How to grow potatoes in a reusable bag -

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This year, I wanted to try out growing potatoes in my garden. I had a reusable potato growing bag that I got for a buck last year. I would have purchased more, if I had known how many seeds I could fit in a bag. I found seed potatoes at a grocery store. Planting them was fairly easy.

Directions to grow potatoes in a bag:

1. Open up the reusable potato growing bag and roll down the sides until you have about 6″ depth.

2. Fill up the bag with about 4″-deep dirt or soil.

3. Depending on the size and condition of the seeds place them evenly, sprouting bud facing up. If your seed potatoes are big enough with many sprouts, you can cut them in smaller chunks (small egg size) and plant them with sprouting buds facing up.

Practical gardening tools to grow potatoes

4. Cover the seed potatoes up with 2″ of soil.

5. Give your seed potatoes good amount of water. Keep the soil moist and keep the bag under full sun.

6. Seed potatoes will grow seedlings which will emerge from the soil. As stems grow up, you’ll need to roll out the sides of the bag to make more space and fill the bag with more soil. Your seed potatoes will produce more tubers which will then turn into potatoes. Water it regularly to keep the soil moist.

7. Eventually, you’ll roll out the bag to its whole height while keeping on filling with soil. After about 10 weeks, you will notice the leaves of the plants will start to dry and wither. That is a sign that harvest is soon. You can dig up the top to check on health and the size of the potatoes. The bag I have has a window on its side, where you can check on them.

8. You can stop watering once the leaves start to die. This will enable the skin to develop and harden.

9. After 2-3 weeks, you can empty the bag to harvest your potatoes.

10. You can repurpose coffee sacks or reusable grocery bags to use as potato growing bags or make your own using a sturdy fabric such as burlap. The bag needs to drain well to keep the soil moist, but not soggy or muddy.