the same luck you did. I'm certainly not an authority on citrus growing, living in zone 6b! But, I'm giving it a shot. Hopefully, IF they survive their first year or two, I'll have my sunroom or atrium, where they can grow much taller and get plenty of sunshine. I DO know that citrus trees need a LOT of fertilizer, especially when grown in pots. I learned that from experience. I lost a dwarf lemon tree, a dwarf orange tree and dwarf lime tree because I didn't fertilize them enough. Of course, growing citrus from seeds takes forever to produce fruit (around 5 to 10 years) IF you can manage to keep them alive that long!

If you try it again, remember to only water when the soil is dry to the touch when you poke down about 2" into the dirt and fertilize like crazy!!!

Will do! . The catnip is long gone. I can only plant in pots since I live on the second floor. I also get the HOT afternoon sun from 1030 til about 330. Its been a few years since I planted since all my now deceased pets used to go out on the deck with me. After my best friend Buddy(my dog) fell from there which caused unrepairable damage (she was almost 18) it is sad to even walk out there.

Awww, I'm so very sorry to hear about your dog. How horrible you must have felt at the time! I had a cat who liked walking around the railing of our deck (2 stories up) and I saw him just as he was falling below the deck floor. There was only concrete below and I was afraid to look down there. Luckily, he WAS a cat, and young, so he was fine.

I sure can understand why you don't like being out there! Why not start something in a pot on your deck and dedicate it to Buddy? It would be like a kind of memorial to him. Seeing something wonderful growing could be seen as Buddy living on through that plant.

There are all kinds of new types of tomatoes and other veggies, specifically bred to grow in pots. But, I'm not trying to get you to do something you're uncomfortable with... just a though.

Sorry... I meant "Just a thought" not "though". Oops.

She fell in the month of February and all the plants dried up of curse except for this one daisy that just kept hanging on. Buddy and I would go out there and look at it and I would think how can that flower live its like 12 degrees. So I would pick up little Buddy and show her and she would smell it. After Buddy fell that daisy refused to die and lasted through that winter, spring fall AND the next winter. Just one lone little daisy. Buddy loved snap dragons too so i might plant some daisys and some snap dragons this year for her and some catnip for the cats.

Well, if you saw just how many plants I have around here, you might not be so envious. I have to water them all! LOL Our house faces pretty much north/south, so we get great sun on the south side. The north side doesn't get much at all so I have the plants in those windows that don't require much sunlight like snake plants, philodendron, stuff like that.

Actually, I have no idea where to put these potato plants once they really start to grow! I'll be starting the majority of my veggie seeds in a couple of weeks so I'll need the grow lights for them. Maybe I'll have to let my tomato and pepper plants "share" the grow lights... 12 hours for the potatoes, 12 hours for the rest.

It will be a lot of work but my husband won't mind. (He's in the doghouse right now because he has yet to even say "Happy Valentine's Day" to me! No card, no ecard, nothing. All I got when I reminded him of what day this is was a token hug. )

I have to amend our soil here, too. Maybe it's because we live on a mountain... I'm not sure, but our soil leaves a lot to be desired. I've been composting a LOT so I should have enough for this year's plants. Last year, I bought compost. Every plant I've planted or seed I start, I've had to help the soil along. It's not quite clay, but it's VERY rocky! It's a lot of work, but well worth it.

Be careful what you wish for!

I ordered seed potatoes... a LOT of seed potatoes. White, yellow, blue, purple and red seed potatoes. Oh, I almost forgot... sweet potatoes as well.

My son has promised me all the muscles I'll need to plant my garden this year, and I intend to make full use of those muscles! LOL

I'm going to have a TON of potatoes growing! Well, that's the hope, anyway. I have to make sure the wild critters around here don't get to them first! I plan to be canning a lot of veggies this season. Canning, freezing and drying. I'll be making potato chips and can seal them up, canning German potato salad (I LOVE that stuff), tomato EVERYTHING (paste, sauce, spaghetti and pizza sauce, whole tomatoes, etc. etc.) and just cooking everything and canning it, or freezing it raw.

IF I get too much of everything, or if I run out of steam before I run out of veggies, don't be surprised to see a large truck pulling up to your house late this summer!

Do you want directions?
I'll be waiting for them.
By the way...will that be a potato truck to look for,
or you with your wheel barrow?
cd

You sound like me. I either start too early (indoors) and the seedlings get root bound, or start too late and don't get near the bounty I had planned in my head.

I might could hafta plant my potato plants outdoors once the weather has passed the last freeze date. If they start to get too big or I hear them saying "FEED ME!"... outside they go!!!

I'm trying so hard to work on a schedule this year. I try to plan for a few days of whatever needs to be done because it never fails that, if I pick one specific day to plant this or transplant that, something inevitably comes up and ruins my plans. Giving myself 3 or 4 days to do one specific thing ought to cover my butt pretty well. That's the hope, anyway.

Thanks for the BR.

I will send you my home address.

Thanks, Chevee. I certainly will keep you posted! I've ordered seed potatoes for this season's gardening, too. I may have overdone it, though.

I've ordered seed potatoes that are the typical white and yellow ones we buy in the grocery store, plus sweet potatoes and potatoes that are blue, some that are purple and some that are red, with their colors going all the way through the potato.

They just looked so cool I couldn't pass them up but I know I'm going to be overwhelmed with potatoes, assuming they grow as planned. LOL

IF I do get too many potatoes and can't give enough away to my family after canning and freezing what I want, I'll just have to send the leftovers to you! I mean that, too! We're all struggling financially... well, most of us are, but you are probably struggling more than most. I'd LOVE to help you out, even by a little, by sending you some of my bounty... assuming it's allowed to ship them to another state!

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Happy Valentine's Day to you, too! I know I'm a little late, but you know what they say... better late than never, huh?

Oh, did you get that email I sent you with that link about making money? I just want to be sure you got it because that one site appears to be really great for making a little extra money.

I got it thanks. I am already a member of that site if I am not mistaking I will send you an email just to make sure it is the same site.

Mint, I believe, likes partial shade to grow well. The potato I planted is under fluorescent lights and those lights seem to be almost as good as sunlight for plants. IF they don't get too big, I'll be putting them out on our deck once we are past the last freeze date here. If they DO get too big, I'm going to plant them in the garden when weather permits.

I have a bunch of seed potatoes coming so I'll have a section of my garden dedicated only to potatoes.

The older I get the more I learn about gardening and which vegetables need specific care. I'm very new at potato gardening, although I did have one potato plant growing last year. I planted it a bit too late so I didn't get large potatoes, but I did get a bunch of small ones!

I love gardening. I'm passionate about gardening. It's my tranquilizer, my sleeping pill, my therapy. I feel my best when I'm gardening, so I'm really excited that Spring is right around the corner.

Yes, sometimes life is just too busy to do things like gardening but I try to find the time because I love gardening more than anything!

I plan to have a really large vegetable garden this year and am very anxious to get started on it.