Growing your own Potatoes - Inside

What do you do with your old potatoes?  It seems like no matter how many we eat, there’s always a leftover or two out of the bag that end up being more sprout than potato.  For sure, some potatoes do go bad and start rotting, but the ones that sprout are just crying out to be planted!  We plant potatoes every year in our garden, we have a garden by our deck that only grows hastas that we plant seed potatoes in every year.  It doesn’t have great soil, but potatoes don’t need great soil, and after a summer of minimal effort, we get to go treasure hunting in the fall to find our potatoes.

This year I tried them indoors.  Here’s what I did:

1: Find the biggest planter you can find – make sure there’s drainage.

2: Fill the planter half full of soil –It doesn’t have to be super fertile soil, potatoes prefer sandy soil but in my experience potatoes will grow in almost anything.

3: Plant your sprouting potatoes – You can even cut them in half as long as there’s a sprout growing on each half.  If you have a really big planter, you can plant up to 5 or 6, but I wouldn’t really go more than that.

4: Water well, but don’t allow standing water, keep in warm sunny spot in your house – A south facing window is great for this.

5:  Keep checking for shoots – Before you know it, there will be a potato plant coming out of the soil.

6: Cover with more soil – This allows the plant to put more energy into creating potatoes below the surface – Repeat this until you have a full planter.

7: Don’t over water – To check to see if your potato plant needs water, put your fingers an inch or two below the surface of the soil to check for moisture.  Potatoes don’t need a lot of water or attention, and they will grow into a huge plant, quickly.  As long as the plant looks healthy, your potatoes should be growing well beneath the surface.

8: Check for potatoes – After several months you can start checking for potatoes beneath the surface.  If you find one that’s the size that you and your family like, you can dig them up and fill your larder, or you can keep them on the plant until you’re ready to use them…You don’t get much fresher than that!