grow, marvel, eat, laugh, persevere

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Garbage Can Potato Update

2008_0715image0003 Don't look now but I think there might be a potato plant growing in my garbage can!

A few weeks ago I posted about trying to grow potatoes in a garbage can for the first time.  I've never grown potatoes and I've certainly never planted anything in a garbage can.  I stole this idea from Marc over at Garden Desk

Well, just when I was ready to mark this project down as a total failure, I noticed this cute little thing growing in one of the garbage cans.  Is this a potato plant?  Please say yes! 

It looks like my success rate will be really low with this but even if I get one potato out of the deal I'll be jazzed.  I only see one plant in the garbage can where I planted the white potatoes.  No growth in the one where I planted the sweet potatoes.

Interim Lessons Learned

  • Buy seed potatoes early because they sell fast and the grocery store ones are harder to use because they are often sprayed with a chemical to prevent sprouting. (I used Whole Foods Organic ones)
  • Plant way earlier.
  • Figure out how to protect from squirrels (they've dug up a lot of the potatoes already).
  • Figure out how to properly grow sweet potatoes. According to a commenter on a previous post, you can't grow sweet potatoes this way.  I don't remember why.

Stay tuned for my July Bloom Day post coming later this evening.

4 comments:

  1. Yep, that's a potato. Congrats! I'm growing them for the first time this year, too, but in the ground. I think I'll try the garbage can method next year.

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  2. Why didn't I plant potatoes!? I am 'rooting' for this guy to really produce!

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  3. colleen - yeah, we can compare notes ground versus can!

    layanne - thanks for the encouragement - he needs it!

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  4. You might get enough for a meal from the one plant...I did from the one I've dug up so far. Many of us are on a learning curve here..!

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