Some gardening hacks can help you avoid constantly sowing and buying new seeds.
Planted in the Garden's (@plantedinthegarden) demo showed its 1.2 million followers how to get a bounty of potatoes starting with just one.
@plantedinthegarden Not bad turning a single potato into unlimited food supply! I grew 3 types of potatoes, 2 are from grocery store, yellow and red. The other is a seed potato that I bought from a garden centre. It's a fingerling variety called Austrian Crescent. They are small, bit can produce between 20-30 per plant. I kept the smaller pieces to plant again for next year, this way I can keep growing potatoes non stop. #gardentok #garlic #gardening #gardening101 #gardenideas #fypシ ♬ original sound - Planted in the Garden
The scoop
Planted in the Garden grows three types of potatoes, including red, yellow, and a fingerling variety called Austrian Crescent.
The planting technique is simple: Place three old potatoes in a paper bag and let them sprout. Those sprouts mean the potato is ready to grow into a new plant.
Cut each one up and plant them in a large pot in the spring. Each piece should have at least one sprout, or "eye," and you should plant it sprout-side up.
Always leave enough room between sprout pieces. The crop protection app Agrio suggests placing them 8 inches apart and covering them with a few inches of soil. Keep the soil moist during the growth season.
As you can see from the video, you'll get several potatoes from each sprout. According to Planted in the Garden, the small Austrian Crescent potatoes "can produce between 20-30 per plant."
How it's helping
According to Iowa State University Extension, this nutritious and versatile tuber contains fiber, B6, 45% of daily vitamin C needs, and potassium. And after knowing how to repurpose a few, you may never have to buy or lug a bag of it from the store again.
The hack shows how you can successfully grow potatoes in a container — not just a large field. You can also reduce food waste by replanting sprouted potatoes that are too far gone to eat.
Food prices and availability can quickly fluctuate due to supply-chain disruptions related to destructive weather events such as drought, international conflict, labor shortages, and plant/animal diseases such as bird flu.
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How often will you be gardening this summer? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Every day 🥗 Growing your own food using different methods makes food self-sufficiency easier, which also saves money.
After all, you don't need to buy what you can grow at home. Plus, that homegrown produce usually tastes better and allows you to see the fruits (and veggies) of your labor.
Speaking of labor, gardening can provide quite a good workout. Digging, pulling, and raking may help you burn 200-400 calories per hour, according to WebMD.
While working the body, you can also ease your mind. Gardening has been linked to improved mental health through connecting with nature and even other community gardeners. Knowing you're eating chemical-free potatoes and other food also eases your mental burden about what you're putting in your body.
With less reliance on supermarkets, you can reduce your global food milage, carbon footprint, and plastic packaging use.
What everyone's saying
"This is so interesting to me," one commenter said.
Another asked: "What do you do with them afterward?"
In addition to making potato salad or soup, you can store your harvest. As Planted in the Garden suggested to someone else, let the harvested potatoes dry and store them in a cool, dry, dark area after removing damaged ones.
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