Russet Potato
Solanum tuberosum
Potato
Large potato with dark brown skin and few eyes. Good for baking, mashing, and making french fries.
December 2021 - April 2022
Planted from sprouted grocery russet potatoes.
Journal
- Early Dec 2021: Have a sack of russet potatoes that start budding in the sack. Got kids to grow potatoes with eye buds in water medium, ended up turning black. Discarded.
- 18 Dec: Selected 3 small potatoes with eyes/little stems from the same sack. Olivia planted the small ones in the side. Harrison planted the longest one in the middle. All were burred under the soil level.
- 24 Dec: Grow fast. Middle potato was 1.5 cm above the ground.
- 26 Dec: Side potatoes were poking above the ground too. 1 side potato has multiple stems. Some roots also grow above the soil level. Might raise the soil level.
- 30 Dec: Left 2 cm single, middle 5 cm single, right 3 cm multiple (5 stems).
- The pot has been sealed loosely with plastic cling wrap to minimize contact with fungus gnat. Can't remember from the start or after a few days. No fungus gnat was seen until 30 Dec. Squashed on spot. Thingking of throwing away if later on finding a heavy investation. But no gnat is observe 31 Dec even with soil stirred.
- 1 Jan 2022: Shake the pot and 4-5 fungus gnats flying out. Sign of investation. THe 3 potatoes were dug out from the soil and washed. Placed in a cup with water. Tomorrow will repot. Container happened to be too small, will buy a bigger one.
- 2 Jan: Washed and rinsed thoroughly between the roots. Replanted in a larger pot.
- 11 Jan: The tallest is 12 cm.
- Mid Jan: Soil surface is covered with clay beads
- 23 Jan: Growing super fast. Already 30 cm. Clay beads are replaced with crushed volcano rocks. Maybe fertilize next watering. Read up first.
- Mid Feb: Support added because some started to angled out.
- 22 Feb: Transplanted to a bigger pot and hilled.
- 21 Mar: All in sudden many leaves turning yelow. Not sure the cause. Might be: over/underwatering - hard to judge because soil is covered with clay beads. Not enough sunlight - was is southeast facing window. Moved to south facing window now. Too much insecticidal soup in the soil from the fungus gnat spraying? It does have a lot of fungus gnats compare to others, een though decreased compared to previous months.Need to hill. Action taken: clay beads removed. Top layer of soil removed as long as it doesn't disturb the roots. Soil added to about 5 cm higher than before, I think. Moved to south facing window. Yellow leaves removed. Stalks added and stems straightened up.
- 25 Mar: Watered thoroughly in preparation of 10 days holiday.
- 3 Apr: Back from holiday, plant indeed need to be watered. But that's not an issue, a watering will freshened it up. The big problem is, it's covered in spider mites web. Sacrificed the next day.
- 4 Apr: Searched for any potatoes formed during sacrificing. 6 baby potatoes ranging from 0.5 to 1.8 cm in diameter are found.
Care
- Sun light, warm, water when top of soil dry
- Hilling soil
- Fertilize a little (need to read up)
- Harvest readiness: Plant turns yellow