Planting potatoes in bags

One of the best gifts I think I ever got was a set of three bags that were designed to grow potatoes in. We’ve already had a couple of summers where we were able to eat fresh potatoes grown in our own garden, and hopefully we will see many more to come as well.

But I must admit it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be to keep on top of planting potatoes from seed. Our first harvest wasn’t bad but we didn’t get anywhere near as many potatoes from the three bags as we should have done. They were a bit sparse and not as big as we would have liked. Some of them literally fell down the holes in the sink, they were that small!

Someone we knew who had their own allotment gave us a nice tip that sounds gross but actually worked out really well. Instead of just watering the potatoes and covering them over regularly as soon as they started to sprout over the top of the earth, we added something else in as well.

Put simply, it was chicken pellets. It’s a nice way of saying chicken poo, and although it reeks to high heaven it does the trick beautifully. You just sling a handful on top of the potatoes and cover it with a bit of soil. I only actually put one layer of chicken pellets in last year and we must have ended up with three times as many potatoes. Suddenly, growing potatoes had become a lot easier, and all with the addition of one simple step.

This time I am going to put a couple of layers of the chicken pellets in. The first one will go in as soon as I plant the seed potatoes near the bottom of the bags. Then when the plants get to be about halfway up the bag, I will put another layer in. Hopefully we’ll get even more potatoes that way, and believe me when you taste them and realise how good they are, you’ll want to get as many as possible!

As you can tell there is a bit of trial and error involved in learning how to get the most potatoes out of your potato bags, but even this part is exciting to get involved with.

Once you’ve got your bags ready and you have a layer of soil in the bottom, all you have to do is pop the seed potatoes into the bottom of the bag. They should already be sprouting by this stage – this can be done by sitting them on a windowsill until the sprouts start to form. Wait until they get to about an inch or so in length. I tend to sit them in an egg box so they don’t constantly roll off on the floor, or get knocked off by the cat (more likely).

Just remember not to plant the potatoes too close together – three or four per bag is the most you should need (depending on the size of the bag). Also make sure the sprouts are facing upwards so they will continue to grow. Admittedly I think I went wrong here the first year, so it may not only have been the lack of chicken poo that reduced the size of the crop!

Once these appear it might be tempting to stand back and admire them, but don’t do it. Instead go against your instincts and cover them up. It will lead to more growth, and since you have a whole bag to fill you need to do it in stages to get the best results.

Keep a close eye on your seed potato plants every day. It seems to me that when you turn your back on the things they will sprout through the soil again just when you aren’t looking. Once they get to the top of the bag you can just let them grow until they are ready to harvest.

Usually when you feel the sides of the bags you will feel the potatoes as they are growing. This is a good sign, needless to say!

Once you are ready to harvest your potatoes you can do one of two things. You can either tip the bag over to search for the potatoes that way (but there is more clearing up to do afterwards) or you can reach into the bag to see what you can find!

I opt for the second method usually, but either way this is the grand finale to planting potatoes at home. You’ll love the taste of them, but there is nothing better than delving down into the potato bags to discover what you have grown.

Enjoy!