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Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Potatoes in bags

I've wanted to try growing potatoes in bags for a while. I had a few spare seed potatoes and some hessian sacks from the organic grocer that used to be in town. I use the sacks for the worm farms but some are too thick and the worms don't like them at all.  So I did all the things they say to do and the plants looked lush and green and grew well. But...


These potatoes make my hand look big.

The results were a failure. Six little potatoes. The plants growing in the ground did well but not those in the bag. I watered them and the substrate they were growing in was good and fertile but from what I have been reading, it might be the heat that was working against me. I would not be surprised, it has been desperately hot. So I will probably give the experiment another try when the conditions are not so extreme or find a cooler spot. That is the good thing about growing in the bags, they can be placed anywhere you like.


What the heat and dry weather doesn't affect is the weeds. They can thrive in any conditions it seems. The chooks took good care of this lot and they've also been scratching in the newly weeded patch in the front garden.


The bees are busy. There are eucalypts in flower and they are making the most of the nectar. I hardly see them in the vegetable garden when there are gum trees in bloom but thankfully I did notice a few in the pumpkin flowers this morning. Hopefully that translates to pumpkins down the track a little. Thankfully the blue-banded bees love the vegetable garden and are pollinating the basil, chillies and tomatoes.

ANyway, day 5 of Month of Letters and I have some writing to do.

Bye for now,
Tracy

10 comments:

Lilbitbrit said...

What an interesting idea to grow potatoes in bags, I know my cousin in England grows tomatoes in bags. Your bees look happy. How lovely to have your own honey.

mamasmercantile said...

What a shame the sacks didn't work. We have used pots before and they worked well so maybe it is the extreme weather that worked against you. Like you have said might be worth another go.

Jeanette said...

Yes the weeds are doing well at my place too. :) Thanks for reminding me i have some potatoes i want to plant. Off to do that now & see how they go. Hugs,xx

River said...

I had similar trouble with growing potatoes in old car tyres. Instructions were to fill a tyre with soil, sow the potatoes and as the plants grow just stack on more tyres and soil. And of course the black rubber tyres just absorbed way too much heat. The potatoes growing in a pit filled with soil and pea straw did much better. Now I don't have a garden and buy my potatoes at the supermarket.

kiwikid said...

I have potatoes in the garden Tracy, they do not seem to be doing that well either, lots of growth on top and not much underneath. Great idea to use the bags though. I have seen tomatoes grown that way. Great honeycomb on the bee hive, we have several flowering gums around here and they are often humming with bees. Must get on with some letter writing too.

Sharm said...

The bees look like they are producing some nice honey for you! I must get some letters written also - behind again, work has been frantic!

Deb R said...

Its a shame because your potatoes looked very cute in those bags...nice to see your back blogging...I need to pull my socks up and get back to it too x

Pink Rose said...

Hi Tracy you always have such a productive veggie garden ,i love how you try different things.
Wow fresh honey yummy,hope you have a wonderful week my friend xx

Debbie said...

I love your photos of your lovely plot of veggie goodness...Potatoes aren't my strong growing point I'm afraid...in the ground or in bags but I will keep trying. Your bees look as though they have been super busy....Debbie xx

VeggieMummy said...

You lead such an idyllic life - veggies, chucks and bees too. I have plenty of weeds in my garden if your chucks run out! :0) xx