potatoes Archives - Homesteader DepotHomesteader Depot

How (And Why) To Cure Potatoes Before Storing Them

Potatoes are such a great garden crop, if you can manage to grow them. They can keep for months throughout the winter, and are a great source of nutrients and calories. While they keep well in a dark, cool area like a root cellar or even a garage, there is a very important step you must take before storage: curing. What is curing? Curing potatoes is essentially letting them dry out before storing away. There are several advantages to curing: All wet spots dry out that might otherwise contribute to rot The skins will harden, allowing the potatoes to keep […]

How to Freeze Raw Potatoes

Keeping potatoes in a root cellar is a common way to store these essential root veggies through the winter, but plenty of people don’t have root cellars! Canning is another option, but that usually takes a pressure canner. If you find yourself with a lot of potatoes you’d like to store for a long time but don’t have a cellar or a pressure canner, freezing them is a great option-if you do it right. It can be kind of tricky, so here are some tips to ensure they remain fresh in the freezer. Use Fresh Potatoes Don’t use potatoes that have […]

How to Build a Potato Tower

Potato towers are a way to grow more potatoes in a smaller area by growing vertical. There are a variety of techniques to build potato towers using different materials but the basic principles are the same. This article will describe how to build a potato tower using fencing or hardware cloth. You will need some hog wire, no climb fence, or hardware cloth that is 4 feet tall and at least 6 feet long, at least 2 stakes to support the fencing but preferably 4, wire or zip ties to secure the fencing to the stakes, compost, straw, […]

3 Tips for Steady Potato Harvests

If you don’t have a root cellar, then you probably don’t want to have a 100-pound potato harvest. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t want to grow 100 pounds of potatoes or more. Instead of planting for one large harvest of potatoes, here are 3 tips for getting a steady supply of smaller harvests that could easily exceed the amount you could get from one large harvest. Plant Early While waiting until after the last frost to plant some crops might be the way to go, potatoes can handle cold soil well. If your zone is particularly cold or […]

3 Tips for Growing Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the best staple foods for almost any diet. They’re full of fiber, complex carbohydrates, and nutrients that can enhance anyone’s health. Better yet, potatoes are actually pretty easy to grow in your garden, making them even more attractive to homesteaders everywhere. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you grow better potatoes in your garden. Pick a Sunny Spot No matter what kind of potatoes you’re growing, always pick a spot that gets full sun. You should also ensure that the soil is light, loose, and slightly acidic (ideally with a PH of 5.0-7.0), […]