If you love eating homegrown potatoes but do not want to dig and weed to get them, try growing them in straw.
“Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetable crops there is to grow,” said Dr. Clydette Alsup-Egbers, associate professor of environmental plant science at Missouri State University. “When you grow a potato in straw, you have a cleaner potato and you don’t have to dig to harvest. Plus, usually you have much fewer weeds.”
When growing this way, the straw is usually placed on the ground.
Follow these steps
- Test soil to see if you need fertilizer and check soil temperature for ideal time to plant.
- Put potatoes in a bag with some sulfur, shake it up and leave it for a few days.
- Put treated potatoes 12-18 inches apart on a layer of straw on the ground and pile more straw on them.
- When shoots appear and grow to about 4-6 inches tall, pile more straw around them. Repeat this step several times.
- Water as needed.
- Wait two to four months. When the foliage dies, the potatoes are ready for harvest.
Besides growing on the ground, potatoes can also be grown in large bins or straw bales.
“Be sure not to grow potatoes bought from the grocery store,” said Alsup-Egbers. “They’ve been treated with a growth inhibitor chemical and sometimes they have disease organisms on them. So buy them from a garden center.”
For more information, contact Alsup-Egbers at 417-836-5095.