Have you ever had a fresh potato? Like one dug out of the soil cut up and roasted? Or even better a spritz of avocado oil and some Italian herbs thrown on there and added to an air fryer? It’s the ultimate comfort food and doesn’t need grease or excess sodium to make it flavorful.
This late winter here in warm zone 9A we decided to have a go at planting some red seed potatoes that we could actually get our hands on. At the advice of a fellow gardener whom happens to be my uncle, and some YouTube advice, we planted 6 buckets with two seed potatoes each, added a sprinkle of organic bone meal and waited.
If you have never planted potatoes you’ll be sad to find that you have missed out on a lovely plant. While the leaves and “berries” if you obtain any are poisonous if consumed, they are a very attractive addition to the garden!
As the plants grew, we added a soil mixture to cover most of the leaves and protect any tubers developing. The plants continue to grow and before you know it 15ish weeks have passed, the plants are looking unhealthy and soon after dying. Fear not, for with the loss of this foliage comes the gains for your kitchen! You can harvest the potatoes right away or let them linger for a couple of weeks for storage. We did a 50/50 split: four of the buckets this round was equivalent to a little over four lbs of potatoes, unfortunately the others didn’t get weighed and I wish one of those buckets we had held off on as the ‘taters were small.
These are perfect for an addition to a kiddie garden as my little ones loved digging for “buried treasure”.
So far we’ve used the smaller ones as bite-sized in roast, some of medium cut up as air-fryer potato wedges, and as part of a mix of oven roasted root veg.
Do you already plant potatoes? Which varieties have you tried? Which are your favorite?
I hope to try a mix this fall so we can find out what we like best!
Happy growing friends!
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