Imagine a way of growing potatoes in your garden that involves no messy digging, no muddy spuds at harvest time and a bonus for your compost bin at the end of the season. You'll get all these bonuses when you grow your potatoes in round hay bales. Unlike straw bales, those made with hay include grass seeds and husks which compost down into a warm and welcome home for seed potatoes with a couple weeks of preparation. The center of the bale stay warm throughout the growing season, giving the plants a boost in production. At the end of the summer you'll have pounds of potatoes nestled in the clean straw, ready to pick up.
Buy round hay bales with plastic or wire string wrapped around them. Hay bale potatoes need a lot of water, and cotton string or jute twine can rot during the season, causing the bales to fall apart.
Lay the hay bales down on their sides with the strands of hay running horizontal to the ground. This help the water to stay inside the bale, instead of running right down and onto the ground.
Water the bales with a sprinkler for 30 minutes. Do this twice a day for five days to allow the bales to begin the decomposition process. This warms the inside of the bale, but gets past the initial hot stage of composting. Let the composting hay bales process for two weeks before you begin planting.
Cut seed potatoes into pieces the size of an egg. Make sure each piece has at least one eye. You can plant larger pieces, but you'll get more plants by frugally cutting the potatoes into smaller chunks. Place the cut pieces on paper towels and expose them to the air for 24 hours to dry out the cut surfaces.
Spread the hay stems apart with a trowel until you can push a seed potato down into the bale about 6 inches deep. Push the hay back together over the seed potato. Water the bale for 30 minutes.
Set up a system for watering the hay bales. This method of planting needs a lot of water, and twice a day watering is common in warmer weather. Set up the sprinkler and let it run for 30 minutes in the morning, then again in the afternoon.
Feed the growing potato plants with 10-10-10 liquid fertilizer once they are about 12 inches tall. Fertilize again every three weeks throughout the season.
Cut the string or wire holding the bales together once the leaves have gone yellow and the potato plant dies back. The hay bale will break apart, leaving piles of potatoes on top of the spent hay. Pile the potatoes in a basket or bag and rake the rest of the hay and plant material into a compost heap or bin.
Things You Will Need
- Seed potatoes
- Paper towel
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