First time gardener here. Maybe I watched one too many YT videos, but I decided to grow potatoes from 2 fridge potatoes in a cardboard box.
Since I didn't have any mulch I used junk mail that I ripped up. Because I don't want the balcony to get wet, I used a lid from a plastic container underneath to capture drainage.
I live in a small apartment with a small balcony that only gets about 5 hours of East-facing sunlight daily.
As you can see, written on the box, I planted these on April 10th. I can't even believe they sprouted! With the size of the cardboard box, I think I can hill once or twice.
I have no idea if this is going to work, but I am having fun and looking forward to the end result.
by Nene108
19 Comments
Where will they gut nutrients?
Not going to lie, I want to know how this story ends.
Respect for the challenge of growing on a balcony.
Used to work as a pressman in a print shop. The chemicals and solvents used in cleaning the rubber blankets that ink goes on to and print on paper is not good. At least if you water your veggies don’t get the paper wet, you don’t want chemicals sipping in the soil and to your veggies. Or better yet, get brown cardboard with the least print on it
The Martian WISHES it was as thrifty with the taters as you 🙌
I am not sure I want to be eating something grown in junkmail….
potatoes take between 70-110 days to mature. that cardboard box isn’t going to last. See if you can secure a plastic “milk crate” or other plastic container as an outer containment.
potatoes need some sort of soil substrate to root into. the paper is probably fine as a “mulch” layer for the spuds to grow into. yields will be less. as even the root zone that is where the spuds go will be looking for nutrients.
I bet it will work but it looks like a rat magnet
I’ve done cardboard box potatoes before, it works pretty well but keeping them watered is a challenge. So my advice is to keep a close eye on them as it gets warmer! Definitely come back with updates, I’d love to see the harvest haul!
There’s no soil in there at all, just ripped up paper? What’s providing nutrients to the plants? Are you not concerned about the inks and chemicals in that paper?
I dig the ingenuity, but where are the nutrients coming from?
Keep going, my friend! Take your food scraps, blend them, and pour it on as fertilizer!
!remindme! 6 months
This reminds me of an episode of growing a greener world, they went to a community garden and one of the pepper plants used crushed cans as a growing medium and it was like 3 years old. Plants only care about water, nutrients and light.
You watched that James Prigioni video I see 😏
!remindme! 3 months
I won’t be surprised if this works. The best potato harvest I’ve ever gotten was accidental. I had placed cut potatoes out to plant eyes and accidentally threw yard trash (leaves and spent plants like corn and squash) on them and forgot. I eventually noticed the vines growing and waited to burn the pile. When I flipped it, I probably had 30 pounds of potatoes lying on top of the ground.
I would avoid using colored paper though because of the chemicals.
Potatoes from my experience will grow in just about anything, yield varies though.
Interested in the results of this experiment, it would make it extremely affordable for anyone to grow taters.
remindme! 6 months
I watched a video where a guy planted potatoes in just over wintered leaves. (Plus probably fertilizer, I don’t remember.) They didn’t produce well and they got plenty of sunlight. I can’t imagine this would do any better. Once it runs out of resources from the potato, I think it will probably become stunted, but it’s an interesting project.
You can get a bag of composted manure for about $3-$4. Even top soil would be an improvement.