Potatoes are in!

Life took over a bit and so we are a week or so late in getting these little guys in the ground.

Ultimately its OK though because part of the instructions said that taking the extra time to sprout in the house will actually help speed up the process when the potatoes do get planed. While we were busy with the day jobs, I had my potatoes in a brown bag with an apple helping the sprouting process.  The gasses that the apple puts off helps the potatoes sprout faster.  It worked and all my little potatoes had sprouts AND leaves!!

It has also been pretty cold the past few weeks so I had not been in much of a hurry to get them in the cold dirt.  Ultimately though if I never get them in the ground, they will never grow and this was the first weekend were able to.

In our research the type of potato used in potato boxes is the difference between getting 5 potatoes and 50 potatoes. For a potato box you must use a long season type. For our area (Salt Lake City) all that you can find in the nursery are the short or mid season variety's. We had to order our potato seeds in and chose to use Yellow Finn Potatoes due to their long season and the promise of a buttery potato. You can find these at a number of online retailers but I ordered mine here.

Not that it needs to fully be explained, but here are our steps for planting.

We laid down a layer of organic dirt and straw as a little bed for the potatoes like so:

Here they are all laid out

Then we (Bo) put about 2-3 inches of layered dirt, organic compost and straw over them

Here is the compost we used. It was about 8.00 from Home Depot

Cute action shot...... right?

After a quick water they were ready for the final inspection ...... from Trigger

I also have a few potatoes that I am going to plant traditionally to see the comparison.

I am crossing my fingers we will get some growth soon.

Due to the cold and the sun/clouds not behaving we haven't seen much growth yet elsewhere in the garden so cross your fingers with me!

Building the Potato Box

I have wanted to try a potato box for a couple years now. The promise of 100 lbs of potatoes in such a small space sounds amazing!!

And....  way to good to be true.

From the information I have read its hit and miss on the success rate of these things, but I am going to give it a go just the same. If I take some of the best practices such as using the correct type of potato,planting in a ring, and covering just the stems I am hoping for tons of potato come fall.

Cross your fingers with me!!

This is the basic plans we decided to follow:

The supplies were a bit more than I would have liked to spend, but that's what I get for taking Bo with me. The 2x6x8 were like $6.00 each but they are really nice boards. I almost feel bad using them to throw dirt and water on but if it gets me tons of potatoes its worth it. Ultimately all of the materials were really good quality and the box turned out awesome.... that's also what I get for taking Bo with me. :)

Ok, lets get to the good stuff!

This post will probably be picture heavy, but after all that's way better than reading my nonsense so here we go.....

Raw Materials

Boards cut to 21" and 24"

I got to do most of the cuts today with the "Saw of Death".

I have always been terrified of cutting my head off with that thing.

In hind-site it was a completely irrational fear.

(Side note: see that blue stuff? That is homemade Windex my friends! 

It works fabulously and that whole gallon cost me less than $1.00 ~ Let me know and I would be happy to share the recipe)

Holes Pre-drilled

Predrilled Holes

Notice how the pre-drilled holes are staggered? 21" on the outside and 24" on the inside.
That was one of my many lessons today.

I totally would have not thought about that myself.  Now I know. :)

Side one .... Check
(Face War begins)

Starting to look like a box
('Face Wars' continue in the background)

According to all of the instructions this is where you stop building and start the potatoes. As the potatoes grow you add more boards, dirt and hay. Since our box is going to go in a corner we have to pre-build two of the sides.

One side complete!
(The monkeys approve)

Trigger congratulating his Dad 

Checking out the hard work

(Another side note - Do you see that hammer by Bo's foot? It got used slightly on a second project. I am starting to hate the $20 hammer less now.)

Second side complete and relocated.

Final Product!

I am pretty stoked to get the potatoes started. 

In the research we have done we will need to order them in. One of the common mistakes is that people use a short or mid season potato. We have read that a long season potato is really the only one that works and unfortunately I cant find it in any of the nurseries. 

Honestly I am not that heart broken that I didn't have them today. That kicked my butt!!

One more project off the list!