The Potato Machine---Failure

In the spring, we tried a little experiment after we had read the way to grow potatoes, at least if you have little garden space, was to fill a container with soil and then as the potatoes grew, keep adding soil. This would allow the vines, and entire plant to grow vertically, and in doing so would produce copious amounts of spuds.


Well, we set the rig up using a milk crate and then a plastic bag filled with dirt and supported by chicken wire---doing it like the advocating individual suggested. Seeing it is now mid October and it still has not frosted, and most potatoes have long sense gone night-night, we decided it was time to harvest and see if indeed we had a 20 Lbs of potatoes.

In digging, the soil appeared rich and well enough watered, the vines were still growing but dwindling. The upper portion held a number of spuds but none of them were of great size. As I dug deeper, the number of tubers declined but there was one here and one there. On the bottom there were a few more but interestingly, 3 of them had started to rot. I suspect the soil was too confining and not enough "breathing" was going on---like potatoes have lungs, dude.

The entire lot was washed and assembled so Chester could weigh them--he appears here in the process of evaluation. By our count there was maybe 3 pounds, a far cry from the anticipated 20 Lbs. While this was only a one-time try, I am still judging this a failure and a general waste of my precious time---but still a learning event and I do have those three pounds.