GARDENING: GROWING YOUR OWN POTATOES
This subject has been covered before but as there is more than one way to skin a proverbial cat, similarly there is more
than one way of growing potatoes in containers. Additionally, quite a few of you ardent gardeners have requested information on this.
Potatoes are one of the most popular vegetables and as home-grown ones beat commercially-produced ones in taste, they are also one of the top five vegetables people like to grow for themselves.
If you don’t have ground space, potatoes can easily be grown in pots and containers
Not everyone though is lucky enough to have a proper place to grow them in but, happily for all concerned, they can be very successfully grown in a wide variety of containers placed on verandas, balconies, along driveways, in courtyards and also on rooftops. Here, friends and gardeners, are suggestions on how to go about it.
The container: Potatoes must have adequate space in which to develop their root system and plants must have plenty of air circulation if potential problems such as blight and mildews are to be avoided.
Keeping these requirements in mind, the perfect container for just one potato plant should measure approx 18 to 24 inches across (not in diameter but directly across), be 24 to 36 inches deep and have lots of drainage holes in its base.
Furthermore, the container should be placed on bricks or something similar, to create a space between the bottom of the container and the ground surface beneath: this helps ensure that the drainage is unobstructed.
There is absolutely no need to spend huge amounts of money on specially-designed buckets, etc. If you don’t have something suitable/recyclable on hand, large black bins — the strongest ones you can find to enable reuse time after time — are perfect.
Growing medium: An ideal mixture is 25 percent sweet earth, 25 percent organic compost, 25 percent old, well-rotted, preferably organic, manure and 25 percent chopped straw (bhoosa). Combine these together and, as only part of it is initially used, keep a sack handy to store the rest until it is needed.
Planting: Place a layer of the mix — about six inches deep — in the base of the container. Sit a single potato, medium to large in size and preferably already beginning to sprout, in the centre of this, sprouts facing upwards as much as possible, and cover with just another four inches of the mix. Water it but do not flood it: the soil should be moist but not overly wet. Keep the container in full sun to very light shade.