Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Potato Grow Bag Time!

For quite some time now I've been pouring through DIY potato grow bag information.  I know I could simply buy a grow bag, but they cost more than I'm willing to spend right now.  Creating your own, however, doesn't seem difficult at all.  They've been made using potting soil bags, trash bags, reusable shopping bags, and so much more. 

I saw no reason to go out and buy one, when I can simply reuse something I already have!

You may question why I feel the need to have a grow bag when the yard of the home I'm renting is large enough to accomodate potatoes quite easily.  The answer, as usual, is because of those black walnut trees we have all over the place.  Not only are potatoes intolerant of black walnut's phytotoxin, but it's nearly at the top of the highly sensitive list.  Basically, any potatoes I'd attempt to grow in the soil would never even have a chance at survival.

And I really love potatoes.

A grow bag, then, is really the only likely option for me. 

Naturally, I chose an old reusable grocery shopping bag.  I had a particularly large one in the back of my car that I was no longer using.  There wasn't really anything wrong with it, and it still worked perfectly well, but having been in the back of my car for too long when I lived in the desert southwest, it got horribly sunbleached. 

That wouldn't have been a cause for concern, but the bag was green.  When green things get sunbleached, they either turn a lighter shade of green, which is perfectly acceptable, or they turn a nasty urine-stained yellow.

Naturally, mine turned the latter color.  Figures, right?

This made it perfect for being turned into a grow bag, however.  Nobody is really going to take much notice of the "off" coloration when it's sitting at ground level, after all. 

I've already begun work on the grow bag, so I'll have a full account of my work posted soon!

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