I have tried and tried and tried to grow potatoes in my raised vegetable gardens (without ever looking up how to do this or asking for help. Who read’s the instructions right?), but I’ve had very little success. One year I had one whole garden bed covered in potato foliage only to find that the very impressive surface show was the opposite of a duck and in fact once it came to harvest time there were no tubers under the surface!

I’m led to believe that my biggest mistake is the fact that I wasn’t “layering” and in fact you should just cover the seed potatoes and every time they break through the soil, cover them up again, until the growing receptacle is full.

This year I have decided to trial a potato bag system from a local online hardware store and document the results. I’ve also decided to only use my compost and the soil from my failed worm farm (I have committed wormicide so many thousands of times, I’m beginning to wonder, how everybody apart from me, finds it so easy).

The good news is that the bags have a side flap that you can open and see if potatoes are actually growing. I’ll be posting progress reports as I go, to see if a cloth bag is a better option to my raised garden beds that have delivered so much in most other varieties of vegetable (don’t mention purple sprouting broccoli!!!).

Week one – 13 October 2024
Agria and Jersey Bennies, let the games begin…

I cover the bottom with about 5cm of soil and stick the seed potatoes in with most of the sprouts sticking up add some of the fertiliser that I was advised I required and then cover them with about 10 cm of soil and water them to death. I figure that as they are in a cloth bag, any excess water will drain away…

Week two – 30 October

After many days of daily watering and daily pondering where the foliage could possible be, the first sprouts come though. It’s a joyous occasion that requires a trip to the shed fridge to celebrate with a beer (if you don’t do this, you may not get the same results).

Week four – 10 November

The bags are all but filled with soil and the foliage seems plentiful, so now it’s just a waiting game, after visiting many different sites to ascertain how long that wait is, I’m banking on eating them some time in January (so much for Christmas potatoes), realising that this isn’t a quick crop I quickly put down another batch that I can eat in February and now I need another couple of bags for March. I know this is supposed to be an experiment and I don’t know how it is going to go or if I will even reap any crops, (what if my compost is too rich in the wrong nutrients? what if I overwater or underwater? what if the sun doesn’t shine?), but that glimpse of green potato leaf has got me and the feeling is a mixture of euphoria and denial. Now I know how Renton felt in Trainspotting, just one more fix…

Week five – 19 November

The foliage is plentiful and I’m watering daily, these plants are looking awesome, I must be about to get a couple of sacks of spuds (or a very large helping of disappointment).

Still about 7 weeks before supposed harvest time, the next few weeks will be an excruciating wait. I kind of want to open the flap on the side to have a peak, but I’m staying calm and leaving it for now, I think maybe in week eight a peak and a photo could be a good idea.

Week 9 – 15 December
The foliage is so large now, two bags of “potatoes” now take up a significant area. I tried peeking in the flap to see what was happening, but it was too difficult and as I started burrowing through the soil, I thought *when do I stop? do I keep digging until I find potatoes and if there aren’t any, that could ruin the experiment. so I left them alone. It’s one of the tensest moments of my vegetable gardening career.

I can see that flowers are starting to form, so I assume that after they bloom the foliage will die off and that is the sign that it’s time to dig.

Surely victory is in sight, they couldn’t possibly produce this much above ground and nothing below, could they?

Week 14 – 22 January
I don’t know what is going on the foliage still green and they are still producing flowers, the potatoes were supposed to be ready by now, but I have to wait for the die off prior to harvest. I can see one baby potato has formed above ground so under the surface must be amazing. I’m now thinking that the crop I put down for February cultivation (in a much sunnier spot) will be ready at about the same time. I’m still watering everyday and pacing around like an expectant father, the anticipation is killing me. Since planting these snails of the tuber family I have planted, nurtured and eaten beans, tomatoes, lettuce, sugar snaps, corn, even chilies and I still wait, hoping that when that special day comes, all this torment will not be in vain.

Week 16 – 02 February

Well the big day finally came, where it was time to find out if all this waiting was worth the anguish and sleepless nights, had I finally been able to make potatoes…

It would be fair to say that I wasn’t overawed with the results. Did I get more potatoes than last time? Yes. Were the results enough for all the trouble? No. Am I giving up? I was going to say yes, then a cousin who is a horticulturalist (yes why didn’t I ask him in the first place) said, what you need to do is nip off the flowers as soon as they turn up and don’t let the foliage get too big, as all the energy goes there and not underground! That makes sense, okay I need to start again!

I need a break from the emotional roller coaster first…