growing potatoes - help needed as do not have a clue.

[blondie14]

my ds1 is coming up 4 and i have found that if he helps prepare food he will more than likely eat it. we grew strawberries in the summer but not much will grow now so wondered if we could grow potatoes in a bin? do u just fill it full of soil and stick an old potato in there? how do u know when u can dig them up? as i said, i do not have a clue!!

any help gratefully appreciated. xx

[tooscaredtoask]

Yes you can grow them in a bin (with holes in the bottom). We used grow bags this year stood on their end with splits cut into them.

You need chitted potatoes i.e. ones with roots growing out.

Not sure if you can do your own at home - I bought mine from garden centre but presumably any potato would root if you left it somewhere dry/warm.

I believe you could grow them in a container in thee greenhouse in winter but not outside.

You have to wait for the pots to have flowered before digging up.

HTH

[missingtheaction]

Any potato will grow and you can buy ones now to grow over winter, but they need somewhere frost free and with very good light eg a greenhouse.

You don't need to chit potatoes before planitng them, they will grow anyway, but if you want to you can put some on the windowsill and they will sprout so you can see they are actually growing before you plant them.

There is loads of information on the web about growing potatoes in containers, but the basics are

• get nice tall big container like a bin, or a nearly-empty bag of compost or grobag on its end
• with holes in the bottom
• put abotu 18" of growing compost in the bottom, the potato on top, then about 6" of compost on top of that
• when the plant that grows is about 6" above the top of the compost almost bury it again
• repeat until you are out of space, compost or patience
• when the plant flowers, or dies back, or you are bored feel around for grown potatoes
• it will need good watering (not waterlogged though) and light and not to freeze

My favourtes are 'international kidney' which are the variety that make Jersey Royal potatoes - they are little so easy to grow!