I grew my best potato crop ever this year - which means that I actually had enough potatoes for a meal for my potato loving family. After all, central New Mexico is not exactly potato country.
Last year, as I was driving near my husband's office I saw a trailer load of large wooden boxes with a sign that said "free" on them. They had been used to ship bottles of wine from France. I loaded one of the boxes into my car - that is all that would fit - and called my husband to ask him to bring more when he came home. Unfortunately he forgot or we might have had enough potatoes for more than one meal.
When I got the box home and out of the car I lined it with a piece of old pond liner I had gotten from our neighbors when they replaced their pond with a playground for their 3 toddlers. In March I put about a foot of soil in the bottom and planted two Yukon Gold and two Peruvian purple potatoes. As the potato plants started to grow I continued to put additional light potting soil into the box. Whenever the potato plants were more than four inches above the soil level I add more soil, until the box was full of soil and the potato plants were hanging over the edge.
The box is on the patio right next to the summer location of my potted ginger plant and some other things that needed to be watered regularly, so I managed to keep the potato box moist enough. Potatoes do not particularly like our hard, dry alkaline soil, so the combination of potting soil and regular water is, I think, what made all the difference.
Yukon Gold and Peruvian Purple being early maturing potatoes the plants dried up in midsummer. The soil was so loose I was able to dig them with my hands. I brought the larger ones inside and cooked them for dinner. I removed most of the soil from the box and replanted some of the smallest potatoes for a fall crop. They are now coming up and I am hoping for a second meal of potatoes at the end of the summer. In the meantime, we are on the lookout for more wine crates in which to plant more patio potatoes.
Potatoes can also be grown in a stack of tires. Plant a potato in the ground and put an old tire around it. When the plant is taller than the tire fill it with soil and add another tire. Stack three or four tires then let the potatoes form. Harvest the potatoes by unstacking the tires.
Lynn Doxon started gardening when she was two years old. The had her own garden at the age of 8. She has a PhD in horticulture and worked for several years as an Extension Horticulture Specialist with the New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service.
She has an online course in organic gardening that is available at http://www.homegardenblog.net.
Her passion is that everyone, from the renter in the tiniest apartment to the homeowner with an acre of yard will grow some of their own food. She and her husband have the goal of developing an urban farm that provided the majority of their food.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynn_Doxon
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