Potatoes

About a month ago one of the local garden experts on the radio here in Kansas City was talking about growing potatoes in a pot. This brought back a lot of memories of planting potatoes growing up. But we didn't grow them in a pot. Anyway one of the local hardware stores that this expert promotes was selling a kit to grow your own potatoes. I checked it out and all that it was a large plastic tub, a bag of potting soil and a seed potato for 19.99. That seemed a little high to me and since I had an old flower pot I had picked up from someones garbage and an old potato that was starting to grow I figured I could get some potting soil and save about 15.00. So here are the pictures of what I have done so far.

I put a about four inches of potting soil in the bottom of the pot. Cut the potato so that I had four pieces with sprouts on them. Laid those on top of the soil and covered with a couple of inches of soil. Now it is a waiting game. But as I under stand it as the sprouts come up I will have to keep adding soil until the soil is a couple inches from the top. This will the plant can grow potatoes all along the stem from the bottom of the pot to the top. The only mistake I have made is waiting too long to plant my potato. The general rule around this part of the country is to plant them on St Patrick's day. Not sure the history on why you plant them then but I would think it has something to do with them growing better when it is cool.