We have all learnt something new and inspiring from our fellow bloggers. I, for one, have to thank one of the posts by a very talented
amateur gardener, Jamie, for this bountiful harvest of potatoes, I got in a sack.
Here, in my city, we use and reuse these flour sacks for carrying wheat flour. I bought four of them from my local flour mill. The guy was quite amused at the alternate use I was going to put his flour sacks to. After filling them with soil I sowed potatoes in it, and it was with the joy of a high school student whose science experiment has come right that I greeted the first potato shoot.
One has to keep the top margins of the bag rolled outside, so that when the shoots are around 8-10 centimeters long you can unfurl it and add more soil/compost.
I face a huge termite problem, and as a result the potatoes sown in the ground fail to grow properly. Sowing potatoes in a sack circumvented the termite problem effectively and as a bonus I did not have to worry about water logging either.
In a matter of three to four months, the potatoes were ready for harvest.
Here is a comparison: On left is the potato harvested from ground and the right one is out of the flour sack.
Imagine a life without potatoes, without all those seductive French Fries and Potato chips...scary, to say the least. No wonder, my daughter feels that I have hit a jackpot by being able to grow the starchy tuber in a sack.
Here, in my city, we use and reuse these flour sacks for carrying wheat flour. I bought four of them from my local flour mill. The guy was quite amused at the alternate use I was going to put his flour sacks to. After filling them with soil I sowed potatoes in it, and it was with the joy of a high school student whose science experiment has come right that I greeted the first potato shoot. 
One has to keep the top margins of the bag rolled outside, so that when the shoots are around 8-10 centimeters long you can unfurl it and add more soil/compost.
I face a huge termite problem, and as a result the potatoes sown in the ground fail to grow properly. Sowing potatoes in a sack circumvented the termite problem effectively and as a bonus I did not have to worry about water logging either.
In a matter of three to four months, the potatoes were ready for harvest.
Here is a comparison: On left is the potato harvested from ground and the right one is out of the flour sack.
Imagine a life without potatoes, without all those seductive French Fries and Potato chips...scary, to say the least. No wonder, my daughter feels that I have hit a jackpot by being able to grow the starchy tuber in a sack.
18 comments:
Thanks for the mention, Green Thumb. Much appreciated. And you're right: imagine a life without potatoes – the horror!
Thank you for sharing. I have a rather small garden, but this is a good idea for next season.
Grtz from the Netherlands
Albert
HomeAndGarden
The potatoes look appetizing! Are you growing any other vegetable by this method?One of my neighbours grows eggplants and tomatoes this way.
I, like you, have learned a lot from Jamie, GT. I should try this too. Do you buy the 'tato seeds? Or you pick 'em from market bought tubers with sprouts in them?
BTW, do you have the problems of ants (fire ants especially) in your garden? If so how do you manage them? Summer seems to bring them in abundance...
I am tempted to give it a shot myself. Growing potatoes in a sack is quite a novel idea and i see you have done a gr8 job here. Thx for sharing.
Cheers! Radhika
Wow! Great 'experiment', GT. Now why haven't I thought of doing this myself? We face the same problem that you do ... termites. Plus we have clay soil so everything just packs up tight and settles down like a huge boulder. Root vegetables havent been much of a success for me. I think I'll try it your way now.
What a novel way of growing potatoes. Did you get some potato flowers too? I just clicked pictures of a potato tree - belonging to the same family.
I grew potatoes in bags last year and they were great too! We have just planted our potatoes in Sydney - one bag for each of my kids (with their names scrawled on the bag). It got me around the problem of lack of space plus I didn't have to think about rotating crops from bed to bed. Lovely to find your blog - beautiful photos.
How wonderful of you to persevere and find success with your potatoes at last, in spite of the trouble with the termites when they had been in the ground :)
I love a happy ending...I can feel your pleasure at succeeding :)
...and the best is yet to come...the eating :)
In which part of India do you live? My parents live near Ranchi (Jharkand) and I was wondering if they could be successful doing this wonderful method there?
Thanks :)
That is just so brilliant seeing those flour sacks being re-used! Keep them well watered, I find that they dry out quickly as they are such thirsty plants!
Don't they taste so much better than anything you could buy? Good job.
I was going to ask you if you water them, and how much? I grow some of my potatoes in pots, but they were not very abundant last year.
I wish Ihad thought of putting some of my potoates in sacks. I would have got a lot more.
What an amazing idea! Your potatoes are the ency of many, I am sure. Thanks for sharing the idea. Probably could use the idea for growing other plants/vegie, too. What do you think?
Oh great, your potato looks young and healthy.
Just like to share with you a famous quote...
"The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven's lieutenants. " -- Shakespeare
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Oh keep up the good work. Happy to see them. really appreciable. We at purna organics sell the garden tools which are equally important for a gardener.
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