Plant seed potatoes in a container garden, they said. It will be easy, they said. They are a pioneer crop that rarely fails, they said (see Potato Famine).
All the signs were positive for a healthy harvest once I had planted my seed potatoes in grow bags. Loads of flowers and leaves popped up in the grow bags. It was a sure sign of the plants setting potatoes. The leaf dieback occurred after the 85th day, so everything seemed to be on schedule. Alas, not all signs point to success.
Let’s start with the positive: I did grow some potatoes from each batch. Gold potatoes and Adirondack blues have joined our kitchen larder. As I started sifting, I saw big potatoes, little potatoes, and ones that clearly got lost along the way.
In fact, I started dancing when I saw enormous potatoes at the bottom of the grow bag.
Until I pulled them out.
And all I saw was rot. Beautiful on top; totally squishy on the other side.
Sigh.
Learn from my mistakes
Do not overwater your potato plants. If you do, they will rot. This means also adjusting your watering schedule after a soaking rain. My seed potatoes were already chitted, and I did not cut them in half, but they still rotted.
Ensure that your potato plants receive sufficient sunlight to dry out the soil and stimulate growth. Otherwise, you may water them too much, even if you follow the watering suggestions to the letter.
Another mistake you want to avoid
Don’t wait too late to plant your seed potatoes in container gardens (or in the ground). If you wait until April or start planting in September in certain climates, the heat may prevent your potatoes from developing, or the roots won’t be robust enough to handle setting significant amounts of potatoes.
While I did start planting our seed potatoes late, we didn’t face temperatures in the low 80s until last week. Still, something I will keep in mind as I contemplate whether or not I want to try for a fall crop.
My take
Overall, I wasn’t pleased with how things turned out. Yes, we grew more potatoes than we planted. But I’m kicking myself for giving them too much water and not enough light. That combination of problems pretty much guaranteed some rot. Lessons learned.