This is super cool and adds some tips on growing I didn't know. Good stuff.
I tried this a couple of years ago, way back when the bullshit pandemic started. Bought a bunch of potatoes (different types) from the store, and planted them in the yard. I'd already prepared the yard with good new toil, tilled it up right, and put in a basic irrigation drip system.
The potatoes we planted grew!
However ... it probably cost me more in water to grow the damned things than it would have cost me to buy them.
That said, the potatoes we grew were oddly TASTIER than the store-bought potatoes. So there's that.
If you live near a natural water source, or water you can get for free, doing this kind of thing is an excellent idea. But if you're doing it to save money and you don't have free water ... maybe not so great an idea.
If there are any farmers or even pretend-urban-farmers out there who can school me on how to grow better, I'm happy to read what you've got to share.
Do rain harvesting. even just a few trash cans is a good bit of water.
I did the math on that a long time ago. For it to really work, I'd need a HUGE reservoir what could fill during the three rainy months of the year and that I could use the other nine. Basically a lake. To make back the money on even cheap water barrels would take years. The problems are: it doesn't rain enough, and crops use a LOT of water, even with a drip system.
A lot of grocery stores will put a growth inhibitor on potatoes, seed potatoes likely will give a much higher yield. As a bonus you can save the fingerlings throughout winter in a root cellar or cool dark place and replant next spring.
A growth inhibitor? Wow. Never knew that. Thanks for sharing. I’ll probably try it again. I was just disappointed with how much water I was using.
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