If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" it and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 🙂TIMESTAMPS for convenience: 0:00 Introduction To Growing Potatoes 1:35 When To Harvest Potatoes 2:15 What I Did Differently This Year 3:20 My Incredible Potato Harvest 6:48 How To Fertilize Potatoes 7:41 How To Cure Potatoes For Storage 9:39 Adventures With Dale
I did an experiment this year with potatoes. I planted about 50 potatoes in straw and about the same number in soil with compost. The compost potatoes came up first and were outgrowing the straw grown potatoes for about 2 weeks. Then suddenly the straw potatoes exploded in size and the soil potatoes started to fall behind. Currently it's night and day difference between them. I will definitely use straw next year, maybe with compost and another batch with just fertilizer to see the difference.
The problem with compost is that it is very heavy in organic matter, which breaks down often into nitrogen. The nitrogen causes heavy vegetative growth, but it can negatively impact potato development. When you plant in compost, you have to *heavily* amend with bone meal in order to add additional phosphorus to counter the nitrogen. Your straw bales are a nitrogen poor environment, which can lead to less vegetative growth and actually promote tuber development. Too much nitrogen can be a problem when using compost.
@@HealthyHabitsGrow if they planted in bales then there is usually a conditioning process to start the bales composting in place. Not sure on the details, it’s a quick Google.
Well done Anthony! I too did a great job with my potatoes this year. The only thing I did different was I fertilized them with 13-13-13 and bone meal. I think i mixed sulfer in the fertilize also. early in the spring We worked some good organic manure in.really well. It did me proud. I didn't believe I was going to get a garden this year but it turned out really good. Keep up the good work Anthony. With all of the artificial and fake stuff in our grocery store foods, I am glad I am able to raise my groceries myself. Nothing makes a homemaker more proud than to make a meal for under $5.00 and that is for the cost of the meat. I like to make one pot meals that are just as good as leftovers the next day and possibly the next day as well. I had a friend asked why I made such a large pot of food, I told her it stretches the budget, saved time in the kitchen as well as saves on the cost of cooking fuel. Who likes to sweat in a hot kitchen every day when you can get a break with leftovers? Jessie from Arkansas
I did some similar far fertilizing. As I filled my containers about every 6 inches, I added a granular slow release organic fertilizer. Then, I topped it with 5-6 inches of shredded straw. Once they broke through the straw, I water the straw as if it were soil.
Bro i just wish i had a friend that was remotely as interested in gardening as me. Im new to this and having design advice or help would be nice. Im just so ready to throw in the towel!
@@TheMillennialGardenerlast year you posted it and I put your birthday on my calendar so I could wish you a Happy Birthday. Your a blessing to so many! Again, Happy Birthday Anthony!
Great video! My potatoes harvest was one of those 25 gals with 5 potatoes and I got maybe 5 lbs so not bad but this time around I'll do 4 or 5 25 gal grow bags like you did and fertilize them.
Feed them more. More bone meal and 20-20-20. Potatoes devour fertilizer. Just don’t go too hard on nitrogen or they’ll produce leaves instead of tubers.
My favorite gardener!!! I need to try potatoes asap (onions too). This year I’m growing anything I can… next year, I’m growing anything I actually need and use often 😂
That harvest is incredible! 😱 so much people are getting tiny crops. Truly impressive! 😃 Is the taste very different compared to store bought potatoes?
I did 12 30gallon bags... 6 seed potatoes at 2 levels in each bag.. strong fertilizer routine with a mix of bonemeal, and organic liquid and granual fertilizers. I've harvested 4 bags so far and I'm SHOCKED! Easily 40 lbs.
You're welcome! The key is to not give them too much nitrogen. Too much nitrogen will produce foliage and poor potato production. They need bone meal, and they need regular feedings. Potatoes are very heavy feeders, so we can't be cheap with our feedings. They give back what we put in.
I just cut the sprouts off with a little of the potato and skin and plant those in buckets.i get about 2 pounds of small potatoes,enough for a beef stew or a dish of boiled potagoes.this season I actually planted them in a raised bed as an experiment.i don't typically fertilize though,however this year I put compost in my buckets and the potatoes were much bigger but still not grocery store size.but I heard last year that potatoes are heavy feeders.i had a volunteer cucumber that came up with one of my buckets and it's doing well
I did almost exactly the same thing except for I did not use organic potatoes. I started on probably later than you. They’re still growing good. I had one potato plant that the grasshoppers stripped all the leaves from I got three smaller potatoes and two normal size potatoes from one plant that was harvested prematurely.
Non-organic potatoes take more time to sprout. Organic potatoes start sprouting immediately since they aren't treated to last longer in storage. Ultimately, any potato can be planted once it has sprouted, but if you want to speed up the process, organic potatoes will be ready for seed faster on average.
@@TheMillennialGardener the only reason I did it I just didn’t wanna throw them away and I was being cheap and I bought 10 of the grow bags that you promote
@@tomspiers1658 Honestly that's how I ended up growing potatoes this year lol. I had three that sprouted so I went ahead and plunked them into a big grow bag. I think fertilizing them would have helped, because my first harvest was just a lot of little potatoes. But that was ok because there's just two of us in the house, so they made a nice batch of mashed potatoes for dinner. 🤣
Thanks! Dale is something. He is both incredibly athletic and a tremendous klutz. Sometimes, his acrobatics astound me, and other times he'll bump his head on the side of a table 😅
I had to laugh at your feet. At the end of the day, I wonder if my ankles have a farmers Tan or are just dirty. It's both, like yours, lol Love your high speed parts too, if only we could work that fast! Thanks for the info
I have bare root blackberries linked in my Amazon Storefront in the video description. They are the varieties I recommend. Ultimately, you should buy the varieties you want, so where you'll buy them will be limited to who carries the varieties you want.
Duuuuude!! Nice!! I’m on my third succession starting in the CT greenhouse. Nothing better for potato salad the same day! So creamy! Happy for you. I’ll be on that 14 day fertilizer for now on. Thank you!
I was unable to reuse my soil since I didn't harvest my bags separately. I didn't return the soil to my bag after each harvest. I had 4 10 gallon bags and one of them had what looked like black ants with wings and the other bag had large red ants with what looked like two orange balls on their back. I got my potatoes either Costco or Sam's. They were seeding potatoes from the plant section. I did get a small harvest. I will definitely follow your lead next time
Growing smaller varieties of potatoes are also easier. I’ve had mediocre results with russets. These potatoes grew great and came out a lot larger than the potatoes that went in. They make awesome fries.
That was very impressive harvest. I love growing potatoes. Dale was very excited for that bunny. When my dog heard the squeaker she started barking can you answer a question for me? I planted asparagus for the first time this year and it grew, but I didn't realize it was all females. I did not harvest it. It's still in my garden. Should I tear it out? I keep reading about not growing females. Can I have your opinion please?
Asparagus takes 3 full years before you can harvest it. It takes a long time to get going. You shouldn't disturb it until the roots form. I don't know what the male-to-female ratio of my asparagus is, but whatever it is, it produces more than I need. I can only eat asparagus so many days in a row, and every day I had half a dozen spears popping up fresh. Eventually, I just had to eat them all raw and fresh. It's going to be tough to tell until they get going years from now.
Thanks Anthony! We had a great Yukon Gold harvest here on the southeast coast of Iowa. We planted 5 pounds of seed potatoes and got 62 pounds. Thumbs up. Hugs to Dale.
Very nice. After this confidence boost, maybe I'll try a larger potato next spring. I remember when potatoes were cheap...4 years ago. Now, it seems they have plated them with gold or something to suddenly cost an arm and a leg. I think Yukon Gold's are $7 a bag now!
I have a question when we just start planting tomato pepper and other vegetable How often should I give Jack fertilizer 2020& and bonemeal and organic fertilizer?
Semi related question. I have my containers elevated on crates and on a deck of my pond as it gets the best sun. I just harvested my 2 potato containers and planned to keep the soil to reuse, but both containers had ants!!!! No harm came to the potatoes, but I noticed my other containers (summer squash and tomatoes) also have ants in the soil!! Any advice on how to deal with ants without adding poison, as neem oil seems to make them mad, but they keep returning. Thanks for your videos!
When you switch the soil to something like sweet potatoes or lettuce after a potato harvest can you go back to potatoes after the season with the other crop or is that mix permanently contaminated to potatoes?
I'm struggling with grow bags in AZ. It's soooo hot recently I can't tell if I'm watering enough, overwatering or if the heat isn't just overtaking everything. Potatoes are giving me trouble but I am not going to give up just yet. Sweet potatoes seem to do OK in beds but those struggle in my grow bags too. Even under shade cloth.
Grow bags will dry out more quickly than other kinds of containers, and much more quickly than the ground itself. Their aeration works against them in the hottest part of the summer. All you can do is install shade cloth overhead, mulch them and install drip irrigation to make your life easier.
Just down the road from you in Leland, first year with potatoes and experienced massive pest damage. This was in new soil and new bags. Going to fumigate the soil and try again next year. Any suggestions on pest control?
Love your videos. When you calculate the additional fertilizer, etc, what was your total cost to produce, not counting water of course. Just curious. Thank you!
Not much. Honestly, fertilizer cost is a drop in the bucket. I buy 25 lb bags of 20-20-20 and 27-50lb bags of fertilizer, and I buy it off-season and store it so I never pay full price. I buy virtually no produce at grocery stores, so my costs are so low it doesn't really matter. I don't even bother calculating it. I just posted a deal for a 25lb bag of 20-20-20 for $56 shipped. That'll last most gardeners 2 years. That's honestly an irrelevant amount of money spread out over 2 years given the thousands of pounds of food I'll harvest over that time. Here is the community post: czcams.com/users/postUgkxHaGi6XAZqpS10GqowSjtKWj46-dZVUDj
Do you add all of the fertilizers at the same time, or do you give them 20-20-20 and fish emulsion on one day, then the granular and bone meal ten days later?
Can you clarify the amount of water for growing in grow bags? I thought I needed to be so careful about not over watering but it seems they perhaps are too dry! :-)
@@TheMillennialGardener you just need to keep them out of the light. The grocery store I go to covers all the potatoes with a double layer of burlap sacks about 9 pm every night. Still good air circulation but little to no greening. At home I keep a kitchen towel over them and keep them away from the window light.
I think you could have buried deeper to start with to reduce the surface ones. Have some straw handy for covering the top. I had great success this year, my first, inspired by your 20 gallon grow bags.
You don't need to. My potatoes came out clean since they were in peat moss. If yours come out dirty, lay them down on a tarp to cure before storing them. The dirt will literally fall off onto the tarp. I don't recommend scrubbing them, because you can tear the skin and cause damage, which will impact their ability to store for long periods. If you wash them, you need to make 100% sure they dry completely before curing them.
Hey Mr millennial Gardner! I’m a new Gardner and these multiple videos watched are confusing! I e already bought my neem and about to use on my shrubs not veggies. I will keep ur suggestions in mind for future but I already have my neem captain jack ready to apply, but I have a question for you or followers, I was planning on applying to my roots of infected plant so I don’t burn leaves in this NE GA JULY HEAT! I will apply to leaves on a cooler day. So does this method help future infestations on shrubs as the plant absorbs the neem oil spreading throughout entire plant??? Is this true? Thanks
Wow. That’s amazing! I took your advice and am waiting to harvest my red potatoes and am waiting for my okinawan and Miyazaki to sprout. You were right. They are so sweet! :-)
No, because I harvest my potatoes in June, so they're generally done before it gets too hot. Potatoes are the first "frost sensitive" crop I plant since they are buried deeply, and they are one of the first annuals I harvest. They are set out in full sun.
That depends on where you live. I'm starting mine next week. If you live in a hotter climate, you may want to wait a few more weeks. If you live in a cold climate, you may be on borrowed time and need to start ASAP.
The old potato plants? I don't know how I'd even go about doing something like that, but anything that gets hot enough to kill bacteria and fungi would purify it.
@@TheMillennialGardener oh the best part of Florida no shoveling snow. I was in southern New England, hated it, but snow shovel is great for moving compost.
A thank you for a bit of advice I have finally taken. My fig tree is about 3 feet tall and this year has chosen to fruit quite a bit. The first 5 successful figs have, of course, been snacked on by the local rodents/birds. Whipped out the organza bags I had intended for the plum tree that didn't fruit this year. I am now growing very charmingly dressed figs. Apricot colored evening wear on the lot of 'em. 😀
Here's my question, after the potatoes are done if im not growing any thing else, can i put the soil from the grow bags back in the compost? Till it in and add the other stuff like the leaves and cardboard and other stuff?
If you watch my harvest montage, I put all the soil right back into the bags. I will use them to grow something unrelated to potatoes that won't share residual diseases, such as lettuce, brassicas, roots, melons, etc. My container mix is full of peat and perlite, so it's expensive. I would not want to waste it by dumping it into a compost pile.
Great harvest 👍👍. For years i have been growing potatoes in those exact bags, every year get 7-10lbs per bag. I use a loose soil and mix in happy frog bone meal and general purpose fertilizer. Then water every 10ish days with water soluble Sea Grow 4-26-26. It has never failed me, just harvested a bag of reds that produced 9.5lbs.
I know your huge a math and ROI, just curious based on the amount of fertilizer your input, is the 19x return worth it? What were your no/low input yields 4x?
We have found just doing granular at planting and 10-14 day fish fertilizer does really well too, we did not weigh the yield though, I plan to keep track next time.
An inconsequential amount. I buy fertilizer in bulk. I buy 25lb bags of water soluble fertilizer and 27-50lb bags of the organic fertilizers. I buy them off-season when they're on sale, and I stock them. A 25lb bag of water soluble 20-20-20 lasts me close to 2 years, so spreading it over my entire garden over 2 entire years doesn't really register with my wallet. Same thing with the organics. If you want to save money, don't buy 4lb bags of fertilizers. They're a waste. Get the really big bags and parse them out in 5 gallon buckets if the bags are too big for you to use. You'll cut your costs dramatically and it won't matter adding everything up. My biggest expense in my garden, by far, is compost and irrigation. Fertilizers are cheap.
I tried to grow some organic red potatoes earlier this year in 5 gallon buckets-Injad done it before and it was pretty easy, but this year, in spite of the leaves looking great, there were ZERO potatoes-I fertilized and everything. Have no idea what went wrong, but it was very disappointing.
It was likely a combination of the wrong fertilizers and not enough fertilizing. Simply fertilizing potatoes is not enough. You have to fertilize them often. In a 5 gallon bucket, since they drain and deplete so much, you may need to fertilize them every 7 days. The other problem with a strictly organic fertilizing routine is, what was the NPK of the fertilizers? Most organic fertilizers tend to be nitrogen-heavy, because nitrogen is cheap, and it's hard to find affordable sources of P and K. A nitrogen-heavy fertilizer will produce leaves, not potatoes. My guess is you gave them way too much nitrogen, not nearly enough P and K, and your fertilizer regime wasn't regular enough. I don't bother growing potatoes organically, because they don't do well organically, particularly in containers. Adding something like Jack's 20-20-20 will change your potato game. Jack's 20-20-20 mixed with fish emulsion and bone meal is the ticket for awesome potatoes.
I live in MS and my potatoes died back last week and when I went to harvest many were covered in insect damage and mushy. I lost more than half of my harvest. What can I do to prevent this next year?
It sounds like you overwatered them, or they were planted in soil that did not drain well. This is why I grow my potatoes in grow bags. Make a fast draining mix and mulch them well. Set up drip irrigation and irrigate them daily once the foliage establishes. As long as you don't overwater them, they won't rot.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you for that tip! I’ll try to adjust watering next time. Do you think I have time to plant more this season? Our first frost is supposed to be November but we got hit with one October 3rd last year
First, you need to start with a larger variety of potato. Potatoes vary in size. I chose to grow a smaller potato variety, so the result were smaller to medium-sized potatoes. If you want large potatoes, pick something like Yukon Gold or Russet, but be advised you'll need to feed them more and over a longer period of time, since they'll have longer days to maturity.
The mix was added back to the bags and will be re-used, but not immediately for potatoes again. If pathogens exist in the soil, giving them the same host will keep them alive. You want to rotate your crops and plant something unrelated to potatoes so they can't attach to the host. You can plant potatoes in them again a year or so from now if you grew other things in those bags unrelated to potatoes.
You can buy any bag of potatoes you want and sprout them. Organic potatoes usually sprout more easily. I bought my bag at Trader Joe's, but it doesn't really matter where you get them.
Something is wrong with the system. I would guess you’re using the wrong types of fertilizer. You need heavy P and K, low nitrogen. Too much compost produces poor tubers. It could also be you underwatered or overwatered, causing die off of the seed potatoes.
@@TheMillennialGardener Happy Frog (sanitized by cooking weeks before use), Alaska Fish fertilizer+ bone meal+0-0-60 potash. Watering done via inverted glass bottle. Never gets too much or too little water that way. Used moisture meter to test for water. Compost only the bottom 2 " got it as a precautionary item. They get 10-12 hours or so of full sun too. I have never ever got more potatoes worth out of what I spent to grow them. Last year same thing but got a whole $1 worth of tiny potatoes (about 10 of them). At least this year I have two potatoes worth baking anyway. Dang potatoes cost more than a prime cut of steak. Several steaks actually.
Thanks for respecting your viewers' time. Not naming names, but I don't see the point of bountiful harvest (eight or more varieties of luscious tomatoes, etc.) videos. They are demoralizing to the average gardener. Another beef is videos that repeat the same information several times using the same language--we're not children. Your videos are reasonably concise and on point.
5 gallon bags are really small for potatoes. I recommend a minimum of 20 gallon. 25's are even better. Containers deplete and wash out very quickly, so if you're only going to use a 5 gallon bag, you need to fertilize them at least weekly. You'd also likely need to use something like a water soluble 20-20-20, because the containers aren't efficient enough to break down organic fertilizers. When container gardening, I always mix the organics with 20-20-20, because the microbiome just isn't there to break down organics fast enough for the plants. If you switch to larger containers and give them 20-20-20 mixed with organics, it will change things.
It doesn’t sound like it was well fertilized. Potatoes are heavier feeders than you think, and they respond poorly to nitrogen. Giving them only compost and organics may yield beautiful foliage, but poor tuber production. I’m guessing they were very underfed in P and K. The secret to my system is Jack’s 20-20-20 and bone meal.
@TheMillennialGardener I had some of that. I also use bone meal. I have to be careful of right ratios it seems, but def feed more. I am determined to grow some potatoes! #won'tstop🤣 Thanks for all you do👍
If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" it and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 🙂TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 Introduction To Growing Potatoes
1:35 When To Harvest Potatoes
2:15 What I Did Differently This Year
3:20 My Incredible Potato Harvest
6:48 How To Fertilize Potatoes
7:41 How To Cure Potatoes For Storage
9:39 Adventures With Dale
I did an experiment this year with potatoes. I planted about 50 potatoes in straw and about the same number in soil with compost. The compost potatoes came up first and were outgrowing the straw grown potatoes for about 2 weeks. Then suddenly the straw potatoes exploded in size and the soil potatoes started to fall behind. Currently it's night and day difference between them. I will definitely use straw next year, maybe with compost and another batch with just fertilizer to see the difference.
The problem with compost is that it is very heavy in organic matter, which breaks down often into nitrogen. The nitrogen causes heavy vegetative growth, but it can negatively impact potato development. When you plant in compost, you have to *heavily* amend with bone meal in order to add additional phosphorus to counter the nitrogen. Your straw bales are a nitrogen poor environment, which can lead to less vegetative growth and actually promote tuber development. Too much nitrogen can be a problem when using compost.
@@TheMillennialGardener Great to know! Thanks!
@omegahunter9 do you just cover in straw or grow on top of straw? Silly question but I am determined to grow some potatoes 😂
@@HealthyHabitsGrow if they planted in bales then there is usually a conditioning process to start the bales composting in place. Not sure on the details, it’s a quick Google.
Well done Anthony! I too did a great job with my potatoes this year. The only thing I did different was I fertilized them with 13-13-13 and bone meal. I think i mixed sulfer in the fertilize also. early in the spring We worked some good organic manure in.really well. It did me proud. I didn't believe I was going to get a garden this year but it turned out really good. Keep up the good work Anthony. With all of the artificial and fake stuff in our grocery store foods, I am glad I am able to raise my groceries myself. Nothing makes a homemaker more proud than to make a meal for under $5.00 and that is for the cost of the meat. I like to make one pot meals that are just as good as leftovers the next day and possibly the next day as well. I had a friend asked why I made such a large pot of food, I told her it stretches the budget, saved time in the kitchen as well as saves on the cost of cooking fuel. Who likes to sweat in a hot kitchen every day when you can get a break with leftovers? Jessie from Arkansas
I did some similar far fertilizing.
As I filled my containers about every 6 inches, I added a granular slow release organic fertilizer.
Then, I topped it with 5-6 inches of shredded straw.
Once they broke through the straw, I water the straw as if it were soil.
Bro i just wish i had a friend that was remotely as interested in gardening as me. Im new to this and having design advice or help would be nice. Im just so ready to throw in the towel!
Happy Birthday Anthony….May you have many, many more!
Thank you! How’d you know it was my birthday? 🤔
@@TheMillennialGardenerlast year you posted it and I put your birthday on my calendar so I could wish you a Happy Birthday. Your a blessing to so many! Again, Happy Birthday Anthony!
Great video! My potatoes harvest was one of those 25 gals with 5 potatoes and I got maybe 5 lbs so not bad but this time around I'll do 4 or 5 25 gal grow bags like you did and fertilize them.
Feed them more. More bone meal and 20-20-20. Potatoes devour fertilizer. Just don’t go too hard on nitrogen or they’ll produce leaves instead of tubers.
WHOA… amazing…. CONGRATULATIONS- will be following your procedure…many thanks for all! SUPER CATCH DALE…YOU ARE LOVED!
Thank you! Dale is our best boy 🐶
Well done Sir. I followed your planting protocol. Can't wait to see my harvest
Excellent! Make sure you feed them well. Potatoes are very heavy feeders.
@@TheMillennialGardener I gave them Alaska Fish Fertilizer, 555 organic fertilizer
and bone meal
My favorite gardener!!! I need to try potatoes asap (onions too).
This year I’m growing anything I can… next year, I’m growing anything I actually need and use often 😂
Plant them now if you can find some sprouted potatoes, or buy a bag now to sprout them on your counter. It’s a great time to plant them for fall.
Lucky he didnt QUIT like he said last video huh?
I'm in central Florida and we grow sweet potatoes like crazy but want sure about when to start here. I'm in zone 9B@TheMillennialGardener
That harvest is incredible! 😱 so much people are getting tiny crops. Truly impressive! 😃
Is the taste very different compared to store bought potatoes?
Too cool. I'm doing the same for the first time here in 5b upstate NY. I'm not ready to harvest yet, but soon enough. Keep up the great work!
Best of luck! Potatoes are fun to grow.
Amazing harvest!
Thanks!
I did 12 30gallon bags... 6 seed potatoes at 2 levels in each bag.. strong fertilizer routine with a mix of bonemeal, and organic liquid and granual fertilizers. I've harvested 4 bags so far and I'm SHOCKED! Easily 40 lbs.
Very nice. Potatoes do very well in grow bags provided they're given enough fertilizer. Go light on the N and give them plenty of P and K.
@@TheMillennialGardener Got any tips on keeping the ants out of the grow bags?
Unique
Thanks for the comments on fertilizer. I never could find a formula for fertilizing potatoes.
You're welcome! The key is to not give them too much nitrogen. Too much nitrogen will produce foliage and poor potato production. They need bone meal, and they need regular feedings. Potatoes are very heavy feeders, so we can't be cheap with our feedings. They give back what we put in.
🎉🎉🎉🏆 That's great!
Wondering now if that could happen with sweet potatoes 🤔🤔
Love for Dale!🐕💖
Nice 👍🏼 Thanks for all the work on this video.👍🏼😃
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
Did this fix the garden burnout?
This harvest was about a month ago before it got insanely hot.
Huge harvest for what you started with very nice!
I can't wait to do it again 😄
Nice job!
Thanks!
Had fun planting them. Thanks. Have some tweaks for the next time
Potatoes are fun and easy to grow.
“Holy smokes folks.” 😂 Nice harvest 😊
I was surprised 🤯
I just cut the sprouts off with a little of the potato and skin and plant those in buckets.i get about 2 pounds of small potatoes,enough for a beef stew or a dish of boiled potagoes.this season I actually planted them in a raised bed as an experiment.i don't typically fertilize though,however this year I put compost in my buckets and the potatoes were much bigger but still not grocery store size.but I heard last year that potatoes are heavy feeders.i had a volunteer cucumber that came up with one of my buckets and it's doing well
New subscriber from India (north east) ❤
Thanks for subscribing! I appreciate it!
Thank you. That's incredible.
I appreciate it! Thanks for watching!
I did almost exactly the same thing except for I did not use organic potatoes. I started on probably later than you. They’re still growing good. I had one potato plant that the grasshoppers stripped all the leaves from I got three smaller potatoes and two normal size potatoes from one plant that was harvested prematurely.
Non-organic potatoes take more time to sprout. Organic potatoes start sprouting immediately since they aren't treated to last longer in storage. Ultimately, any potato can be planted once it has sprouted, but if you want to speed up the process, organic potatoes will be ready for seed faster on average.
@@TheMillennialGardener the only reason I did it I just didn’t wanna throw them away and I was being cheap and I bought 10 of the grow bags that you promote
@@tomspiers1658 Honestly that's how I ended up growing potatoes this year lol. I had three that sprouted so I went ahead and plunked them into a big grow bag. I think fertilizing them would have helped, because my first harvest was just a lot of little potatoes. But that was ok because there's just two of us in the house, so they made a nice batch of mashed potatoes for dinner. 🤣
Great job, MG!🥔👍
Dale is way too cute!🐕😃
Thanks! Dale is something. He is both incredibly athletic and a tremendous klutz. Sometimes, his acrobatics astound me, and other times he'll bump his head on the side of a table 😅
@@TheMillennialGardener Kids!😄
I had to laugh at your feet.
At the end of the day, I wonder if my ankles have a farmers Tan or are just dirty.
It's both, like yours, lol
Love your high speed parts too, if only we could work that fast!
Thanks for the info
My feet have permanent flip flop tan lines. They’re there in January. At this point, they’re branded.
I’m a newbie and want to grow organic raspberries and blueberries. Can you advise me on where to buy the plants?
“Thank you” and great videos!
I have bare root blackberries linked in my Amazon Storefront in the video description. They are the varieties I recommend. Ultimately, you should buy the varieties you want, so where you'll buy them will be limited to who carries the varieties you want.
Should I buy twice ad much jacks blooming fertilizer than the jacks 20 20 20 for general use like tomatoes and peppers?
I’ve found 20-20-20 to do well all around. I don’t use the 10-30-20 much anymore. The 20-20-20 is so good and so versatile.
Those tired potatoes look like mine. I promise I'll get out and pull them this week. . .
If you delay, they could start re-sprouting underground, which ruins them. Pulling them before they develop eyes is important.
Beautiful !
Thank you!
Duuuuude!! Nice!! I’m on my third succession starting in the CT greenhouse. Nothing better for potato salad the same day! So creamy! Happy for you. I’ll be on that 14 day fertilizer for now on. Thank you!
That’s excellent. I only do 2 crops. It’s too hot here in the dead of summer for them out in the open.
Wow! Nice!👍👍👍👍
Thank you!
You should grow more potatoes next time.
looking good
Thank you!
I was unable to reuse my soil since I didn't harvest my bags separately. I didn't return the soil to my bag after each harvest. I had 4 10 gallon bags and one of them had what looked like black ants with wings and the other bag had large red ants with what looked like two orange balls on their back. I got my potatoes either Costco or Sam's. They were seeding potatoes from the plant section. I did get a small harvest. I will definitely follow your lead next time
Well you got me all motivated to head to Walmart tomorrow and get a bag of organic potatoes!
It’s a great time to sprout and plant more! Check your pantry. You may already have some with eyes ready to go.
Wow I just thought I did good I got 50 lbs off of five pounds of seed taters and then you do this great job Anthony
Growing smaller varieties of potatoes are also easier. I’ve had mediocre results with russets. These potatoes grew great and came out a lot larger than the potatoes that went in. They make awesome fries.
That was very impressive harvest. I love growing potatoes. Dale was very excited for that bunny. When my dog heard the squeaker she started barking can you answer a question for me? I planted asparagus for the first time this year and it grew, but I didn't realize it was all females. I did not harvest it. It's still in my garden. Should I tear it out? I keep reading about not growing females. Can I have your opinion please?
Asparagus takes 3 full years before you can harvest it. It takes a long time to get going. You shouldn't disturb it until the roots form. I don't know what the male-to-female ratio of my asparagus is, but whatever it is, it produces more than I need. I can only eat asparagus so many days in a row, and every day I had half a dozen spears popping up fresh. Eventually, I just had to eat them all raw and fresh. It's going to be tough to tell until they get going years from now.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you for answering
Wow, that's like $.13 a lb! Awesome!
This came out incredibly well. I'll be doing it again this fall.
Oh! And do you add Castile when using captain jack?
Thanks Anthony! We had a great Yukon Gold harvest here on the southeast coast of Iowa. We planted 5 pounds of seed potatoes and got 62 pounds. Thumbs up. Hugs to Dale.
Very nice. After this confidence boost, maybe I'll try a larger potato next spring. I remember when potatoes were cheap...4 years ago. Now, it seems they have plated them with gold or something to suddenly cost an arm and a leg. I think Yukon Gold's are $7 a bag now!
I have a question when we just start planting tomato pepper and other vegetable How often should I give Jack fertilizer 2020& and bonemeal and organic fertilizer?
Semi related question. I have my containers elevated on crates and on a deck of my pond as it gets the best sun. I just harvested my 2 potato containers and planned to keep the soil to reuse, but both containers had ants!!!! No harm came to the potatoes, but I noticed my other containers (summer squash and tomatoes) also have ants in the soil!! Any advice on how to deal with ants without adding poison, as neem oil seems to make them mad, but they keep returning. Thanks for your videos!
🫰🏽👏🏽 love it ❣️ what do the purple potatoes taste like ❓
They all pretty much taste the same. The texture is a little different. They're a bit drier whereas the yellow potatoes have more moisture.
With the fertilizing regiment, do you alternate weeks for the 2 steps or just give them all of that in one go?
When you switch the soil to something like sweet potatoes or lettuce after a potato harvest can you go back to potatoes after the season with the other crop or is that mix permanently contaminated to potatoes?
I'm struggling with grow bags in AZ. It's soooo hot recently I can't tell if I'm watering enough, overwatering or if the heat isn't just overtaking everything. Potatoes are giving me trouble but I am not going to give up just yet. Sweet potatoes seem to do OK in beds but those struggle in my grow bags too. Even under shade cloth.
Grow bags will dry out more quickly than other kinds of containers, and much more quickly than the ground itself. Their aeration works against them in the hottest part of the summer. All you can do is install shade cloth overhead, mulch them and install drip irrigation to make your life easier.
Just down the road from you in Leland, first year with potatoes and experienced massive pest damage. This was in new soil and new bags. Going to fumigate the soil and try again next year. Any suggestions on pest control?
Discussed with a fellow gardener and he said he had good results dusting the potatoes with Seven when he planted them. Going to fumigate and dust.
Love your videos.
When you calculate the additional fertilizer, etc, what was your total cost to produce, not counting water of course. Just curious. Thank you!
Not much. Honestly, fertilizer cost is a drop in the bucket. I buy 25 lb bags of 20-20-20 and 27-50lb bags of fertilizer, and I buy it off-season and store it so I never pay full price. I buy virtually no produce at grocery stores, so my costs are so low it doesn't really matter. I don't even bother calculating it. I just posted a deal for a 25lb bag of 20-20-20 for $56 shipped. That'll last most gardeners 2 years. That's honestly an irrelevant amount of money spread out over 2 years given the thousands of pounds of food I'll harvest over that time. Here is the community post: czcams.com/users/postUgkxHaGi6XAZqpS10GqowSjtKWj46-dZVUDj
Do you add all of the fertilizers at the same time, or do you give them 20-20-20 and fish emulsion on one day, then the granular and bone meal ten days later?
I do all the fertilizing at once. 20-20-20, fish emulsion, granular.
Can you clarify the amount of water for growing in grow bags? I thought I needed to be so careful about not over watering but it seems they perhaps are too dry! :-)
Green potatoes make great seed potatoes.
That’s true, but it seems the biggest, nicest potatoes always go green 😑
@@TheMillennialGardener I also pile more dirt on them through the season.
@@TheMillennialGardener you just need to keep them out of the light. The grocery store I go to covers all the potatoes with a double layer of burlap sacks about 9 pm every night. Still good air circulation but little to no greening. At home I keep a kitchen towel over them and keep them away from the window light.
I think you could have buried deeper to start with to reduce the surface ones. Have some straw handy for covering the top. I had great success this year, my first, inspired by your 20 gallon grow bags.
My 2x 10gal grow bags produced an insane amount. I immediately flipped sweet potatoes into them.
Do you wash them either before curing or before the final storage?
You don't need to. My potatoes came out clean since they were in peat moss. If yours come out dirty, lay them down on a tarp to cure before storing them. The dirt will literally fall off onto the tarp. I don't recommend scrubbing them, because you can tear the skin and cause damage, which will impact their ability to store for long periods. If you wash them, you need to make 100% sure they dry completely before curing them.
Is it too late to grow sweet potato slips in North Florida?
Hey Mr millennial Gardner! I’m a new Gardner and these multiple videos watched are confusing! I e already bought my neem and about to use on my shrubs not veggies. I will keep ur suggestions in mind for future but I already have my neem captain jack ready to apply, but I have a question for you or followers, I was planning on applying to my roots of infected plant so I don’t burn leaves in this NE GA JULY HEAT! I will apply to leaves on a cooler day. So does this method help future infestations on shrubs as the plant absorbs the neem oil spreading throughout entire plant??? Is this true? Thanks
Wow. That’s amazing! I took your advice and am waiting to harvest my red potatoes and am waiting for my okinawan and Miyazaki to sprout. You were right. They are so sweet! :-)
How many cubic yards to fill the 25gal grow bag
You can use a search engine to convert dry gallons to cubic feet: www.bing.com/search?q=1+dry+gallon+to+cubic+feet
I've heard of people snapping off the chits and planting that just like a sweet potato slip.
I don’t think it is worth the gamble. That little bag of potatoes cost next to nothing and it provided enough of a harvest to get me well into fall.
My zoe tears up every t oy we buy and so does my wishbone
How are they so clean? My potatoes are never that clean at harvest😊
Well draining mix. There isn’t much to stick to them.
Increase your drainage and looseness of your soil.
Did you put these under your shade cloth or full sun?
No, because I harvest my potatoes in June, so they're generally done before it gets too hot. Potatoes are the first "frost sensitive" crop I plant since they are buried deeply, and they are one of the first annuals I harvest. They are set out in full sun.
@@TheMillennialGardener Thanks, I will start them sooner and follow your plan.
When is the latest time to start to grow potatoes ❓
That depends on where you live. I'm starting mine next week. If you live in a hotter climate, you may want to wait a few more weeks. If you live in a cold climate, you may be on borrowed time and need to start ASAP.
What about if you steamed them instead of garbage?
The old potato plants? I don't know how I'd even go about doing something like that, but anything that gets hot enough to kill bacteria and fungi would purify it.
In 2019 Florida passed right to garden act. I know youre interested in moving here.
I've never heard of it. But, I did make sure to get land zoned for agricultural use. It's not residential zoning.
@@TheMillennialGardener oh the best part of Florida no shoveling snow. I was in southern New England, hated it, but snow shovel is great for moving compost.
A thank you for a bit of advice I have finally taken. My fig tree is about 3 feet tall and this year has chosen to fruit quite a bit. The first 5 successful figs have, of course, been snacked on by the local rodents/birds. Whipped out the organza bags I had intended for the plum tree that didn't fruit this year. I am now growing very charmingly dressed figs. Apricot colored evening wear on the lot of 'em. 😀
Here's my question, after the potatoes are done if im not growing any thing else, can i put the soil from the grow bags back in the compost? Till it in and add the other stuff like the leaves and cardboard and other stuff?
If you watch my harvest montage, I put all the soil right back into the bags. I will use them to grow something unrelated to potatoes that won't share residual diseases, such as lettuce, brassicas, roots, melons, etc. My container mix is full of peat and perlite, so it's expensive. I would not want to waste it by dumping it into a compost pile.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you.
Great harvest 👍👍. For years i have been growing potatoes in those exact bags, every year get 7-10lbs per bag. I use a loose soil and mix in happy frog bone meal and general purpose fertilizer. Then water every 10ish days with water soluble Sea Grow 4-26-26. It has never failed me, just harvested a bag of reds that produced 9.5lbs.
I walk around at my fighting weight too 🤣
Better than being our off season weight 😅
How much would you estimate the cost of the amount of fertilizer you used was?
Not much. A few dollars. Buy fertilizer in 25-50 lbs bags and it is really cheap. Much of the cost is in the packaging.
I know your huge a math and ROI, just curious based on the amount of fertilizer your input, is the 19x return worth it? What were your no/low input yields 4x?
We have found just doing granular at planting and 10-14 day fish fertilizer does really well too, we did not weigh the yield though, I plan to keep track next time.
Nowhere near this. I can’t imagine I spent more than $5 on fertilizer. Fertilizer is cheap when you buy in bulk.
How long they take to reap?
That depends on the variety you grow, your climate and how warm it is, how much you feed them, etc. They’re all different.
How much did the fertilizer cost?
Not much. Links are in the description.
How much $ do you think you spent on all the fertilizer, water for these?
An inconsequential amount. I buy fertilizer in bulk. I buy 25lb bags of water soluble fertilizer and 27-50lb bags of the organic fertilizers. I buy them off-season when they're on sale, and I stock them. A 25lb bag of water soluble 20-20-20 lasts me close to 2 years, so spreading it over my entire garden over 2 entire years doesn't really register with my wallet. Same thing with the organics. If you want to save money, don't buy 4lb bags of fertilizers. They're a waste. Get the really big bags and parse them out in 5 gallon buckets if the bags are too big for you to use. You'll cut your costs dramatically and it won't matter adding everything up. My biggest expense in my garden, by far, is compost and irrigation. Fertilizers are cheap.
I tried to grow some organic red potatoes earlier this year in 5 gallon buckets-Injad done it before and it was pretty easy, but this year, in spite of the leaves looking great, there were ZERO potatoes-I fertilized and everything. Have no idea what went wrong, but it was very disappointing.
It was likely a combination of the wrong fertilizers and not enough fertilizing. Simply fertilizing potatoes is not enough. You have to fertilize them often. In a 5 gallon bucket, since they drain and deplete so much, you may need to fertilize them every 7 days. The other problem with a strictly organic fertilizing routine is, what was the NPK of the fertilizers? Most organic fertilizers tend to be nitrogen-heavy, because nitrogen is cheap, and it's hard to find affordable sources of P and K. A nitrogen-heavy fertilizer will produce leaves, not potatoes. My guess is you gave them way too much nitrogen, not nearly enough P and K, and your fertilizer regime wasn't regular enough.
I don't bother growing potatoes organically, because they don't do well organically, particularly in containers. Adding something like Jack's 20-20-20 will change your potato game. Jack's 20-20-20 mixed with fish emulsion and bone meal is the ticket for awesome potatoes.
I live in MS and my potatoes died back last week and when I went to harvest many were covered in insect damage and mushy. I lost more than half of my harvest. What can I do to prevent this next year?
It sounds like you overwatered them, or they were planted in soil that did not drain well. This is why I grow my potatoes in grow bags. Make a fast draining mix and mulch them well. Set up drip irrigation and irrigate them daily once the foliage establishes. As long as you don't overwater them, they won't rot.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you for that tip! I’ll try to adjust watering next time. Do you think I have time to plant more this season? Our first frost is supposed to be November but we got hit with one October 3rd last year
How do you get bigger potatoes?
First, you need to start with a larger variety of potato. Potatoes vary in size. I chose to grow a smaller potato variety, so the result were smaller to medium-sized potatoes. If you want large potatoes, pick something like Yukon Gold or Russet, but be advised you'll need to feed them more and over a longer period of time, since they'll have longer days to maturity.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you. I’ll buy some and wait till the seed.
so are you saying that you don't reuse the dirt for potatoes again?
The mix was added back to the bags and will be re-used, but not immediately for potatoes again. If pathogens exist in the soil, giving them the same host will keep them alive. You want to rotate your crops and plant something unrelated to potatoes so they can't attach to the host. You can plant potatoes in them again a year or so from now if you grew other things in those bags unrelated to potatoes.
@@TheMillennialGardener thank you I did not think of that. keep teaching me!!!!😁
Millennial can I start potatoes now in georgia
Yes. I'm starting mine in a week.
@@TheMillennialGardenerthanks much
Where you got you first potato from a supermarket
You can buy any bag of potatoes you want and sprout them. Organic potatoes usually sprout more easily. I bought my bag at Trader Joe's, but it doesn't really matter where you get them.
Can you plant potatoes in the summer?
It depends on where you live. Fall potatoes are very successful. I'll be planting my fall potatoes end of month for an October harvest.
Awesome! I’m in NY, so I’ll try similar. Even if little success, I’ll learn through failure ❤
@@TheMillennialGardenerI’m in Myrtle Beach SC, it seems too hot right now?
Fire ants kept building nests in my bags 😑
Those fire ants S U C K I fondly remember getting bite on the foot the 1st time after moving down south. It wasn't a good feeling 😂
That indicates to me you aren’t mulching them. If you place a thick enough mulch layer, they won’t be able to penetrate it to access the soil.
On the plus side, you have ready made Roast potatoes 😂
Grow bags (80L), all new potting soil, organic fertilizers and potatoes. $300.
At harvest, got FIVE DOLLARS WORTH of potatoes.
Something is wrong with the system. I would guess you’re using the wrong types of fertilizer. You need heavy P and K, low nitrogen. Too much compost produces poor tubers. It could also be you underwatered or overwatered, causing die off of the seed potatoes.
@@TheMillennialGardener Happy Frog (sanitized by cooking weeks before use), Alaska Fish fertilizer+ bone meal+0-0-60 potash.
Watering done via inverted glass bottle. Never gets too much or too little water that way. Used moisture meter to test for water.
Compost only the bottom 2 " got it as a precautionary item.
They get 10-12 hours or so of full sun too.
I have never ever got more potatoes worth out of what I spent to grow them.
Last year same thing but got a whole $1 worth of tiny potatoes (about 10 of them).
At least this year I have two potatoes worth baking anyway.
Dang potatoes cost more than a prime cut of steak. Several steaks actually.
Thanks for respecting your viewers' time. Not naming names, but I don't see the point of bountiful harvest (eight or more varieties of luscious tomatoes, etc.) videos. They are demoralizing to the average gardener. Another beef is videos that repeat the same information several times using the same language--we're not children. Your videos are reasonably concise and on point.
Nice harvest💚🤗🫶🏾
Thanks!
Mine were terrible. tried growing in 5 gal bags. My harvest was less than the potatoes I planted. I give up.
5 gallon bags are really small for potatoes. I recommend a minimum of 20 gallon. 25's are even better. Containers deplete and wash out very quickly, so if you're only going to use a 5 gallon bag, you need to fertilize them at least weekly. You'd also likely need to use something like a water soluble 20-20-20, because the containers aren't efficient enough to break down organic fertilizers. When container gardening, I always mix the organics with 20-20-20, because the microbiome just isn't there to break down organics fast enough for the plants. If you switch to larger containers and give them 20-20-20 mixed with organics, it will change things.
How do you even eat so many potatoes? 😂
They store for months.
Fighting weight? What sorta combat sports you doing?
I practice the combat sport of waking up, dragging myself to work and still finding the energy to do all the gardening and CZcams stuff 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener LOL... alrighty, that makes sense. 😎
I did all that. Nothing grew! None. Full nice foliage. Root rot? I watered snd fertilized🤷🏿♀️
It doesn’t sound like it was well fertilized. Potatoes are heavier feeders than you think, and they respond poorly to nitrogen. Giving them only compost and organics may yield beautiful foliage, but poor tuber production. I’m guessing they were very underfed in P and K. The secret to my system is Jack’s 20-20-20 and bone meal.
@TheMillennialGardener I had some of that. I also use bone meal. I have to be careful of right ratios it seems, but def feed more. I am determined to grow some potatoes! #won'tstop🤣
Thanks for all you do👍