Getting the Potatoes Down Before St. Patrick’s Day
They say in Ireland to get yer potatoes in the ground by St. Patrick’s Day so I’ve put down two types of potato in the
trough I built a few days ago on the balcony.
I hadn’t provided space in
the masterplan for the potato trough but was able to squeeze it in opposite the bean trellises.
Chitting
The two potatoes I am planting are
pentland javelin, which are first
earlies, and
charlotte, which are salad potatoes, both courtesy of
B&Q. I have been
chitting them for the last few weeks. For those not in the know, “
chitting” is simply the process of encouraging sprouts to grow from the eyes of the potatoes before actually planting them. I did this by keeping them in
egg boxes in the study which is quite a cool room with a medium amount of light.
The charlotte potatoes have blackish sprouts about 2-3 cm long. The javelins have much longer white sprouts – about 6-8cm. I’m not an expert on this but I suspect they are different in color and length as we kept the javelins in the dark for longer before moving them to the study. Since moving them to the windowsill they are now a little greener.
Pentland javelins chitting:
Charlottes chitting:
In order to prevent too dense a growth, I left no more than two sprouts on each potato, slicing off the rest:
The Planting Procedure
- Fill trough (bucket, pot, container, tub, barrel etc) about one third full of compost (or leave it 2/3 empty if you are that way inclined)
- Place potatoes on top of the compost, spouts facing up. Make sure they are not too close to the side and about 10cm apart.
- Cover with compost so the potatoes are now about 5 cm below the surface.
- As the sprouts grow, add more compost, analogous to the way that traditional gardeners and farmers “hill” potatoes by building up soil around the plant. This encourages as much potato yield as possible per plant by maximising the length of the plant underground.
More on hilling and harvesting when the time comes – Happy Patrick’s Day!
Filed under: Vegetables
Tags:chitting, pentland javelin, potato, trough
Turning a Kitchen into Potatoes
Over the weekend I’ve been putting my limited DIY skills to the test to construct a trough-type structure for growing potatoes out of some old kitchen presses.
OK so strictly the kitchen isn’t literally being turned into potatoes but it is definitely going to help in potato cultivation. My parents have just renovated their kitchen and I was able to salvage some scrap wood from the builders. Prices for large containers can be very high (for a reason which escapes me) so I thought a more recession-proof home-grown solution could do the trick. The idea of having a container made out of solid cherry wood and maple seemed a bit unique to say the least.
Ingredients, Equipment
There were a few things that helped me along the way:
- Cheery wood paneling from the kitchen
- Some spare maple floorboards from when we put the floor down in the apartment
- A drill and 1 1/4″ wood screws
- A soon-to-be father-in-law with more power tools than Tim the Toolman Taylor and an all-round gift for building things from other things (thanks for the help Nathy!)
In particular, having someone with access to power tools (and who is expert in using them) was a distinct advantage. It’s best not to think what would have happened if I had been locked in a shed with the table saw on my own. Or for that matter, what would have happened had I resorted to using the handsaw I bought during the week in Lidl.
Method
Below are the steps used to build the trough. There are some photos at the end of the post for illustration.
- Cut out two long sides of the trough about 40cm deep. If necessary, allow side to be comprised of multiple sections.
- Cut 4 narrow battens to support the panels, one for each side. The battens should be shorter than the whole side, allowing for the end panels.
- Cut the end panels. In our case we made the sides about 4 times the width of the end sections (30cm).
- We made the bottom of the trough out of tongue-and-groove floorboards we had and cut them into lengths equal to the with of the end panels.
- Screw the battens into each side. I used 5 screws on each. The lower should be be positioned the width of the bottom from the bottom edge such that when the bottom is added, it can be screwed into the batten.
- Screw the end pieces into the battens – this makes four screws in each end panel.
- I then turned the whole lot upside down and added the sections of floorboard one by one, screwing both ends of each section into the battens.
Conclusion
Overall from an aesthetic, economic and general Ibuiltthatwithmyowntwohands point of view, I’d regard this small construction effort to be a success. It remains to be seen how this stands up to the elements however. Let’s just hope no one talks it into coming down.
The whole process, took only an afternoon or so and was relatively painless. It’s definitely an approach I hope to use again in the future. I have some more press doors from the kitchen and some hinges so I’m hoping to build a storage box for the balcony next time I get a chance. I’ll be sure to post when I do.
Filed under: Vegetables, diy
Tags:building, potato, trough
Balcony Garden Diagram: The Plan
As spring is springing around us it’s time to draw up the plan for the coming season on the balcony:
I have colour-coded the containers in the diagram according to depth to give a better impression of the layout. The darker green ones are deeper and the lighter green are shallower. I’ve taken particular care to get deeper pots for the plants that are more demanding in the root department such as potatoes, tomatoes and peas.
Breaking it down into sections we get:
There are still a few question marks on contentless containers. As well as that, I am planning a number of other plants (namely rhubarb, spring onions, marigolds, sunflower(s?), chamomile, nasturtiums, cherry tomatoes, more carrots and potatoes) which I haven’t allocated space for (yet). Some, such as the flowers and spring onions, I am hoping to grow amongst others. In fact, I have just sown spring onions in the centre of the trellised pea shoots, which are looking pretty good by the way:
Some of the other plants can be accommodated either on a high green house shelf or on our (as yet unhung) hanging baskets.
Another feature I am hoping to have on the balcony is table and chairs (a condition of my girlfriend in this whole business). I suppose what’s a square metre here or there!
Filed under: uncategorised
Tags:map, pea, planning, spring
