Last year was a terrible year for potatoes in the vegetable garden. We had a resident gopher (or more) that spent much of the summer eating at the Beavercreek Backyard Buffet. They took almost every potato before we could get to them.
So this year, I’m going to try planting the potatoes in grow bags and build a gopher-blocking, drainage inducing wooden deck under them using some old lumber we have laying around the property.
We bought five different varieties of seed potatoes at Portland Nursery several weeks ago. The varieties are listed below. We also had some small yellow potatoes left over from the back yard harvest in the fall. I left all of them in cupboard to chit for two weeks then sliced them in half, dusted them with wood ash (from the fireplace) and left them to dry.
- Belmonda
- Early to Mid Season
- Viking Purple
- Mid Season
- Arizona Gold
- Mid Season
- Raspberry
- Mid Season
- Huckleberry Gold
- Late Season
Today we put a few inches of 7-way garden blend in each grow bag, stirred in about 1/4 cup of organic fertilizer then placed 2 pieces of potato to each. Then we covered them with a few more inches of garden blend and set them down into the vegetable garden.
We’re also hoping to put a drip irrigation line with an emitter in each bag later in the season.
March 29 Potato grow Bags
Beavercreek Backyard Farm - Finale 