This week, we did something that was long overdue. We planted potatoes! If you’re like us, you love potatoes in just about any form. But, did you know that planting potatoes is as easy as taking one of those ugly “sprouted” potatoes and just putting it into dirt? Well, if you want a good harvest, you’ll probably want to be a little more deliberate than that. Today, let’s talk about our process of planting potatoes and how we intend to have an endless supply. The part about it -we’ll never have to buy potatoes again once we get this started.
Not Our First Rodeo
Like many vegetables we are working on here at the Florida homestead, we’ve actually grown potatoes before. When we lived in Pasco county for about two years, Joseph started to plant a few varieties of veggies. Potatoes were one he was successful with. However, he planted directly in the ground and like most things in his homesteading career, he went about it rather carelessly. After the first harvest, we also didn’t realize just how easy it is to grow potatoes from potatoes. So, instead of saving a couple to start the cycle over, we ended up eating all the harvest.
Why Did We Wait So Long?
That’s a good question. And, it’s probably because we have a bad habit of being lazy and procrastinating. More accurately, it’s because we both suffer from a lack of proper planning. To clarify, we both like doing things in a particular order. This meant prioritizing what we produced here on the homestead. Potatoes didn’t come early in that list, because while we both enjoy them, we haven’t really considered them a staple in the kitchen.
Realistically, we get potatoes when we remember to get them. Joseph then uses them to make delicious breakfast potatoes. However, as we consider sustainable crops, it’s hard to argue with the value potatoes provide. So, we’ve decided it’s past time to start planting.
Planting Potatoes Over Time
The best strategy when starting is to remember that potatoes beget potatoes. So, it follows that if you space out your planting of these wonderful vegetables, you’ll be able to get an endless supply of them. Since we just planted our first couple potatoes, we’ll wait for a couple weeks and then start another potato plant. We have to admit since this is our first time growing in this fashion that we’re not 100% certain whether two weeks is too long a window. But, we’re willing to take the chance and would prefer to have too few potatoes than too many.
Either way, the two week window seems a good amount of time between harvests. With a total of about three months to harvest the first batch, we plan to have seven containers by the end of it. And, if our timing is good, we’ll harvest the first batch when we plant the last. We’ll then take a couple of that first harvest and plant it about two weeks later. That’s the plan anyways!
Our Next Steps
When it comes to easily renewed crops, we’ve found there are a few herbs that just follow a natural cycle. Basil is a good example of this, as it dies off in the winter and comes back in the spring. It loves the Florida heat especially. So, we really haven’t needed to get more than our first basil plant to kick things off.
With that in mind, we want to look at more crops like basil, which is why we’re planting potatoes. If we could, we would multiply all our food in the same way potatoes multiply. But, we’re not 100% sure what the next crop like that would be. Do you have any suggestions? Please drop them in the comments! Until next time, we’ll see you around the homestead.