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This is the challenge:
Maximize the yield of potato in a micro plot of 3 x 3 feet.
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| We believe that you can increase your yield (perhaps up to 99 pounds) in such a small area if the vines are grown in a container, raise the container as the vines grow taller. You need the optimal potato varieties and healthy seed.
Potato are cheap! Why grow garden potato? True, field potato are cheap (valued at 20 cents a pound) ... but potato tubers are like sponges! You really want garden potatoes, grown without chemicals, with edible peels. The benefits of eating potatoes with the skins include more fibers, higher trace elements, higher anti-oxydants (up to 90 times more), anti cancer enzymes. Organic garden potato can fetch up to $5 a pound at farmer's markets. Grow your own and save a lot! Click here to read more about the health benefits of potato. |
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This is the yield promised from a 9 square feet area. The container is assembled as the vines grow. You need to keep adding LIGHT soil (mixed with compost and leaves) as soon as the vines grow out. It's paramount to use light filling material .. especially if you water .. you don't want soil to compact too hard. Remember potato do best in sandy, lose soil. If you leave the vines exposed to the light for too long, they will stop growing stolons (the root system that connects the tubers to the vine). |
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The main concern is to ensure proper drainage - any container should have the bottom removed and sinked in the soil a couple of inches.
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Before you waste any of your time with "store purchased", modern varieties ... Be aware that to succeed with vertical growth you must use potato tubers that develop long stolons (the root part that connects the vine to the tuber) and possibly with tendence to develop upward. Be aware that this desired tuber development feature is counter-culture to what farmers want. Farmers, and for them the modern potato breeding industry, want tuber setting all at the same level in the soil for easier harvest and to prevent greening of tubers that may be exposed to the light, while developing above the soil line. Find a catalog with 281 different varieties .. see tuber pictures, descriptions and suggested recipes. Search in the description for TALL VINES and/or "long stolons" - "above soil line" .. those varieties are more likely to work best. Do you have questions about potato varieties, or any confusing information I may have typed? Please drop me a line. A Genetic Preservation Project with a Different Approach Perhaps a different approach to seed saving is to link specific varieties to your favorite dish, or your Grandma's recipe. If you can find the best variety for that specific dish, grow and keep saving it, likely your children and grand children will do the same.
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Please return to this web page to find the reports of yields harvested from container growth - both in bags or boxes. This is an ongoing project ... your participation and feedback is welcomed! |
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| The test of a hundred different varieties grown in bags in 2010 has shown that bags are NOT ideal for higher yields - unless you are able to keep checking on the moisture level in the bag ... constant watering is a must - in my opinion NOT sustainable for the waste of water resources.
We are ONLY interested in your results in boxes, towers ... containers with an open bottom .. which allow for deeper root system growth and natural soil moisture - no watering. Are you interested to participate in the Kenosha Potato Project? ... click here to learn more.
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| An other ongoing project focuses on potato varieties which set berries at lower latitudes - between 30 and 45° North. I suggest you Google "cities by latitude" to get an idea of different locations in the world which feature similar day lengths. The 14 - 18 hours of day length are essential for potato vines to form berries.
For instance, Austin, TX at 30° N latitude only has more than 14 hours of daylight for just one month (between June 4 and July 8th) ... while San Francisco is located at 37.5° and features 14 hours from May 8th to August 4th (with a peak just shy of 15 hours). We need to go to Milwaukee at 43° to reach a June day length of 15:22 and a period of long light stretching from early May to mid August. Juneau, Alaska and Scotland have similar latitudes at 58° ... that's how far North you need to go to reach into the 17 - 18 hours of daylight May to August. Obviously one potato variety which sets berries in Scotland MAY NOT set any berries in Austin, TX nor in San Francisco ... but could set berries in Milwaukee? OK now, I just found a report that seed berries are found on potato vines grown in Eastern Ethiopia .. that's 8° N latitude ... I bet they never get to 13 hours of daylight, but high altitude makes a difference! So, the pollination factors are complex! Please read more on growing potato with TPS ... and report back your success stories
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| Wanted: Potato Gardeners
If you'd like to participate with the Kenosha Potato Project - here are your options:
Please join us on Facebook - search for Kenosha Potato Project |
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| web page updated: March 2011 | |||||||||
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