Grow Potatoes in a BarrelGrowing Potatoes Can be a Fun Project.
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Growing potatoes in a barrel can be a fun family project. Help your kids learn how potato tubers form on the roots of the potato plant. Experience together the joy of providing some of your own food for the table. It is so rewarding to share in some easy garden projects that you can make and build together.
It' so much fun to see children discover that food does not come just from the supermarket. Best of all will be when they taste the delicious tiny new potatoes that they grew themselves. They are likely to decide in favor of vegetables once again.
Here is what you need to do to grow potatoes in a barrel:
- A container in which to grow your potatoes. This could be an actual barrel such as an old whiskey keg or other barrel. You could also use a trash can, either plastic or metal, or any other large container.
- Drill a series of holes, about six inches apart in each direction, in the bottom of the container to provide drainage.
- Put a sheet of fiberglass screening over the holes.
- Add about six inches of soil in the bottom of the barrel.
- Top the soil with a four-inch layer of sawdust.
If you grow your own potatoes every year, and set some of the crop for next year's seed, you're ready to go. Don't use supermarket potatoes as seed potatoes; they are treated with a sprouting retarding chemical and will not produce good results.
There are lots of commercial vendors of certified seed potatoes. You can order seed potatoes online or check with your local garden store.
Get your seed potatoes ready for your grow potatoes in a barrel project:
- Cut your seed potatoes into several pieces and make sure that each piece contains at least two eyes.
- Let the potato pieces sit for a day or two to allow the cut surfaces to dry.
- Take the "potato seeds" and push them down into the layer of sawdust in the barrel just far enough so they're covered.
- Water the sawdust but don't over-water.
In a few days you will find small plants sprouting up through the sawdust. Each time your plants grow a couple more inches above the sawdust, add more, mounds it around the plants and check if they need more water.
When the potato plants are blooming well you and your children can dig down into the barrel and feel the potatoes growing on the roots. These potatoes will be small "new potatoes". Gently pull some of those new potatoes up for a tasty treat. They are yummy boiled in their skins with butter and parsley sprinkled over the top.
Leave the rest of your potato crop in the soil and dig them as needed. They will rest there without sprouting for several months, insulated from the cold by the well drained soil.
Grow potatoes in a barrel to use in all your soups, stews and other favorite potato recipes.
Growing potatoes in a barrel is easy and fun. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
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Harvesting Potatoes
Storing Potatoes
Potato Bugs
Garden Tillers
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