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Friday, April 27, 2007
Novel Container Gardening: Tubers and Tubular
Potatoes that began to grow in our back
closet were placed in our back yard to "fend for themselves" a couple of
years ago: they weren't acclimated to the little beasties that finally
took them down. This year, if I can get some seed potatoes, I'll be
growing them in a container, and watching for the varmints. The DIY has
a great Step-by-Step that walks you through it without breaking your
back digging: "... To start, get the seed potatoes ready by placing them
in a warm spot and letting them sprout, just as you would do if you were
planting them in the garden. If they're large, cut them into pieces,
leaving at least two eyes per piece, and set them aside to cure for a
few days. For a container, you can use a 15-gallon kitchen trash bag or
a 30-gallon leaf and clean-up bag (figure B). The clean-up bags are
usually thicker and less likely to break. ..." Link
This project is great for indoors, as long as you can keep them watered. If you go to the follow-up, you'll find Tucson is NOT the place to do this. Excellent Step-by-step! "... On my next visit to the neighborhood home store I wandered around the plumbing department looking for possible solutions to make a hanging plant tube. What I found was some 4-inch diameter plastic drain tube, two different kinds of end caps, chain, screw eyes, and a set of hole saws. Everything else I figured I already had in my tool shed. I ended up using a hack saw to cut the plastic tube to length, an electric drill for making holes, a Philips head screwdriver, tape measure and pencil, and some clamps and scrap wood to hold the tube in pipe in place when I drilled the holes.
"The most difficult part of the project was deciding on the spacing between the holes for the different sized tubes I constructed and actually putting in the plants. ..." Link