Balcony & Patio
Harvest your own pot potatoes
No other vegetable is as easy to look after as potatoes. Which is enough of a reason to plant potatoes on a balcony. In terms of self-sufficiency, the harvest yield is not enough at the end, of course, but you should still be able to get one or two meals out of it.
And it’s this easy:
- Potatoes need a bright sunny location.
- Choose a large, deep pot for growing potatoes in. Don’t forget to put in a drainage hole.
- Potatoes grow best in light, sandy soil. So mix a little sand into the potting soil.
- Only half fill the pot with the earth-sand mixture.
- Potatoes need lots of nutrients. Add some Organic Multipurpose Plant Food to the soil.
- Now place the chitted potatoes onto the substrate and add more earth to the pot until it is two-thirds full.
- Keep the soil slightly moist but not too wet.
- As soon as the first green shoot appears, add more soil up to the first leaves (earthing up). Repeat this several times until the pot is completely filled with soil.
- The potatoes are ripe as soon as the leaves start to turn yellow and begin to wilt. Leave the potatoes in the pot for a few more days. Then you can harvest them.
Tip: chitting potatoes
Potatoes can be harvested earlier if they are chitted before planting. To do this, spread the potatoes in a bright, approx. 10°C warm place from March onwards and let them stand in the light for two to four weeks. Egg boxes are ideal for this. The first shoots start to sprout from the potatoes. As soon as you see the first shoots, the potatoes are ready to be planted out.