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I just had to post some good news on an experiment. I had gotten some purple potatoes, not sweet potatoes regular potatoes, from Abundant Life, and didn't get around to using them before they starting to sprout eyes. So I got two buckets filled with several inches of cinder and compost and planted them not expecting much. I noticed they looked like they were dying yesterday, and on further inspection saw purple bulbs emerging. I started digging and found, WALA! lots of yummy potaotes. I can't believe how many potatoes formed from that small amount I had planted. This is at 2000 feet in Mountain View. It didn't take very long either, maybe 5-6 weeks?
I wish I knew the variety, I'll have to look next time I'm there. I'm going to save a few and let them sprout and try again.
Aloha, Angela
Aloha,
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If you want even more potatoes, you can make "liners" I think they are called. Put your sprouting potatoes in some compost, cinder or some sort of light moist covering and let them sprout. When the sprouts get six to ten inches long and have a few roots at one end, break them off the potato and plant them. The potato will then sprout more.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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Years ago I too planted sprouted potatoes, and much to my surprise they grew lots of little ones. I cut the sprouted potatoes in 1/4 or 1/8, so that each sprout had a cube of potatoe with it. Planted them in the center depression of little mounded holes. About 3 months later, when the green tops wilted back, we got out the pitch fork and dug up the potatoes. Fun and successful. Sounds like you're enjoying it Nalu!
mella l
mella l
Art and Science
bytheSEA
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How long can you leave potatoes in the ground here after they have matured? Seems like in Idaho they could go back through the fields by hand a couple of months after the picker went through to get good potatoes for cheap. Easy storage until you're ready for more of them in your house.
Royall
What goes around comes around!
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Royall, we are part of a group that gleans purple sweet potato fields for the Food Basket. Most of the fields here can only be gleaned for a month or less.... with the rains, bugs, weeds & such, after that it is a lot harder to get good potatos...
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That's good to know Hotcatz, I'll have to try that. I've been trying to get into saving seeds from local produce I get from the market and have Roma and Cherry tomatoes growing that way. It's been unusually dry up here lately, but over all I've had better luck putting things in containers rather than the garden. When I dug my garden beds I put over a foot of cinders on the bottom and then covered with soil and compost, but it still seems like things get "water logged". I'm starting over by trying lasagna gardening. I put a bunch of newspaper down over the weeds and then cardboard and watered it down well, and have been adding chicken compost on top. I want to get some stuff in while we're in the dry period up here.
I love playing in the dirt Mella, it brings out the kid in me. Although I'm nine months pregnant now, so it's getting a little tougher to bend over..
I have something called varigated sweet potato I got from Paradise Plants about 6 months ago. It took over a portion of my garden, and I just started to dig it up to move it somewhere else and discovered lots of potatoes. The sweet potatoes have a white skin and a white inside. Has anybody cooked with this kind before?
Aloha, Angela
