Last year I tried potato boxes, but the plants all died. (post here http://singlemompreparedness.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-failed-potato-experiment.html)
A helpful reader told me I needed to dry the grass before putting it on. I still loved the idea of growing so many potatoes in a small space, so I tried again. Drying the grass seemed to work. The plants grew big & beautiful. I added grass, until I had 4 foot tall boxes with big beautiful plants on the top.
October came, & I decided to dig out the grass & see what I had.
Very disappointing! Out of the whole box, this is all I got! And they were all at the soil level, none in the grass like was supposed to happen. And they are probably smaller than if I'd just let the plant grow short & put the energy into the potatoes!
I've had many people tell me they've seen this work with tires. And I've seen more than 1 gardening video tell me you can grow potatoes in straw or grass. So I don't know why this didn't work. Very sad! There is one thing to be grateful for though! That I didn't discover this when I was needing to feed my family for the winter with what I'd grown. I can head to Kohlers today & buy 50 lbs of potatoes for $7. So I'll do that this winter. Guess next summer I'll have to try the old fashioned way! Unless anyone has a brilliant suggestion?
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI tried a similar method, the sack method, and had even worse results. Not one potato. Next year I'm going back to the tried and true, potatoes in the ground.
At least I know that one works.
Andrea