Probably back in December I had a couple of old potatoes in the house that had sprouted so I cut them up and planted them in buckets in the greenhouse.
Those potato plants sprouted and grew and grew and were about 4′ tall. I’ve always piled dirt up around the stalks but I got to the top of the buckets and couldn’t pile any more dirt and they just kept growing.
A couple of weeks ago we moved everything out of the greenhouse (and will have to put it all back in this weekend), and one of the stalks broke. I pampered it and tried to save it but couldn’t.
Yesterday I decided to take the dirt out of the potato bucket and use it other pots to root some fig tree cuttings.
To my surprise, there were potatoes in there! Two decent sized potatoes and a very small one. Now I’m excited to see what I get out of the other four buckets.
It’s nice to get a few potatoes from just the scraps of those old potatoes that had sprouted.
Rebecca says
That is fun. Pretty potatoes, too. I would have thought with the sprouts/stalks you described, all the plant’s energy would have been going up, not to the potato!
Judy Laquidara says
That’s what I thought and was totally surprised to find those potatoes. I’m sure hoping the other buckets make more. I’ll leave them til the tops die but we’re going to have to move them back into the greenhouse Sunday and that will not be good for them . . moving them in and out again in a few days.
Liz says
I have a couple sweet potatoes that are sprouting, so I’m reading up how to get them to continue growing. I have a few large pots, so they may go in there and then in the garden with some trellises.
Nelle Coursey says
We used to use the eyes we bought for planting so I am sure this is the same thing. I figured you were going to say you found some potatoes there! Those are the best kind!!
JoAnn Ruppert says
So great you found potatoes in the bucket! Hope you find more in the other buckets! I am curious of how you do your fig tree cuttings. Have to prune mine before I take it back outside (it lives in the garage during my cold winter)
Judy Laquidara says
We looked at the wood that looked damaged or shriveled a bit and cut that out. Any branches that had new growth but looked dead beyond the new growth, we cut those above the new growth.
JoAnn Ruppert says
How do you root your cuttings? Any special technique?
Judy Laquidara says
This is one of those things where you probably don’t want to do what I do but put potting soil in a pot and stick the cutting down in there and then keep it watered.
Susan Nixon says
Soup from a stone. =)