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

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.

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.

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.

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! )

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

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.

I've itching to get something to start growing. Never thought about eggplant but I thing I will give it a try. Saw a good looking recipe for veggie Lasagna, it just takes one fruit off the eggplant so would not be wasting much if I find I don't like it. I tried Potatoes in a barrel last year but they didnt do well it was way to wet and the soil I used had way to much clay I guess. I did get enougn to have a mess with fresh green beans, they was sure good too.

HAHAHA! Wouldn't that be nice? Just going to the grocery store and buying, not only healthy but also EXTREMELY relaxing potatoes! I've heard about the tire method of growing potatoes and it sounds like it's probably the easiest way to go about it... just adding another tire as the plant grows and filling it with soil. EVER so easy to harvest those potatoes, too! We have one, lonely old tire parked up against a tree. It came with the house when we bought it. (PERK!!!) Maybe, if I go rummaging around in some dumpsters, I might find another old tire or two! I started these potato plants now because I simply couldn't wait for Spring! I have no idea if it will work or not, but it's fun trying! They're growing so fast now that the first leaves should be opening up any minute. The bit of 'green' that I noticed yesterday has doubled in size and I can see the little leaves ready to unfold. I had no idea they grew so fast! I also recently harvested some cuttings of a varigated willow bush and have just started them rooting. If I keep this up, I won't have enough room to start my tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.! Of course, now that you mentioned that it's a good time to start eggplants, I'm going to HAVE to do that today. I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to start my tomato and pepper seeds, either, since they are in the same 'family'. I already have celery seeds started but they take SO long to germinate (14 to 21 days)! I'm getting impatient! You'd think tiny little things like celery seeds would germinate quickly, huh? I've ordered seed potatoes of every variety imaginable! Well, almost. I will be attempting to grow white and yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, and red, blue and purple potatoes which have the color throughout. THOSE should make some interesting potato chips and potato salad, mashed potatoes, french fries, etc., you think? LOL (Cooking them only fades the color a tiny bit so they'll retain most of their color; at least that's what they tell me.) My son is going to help dig the 'potato patch', then build me a frame so I will be able to add soil when needed. Just how tall are these things supposed to get? I might just have to start another compost bin!

Manleyjoe, I've grown eggplants for a few years now and have a great recipe for stewed tomatoes and eggplant. It was that recipe that made me start growing eggplants. I've always loved stewed tomatoes (got that from my dad) and, when searching for a recipe to make my own, I came across the tomato/eggplant recipe and bought an eggplant to give it a try. I LOVED it! I highly recommend you giving eggplants a try. It's really cool to watch them grow so HUGE in such a short time!

I'm so sorry to hear that! Sometimes it's the soil that makes them taste bitter and sometimes it's the weather. If it's too hot, too cold or too dry, they can taste bitter. There's not much you can do to control the weather, other than putting what they call "floating row covers" over the plants when it's very hot and dry to keep some of the heat off the plants. I DO have a pest problem, unfortunately. We live in the mountains. We have deer, geese, ducks, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, chipmunks, gophers, moles and occasionally, skunks. I'm going to have to dig around my veggie garden down about one foot and bury some closely-meshed wire fencing to keep out the burrowing pests, then put up a fence that's at least 4 feet tall to keep out the ducks and geese. I'm trying to built a barricade around our entire property and cover it with flower vines so the deer can't see my garden. If they don't see it, they won't try to jump over the fence. I keep the majority of bugs away by planting marigolds all over the place, around and in-between the vegetables. They really are stinky flowers so I can see why the bugs don't like them. LOL Right now, I'm going stir-crazy waiting for Spring! That's why I planted the potatoes in pots. I also have spinach and radishes growing on a windowsill and they're doing pretty good so far! Maybe you should give gardening another try. It is SO rewarding to eat food that you've actually grown. You'll just have to keep an eye on things, adding nutrients to the soil or covering the plants when it gets too hot and making sure they have enough water.

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.

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.

REALLY!?! Wow! I knew that kohlrabi likes cool weather but had no idea they LOVED winter! Live and learn, huh? Now, I'm EXTRA excited because I already have my kohlrabi seeds, just waiting for Spring. I'm waiting for March 1 to plant my cool-season seeds like lettuce, cabbage, spinach, etc. Our last frost date is April 30 so I'm hoping it won't be too soon. Maybe I should wait another 2 or 3 weeks. Aw, heck, I'll just go ahead and plant some on March 1, then plant more in the middle of March, then the end of March, etc. I can never get enough green leafy veggies. I'm most definitely a salad lover, or "rabbit" as my son calls me. Good luck with your garden! Let me know how your kohlrabi turns out!

I agree! When I see those new little plants starting to grow, it's almost as exciting as holding your newborn baby for the first time. At least, that's how it feels to me. There's only one thing better than growing your own food... EATING it! LOL

Haha! I might just have enough potatoes to share with ALL my friends here at myLot! I would LOVE to invite everyone to my house to share my bounty, assuming everything grows well. I do have a green thumb and can grow most things. Some people don't. No big deal... you can just make lots of friends who DO grow their own vegetables and eat theirs!

Please do take pictures and keep us posted on how they all grow. You shouldn't have much trouble with critters unless something just wants to dig in the soft dirt.

Yeah, I feel kinda stupid for ordering the white and yellow seed potatoes now because they're abundant in every grocery store! I think I've found out why all the gardening books and websites recommend buying seed potatoes over the ones you get from the store: they coat them with something or other, which helps to keep disease out and also prevents them from rotting. Other than that, I can't see any difference whatsoever! I should have just stuck with the colorful ones when buying them. I've never seen blue, red or purple potatoes in the grocery stores... at least not the ones with the color that goes all the way to the middle of the potato! So, buying them I can justify but not the ones my husband calls "normal" potatoes. Live and learn, huh? I've GOT to get photographs! My little green shoots have grown 3 times bigger than when I first noticed them and the leaves are beginning to uncurl. I know I'll definitely take pictures of my red, blue and purple ones to share with everyone here. I'm assuming they'll grow despite my lack of knowledge and experience and also assuming I can keep the wildlife away! LOL

I hope you're right about the critters! We live in mountain country and have quite a variety of wildlife here: deer, geese, ducks, rabbits, chipmunks, gophers, squirrels, moles, voles, opossums and an occasional skunk! I've been told that black bears are occasionally seen around here but I haven't seen any since me moved here in May 2007. I do plan to dig down about a foot and place... oh, man, can't remember what that stuff is called... wire with 1/4" mesh... below the soil line and one foot above it, then surround everything with chicken wire. SOMETHING ate all the fruits I had growing on my peach trees last year (probably squirrels) and I've lost quite a lot of leaves and smaller stems from some of my bushes and young trees (probably deer). I want to fence in our entire property one of these days, but we have 3 1/2 acres and very little "spending money" so I'll have to do that a little at a time. For now, I'll have to barracade only where I'm growing things and hope for the best! I DID spray last year for grubs because we had quite a problem with Japanese Beetles and other vegetable-loving bugs. I don't want to spray my plants with chemicals so I do what I can during the growing season to keep them off the plants.

Hahaha! Don't worry about that! If I get a nice batch of potatoes out of this, I'll announce it very LOUDLY in myLot!

Thank you, laglen! And congrats to you, too! You sound like me. I usually start my seeds too early and the plants get root bound before it's warm enough outside to transplant them. If you can, try putting each of them into a larger pot. That should help to keep them going until you can plant them outside. I'm going to be starting my tomatoes, eggplants and peppers today. (Actually, I'd better tear myself away from myLot long enough to do it! LOL) Our last freeze date is April 30, so I have time but not the patience! Maybe I'm so VERY eager to get started because this winter was particularly cold. We're now getting just enough really nice days to make it feel like the weather is teasing us!

Potatoes are really easy to grow, at least I think they are! I've ordered 'seed potatoes' but couldn't wait to get started, so I took an old potato I had in the kitchen and cut it up. You have to have at least one 'eye' to each piece you plant. Then, you have to let them sit for a few hours to scab over (so the raw part of the potato won't rot in the soil). Then, just poke them in the dirt! If you plant them outside, you need to dig down about a foot or so to loosen up the soil and add compost so the soil won't get packed down too hard. Mine is planted in a pot, so that's not a problem. Once they start to grow, you need to keep adding soil around the stem of the plant. The new potatoes will grow from the stem. I'm not entirely sure how tall these plants get since I'm very new at this, myself. After a couple of months, dig down and check to see how large your new potatoes are. If they are big enough to suit your needs, you can harvest them right then. If they're too small, wait another month and check again. Pretty easy, really. You can also do an internet search for growing potatoes. I'm sure there are dozens of sites with instructions by people with a lot more experience than I have! If you do try it, good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Hello, hyroll and welcome to myLot! I hope you enjoy it here as much as I do but, be careful! MyLot is addicting!!! Thank you for the compliment! I'm so very tickled with myself, growing potatoes in pots! LOL I have no idea if it will work or not, but I'm certainly enjoying the attempt!