OT/ I've got growing potatoes in the bag! *edit: bumped for S/0 of "Fat and Poor" post

[NWP]

 With the insane popularity of last week's post "Fat and Poor...." I thught I would bump this up. Growing your own veggitables is easy, even if you have limited space like me...If you have no space, you can join a community garden, or just shope at the local farmer's markets..they even take food stamps!

I love veggie gardening..But our new home is a rental and we have very limited space. So I did some research looking into grow bags for potatoes. You roll the bag down, put a little soil in the bottom, and then place the seed potatoes inside. The potatoes grow along the stem shaft. As the potato grows, you add mulch and roll up the bag.

Supposedly, this not only makes harvesting easier (no more tilling the hills with a pitch fork!) but you can also reach in and pull new potatoes whenever you want and the plant will still continue to produce.

I made these bags with landscaping fabric and a stapler..hahaha! Much cheaper than the online version. Here is a photo.

Have any of you ever done this? If so, can you share your experience?

[NWP]

Potatoes are not restricted to day length..

You can still plant them, because I do know that the growing season is still early in most of the country. I am not sure they really have a season...at least here. I have put them in the ground at various times and it has been ok. But where I live now never really gets that cold.

I guess my response is...what do you really have to lose?

Quoting Susan0805:

I have a dumb question, lol. Ehen can you plant them? Can i do it now or isit too late?

[krysstizzle]

Yup, just add earthworms! It's the same way here, sand and no worms.

The set-ups I've seen have been simple. Made a square, the one I like used strawbales; lined with black plastic, enough to cover the bottom, come up the sides and finally cover some of the top. Dump your wet and dry scraps in with the worms, keep it moist, cover with old carboard. Voila! Beautiful black gold dirt :)

Quoting NWP:

Is that the type where the little red worms make the compost? I have seen that but never tried it. If we buy a house here, I may have to do that..Back in my old hometown, I never had to because the soil was swimming with earth worms anyway..Never even had to fertilize, just add some composted yard waste every now and then. I miss those wormies:(

Quoting krysstizzle:

They're looking great! Your raised bed looks nice, too. Gardens generally have to be in raised beds here, too. Nothing but sand, it can be a pain. 

Have you ever done a vermiculture compost? It's the easiest thing, and the soil turns out just gorgeous. I work on a farm on one of the pueblos here in the state. They have the best compost I've ever seen, and the worms do all the work; all we have to do is add the organic stuff and water. Once we get moved into our permanent house I'm going to start one. 

And I'm excited to hear how many potatoes you end up with !

[NWP]

The plants take about 3-4 months to fully mature, but you can harvest fingerlings, or new potatoes, before that. Supposedly, you can reach down into these bags and pull out the fingerlings and the plant will keep producing. I am going to try that with my big long garden gloves in a few weeks:)

Just remember to make sure and cover every potato. If they grow in the sunlight they turn green..and a green potato is actually poisonous! So keep them covered in mulch, soil, straw, whatever..

Quoting Susan0805:..

I have a dumb question, lol. Ehen can you plant them? Can i do it now or isit too late?