Saturday, January 24, 2009

Growing Little Potatoes Indoors

Inspiration

Potato salad, potato pancakes, french fries.....where would we be without the potato? We are big potato eaters in my house and my youngest finds the word "potato" quite entertaining. She uses the word all the time and even has a song about potatoes. She is the reason for "5 Orange Potatoes," she just blurted it out one day and it stuck.









The girls found a spotted cucumber beetle sucking water from a potato slice. A (my youngest) was inspired to draw the little creature in her journal.



Indoor Potato Garden

Materials needed: sprouted potatoes, soil, pebbles, a large deep pot, little things to decorate your potato garden

I thought I would start the blog with a fun science experiment...growing potatoes indoors. If you don't have any sprouting potatoes just hanging out in the kitchen, you can sprout them by putting them in a paper bag and placing them in a dark place for a week or two.



When they begin sprouting you can cut a little bit off the ends, actually this probably isn't really necessary, but F likes to practice her cutting skills.



Find a large deep bowl. Place some pebbles on the bottom for drainage and then fill the bowl with soil. We used a commercial potting soil.



Place the potatoes, sprout side up, in the soil. Gently cover the potato with soil.



Water, place in a sunny spot and decorate with pretty glass if you feel the urge, as my girls did. In a few weeks long vines will be growing from the top and new potatoes will be forming in the soil. You will be surprised with how many potatoes you will dig up!

7 comments:

marytaylr said...

Oh how tasty they will be!!

Leanne said...

This is great...we grow (well try) potatoes in our garden....and our favourite book of the moment is The Potato People by Pamela Allen.

AK-NWforager said...

I am sooo going to do this .spudding some eyes now=D

Cupcake Mama said...

a friend sent me this link, and just in time!! i was wondering if i had room to plant my sprouted potatoes just this morning!! thanks for sharing : )

Wendy said...

How deep does the bowl need to be? I planted potatoes outside last year (my first attempt) and was told that I should keep piling dirt up onto the shoots that come up out of the ground. From your pics, it doesn't look like you need to do that inside. How many potatoes would you plant in a bowl? I can't wait to try this!

Lisa said...

Wendy, any old flower pot will do for the depth. That is one of the things that amazed me the most about this activity. I planted a lot, about 3 inches apart. Seriously, just stick the spuds in a flower pot, don't bury them completely, keep it watered now and then, and in a few months you will have baby spuds below the surface!

Anonymous said...

This sounds like such a fun idea - We are in a tiny flat with no garden and very small window sills, so this could work!