The learning curve is not failure it’s how you learn.
I planted seed potatoes from Azure Standard and sweet potato slips from Wood Prairie Family Farm into my GreenStalk vertical planter in June. In July my potato leaves grew nice, big, and lush. I fertilized with 2-15-15 and watered regularly. The leaves started to die back as they are supposed to.
Fast forward to the day I had the time and energy to harvest my bounty of potatoes that I grew all by myself I was surprised when there was not one potatoe in the planter. I kept digging and NOTHING! 😳
My feelings were a bit hurt because I was so proud of the thought of having potatoes that I grew all by myself in my backyard. I planned to cure them, roast them, can them the list goes on. I have seen other gardeners grow potatoes in a vertical planter via the University of YouTube. I figured if they can do it so can I.
Because I needed to understand what happened I decided to reach out to some of the gardening groups I am apart of on Facebook just to get some advice on what happened. Boy-o-Boy did I get some really good advice. The most popular comment was that a vertical planter like a GreenStalk is not enough space for potatoes to grow. I was given the suggestions to use grow bags, laundry baskets, raised beds, or just grow in the ground.
Let me take a step back and explain that I use vertical planters like GreenStalk because my backyard is just a patio with cement and no dirt to plant in the ground.
I am grateful for all of the advice I received from these multiple gardening communities. Even the slick comments lol. The reason why I reached out was to learn from my mistakes.
Am I still addicted to GreenStalk planters? YES I am lol. I will just be more intentional with what I plant in these planters. My next step is to amend the soil and plant something else in this empty GreenStalk maybe cherry tomatos 🤔. I am not giving up on growing potatoes or sweet potatos I will just plant them in my new hand made cedar raised beds I bought on Facebook Marketplace. Even though I am not a big fan of grow bags I might grow in them as well just to do a side by side comparison.
I don’t look at this as a failure. I learned so much from this mistake. I will get back up and try again. 😁
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