While the traditional way of growing potatoes usually included digging deep trenches, filling in dirt every couple of weeks and preparing the soil through lots of tilling and double digging, there is a much easier way to grow potatoes. Using hay bales and loose straw as mulch, family gardeners can enjoy homegrown potatoes in the backyard with no soil preparation whatsoever beyond simply mowing the grass low.
Plant Seed Potatoes Only
Potatoes purchased from the grocery store are treated with chemicals to prevent sprouting - great for long-term storage and shipping the produce long distances, but bad for growing in the garden. Gardener should purchase seed potatoes that are from certified stock to plant in their home gardens.
Preparing the Potatoes for Planting
Prepare to plant the potatoes in the garden by cutting the seed potatoes into large chunks. Ideally you want to leave about 3-5 eyes per chunk with enough of the potato flesh to allow the plant nutrients to grow! "Plant" the potato chunks by laying them along the garden space in a row and then cover with a thick layer of straw or hay - to at least 6 inches deep and about one foot wide.
Growing Potatoes in a Bed of Mulch
As the potatoes grow, the roots will easily work their way into the soil, while the plant itself will be supported within the straw. Watering deeply when the potatoes are first planted will allow the straw to absorb enough moisture to support most of the plant's growth through the season. Gardeners will only need to water their potatoes in very arid or windy areas. To check for the need to water scrape away the layer of straw and see whether the ground is dry below.
As the potato plants grow and the leaves break through the stop of the straw, continue covering the plant with the hay mulch. This is called "digging in" the potatoes, except that straw is used instead of soil. Gardeners will eventually end up with a very deep row of straw, perhaps a foot or more, with the potatoes growing inside the large mound. The leaves of the potato plants will stick out above the straw gathering sunlight to help speed the growth.
Harvesting Potatoes in the Home Garden
Gardeners will know when it's time to harvest the potatoes when the leaves of the plants begin to die and turn brown. Once the leaves begin to turn, it is a simple matter to rake away the straw mulch and harvest the potatoes that were growing underneath all that time.
With this simple mulch-grown method, even young children can successfully grow a bountiful harvest of homegrown produce in the family garden.
Angela England - Angela England is a problogger, mother of four (yes I know what causes that), speaker, teacher, labor doula, gardener and so much more.
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