I finally got my potatoes planted. I have tried a variety of planting methods to see how they will fare.
The first method is using 5-gallon buckets. I had tried something similar using large pots on my deck in Portland and have reviewed numerous You Tube videos like HERE or HERE. Below is the process I used.
The first step is to drill holes in the bucket to ensure drainage. If the potatoes sit in prolonged damp they will rot.
Since I have a large amount of straw available (bales and bales by the house) I put some in the bottom of the bucket to enhance the drainage. For those of us of a certain age, holes in the bucket and straw bring to mind a song.
I put some potting soil, manure, and sandy soil in the buckets and and put the seed potato chunks in and filled in more soil. In addition to the buckets, I also planted some of the pieces in traditional rows so I could get a good comparison with bucket grown potatoes.
On a completely unrelated topic they are pouring the footings for the walls today, Note, that these are 4 feet below the grade level to ensure they are below the frost line. I have labelled the pictures below so you can relate the pictures of footings to the floor plan. Note that there are some changes to the floor plan; the garage is rotated 90 degrees to make access easier, and we’ve simplified the roof-line on the bedroom end.
