You can easily grow your own potatoes at home

It is pretty hard to find someone who doesn’t enjoy potatoes in one form or another. Potatoes have endless possibilities in the kitchen and enrich many of our culinary creations. And in light of this, wouldn’t it be great to be able to have an endless supply of them at home? Growing potatoes at home is actually not as difficult as you may think. So let’s see how it’s done.

The guide to growing your own potatoes

Before we begin, we need to decide on what kind of potato to grow. For the purpose of growing potatoes inside the home, we will want a breed that will thrive in a controlled environment and can develop in a container. Red potatoes would be a great example. Then we also have to choose the right container. We should be safe as long as the container is medium-sized and contains drainage holes.

Next, we need to fill our container with the right soil. If you can find soil that contains a well–balanced mixture of earth and peat then we should be just fine. After you have filled the container with dirt, we need to bury our starter potato. Place it in the earth just deep enough so that it can still get exposed to the natural light in the area. Make sure, though, it does not get direct sunlight. Placing the pot near a south-facing window should accomplish this.

When it comes to watering, make sure you are doing this routinely. The growing potato should always have a good amount of moisture. Of course, it is important to be careful not to drown the plant.

Plant care

After about 3 weeks, you should be able to notice some significant sprouting. When this occurs, you will need to continue your watering routine while adding fertilizer every 5 weeks or so. Eventually, some green leaves will develop, and when this happens it is important to add another layer of earth to the top of the soil. This will further promote underground potato growth.

Keep this routine for about 2 to 3 months and your potatoes should be ready for harvest. First, gently dig the potatoes out of the earth. Let them dry out by being exposed to the open air for a couple of days. After this, we are ready for storage.

Proper storage will involve a dry place, meaning as little humidity as possible. A wicker basket, for example, is a great container for storage is its material helps soak out the moisture in the air. Always remember that potatoes are big fans of dark, cold places as well.