Potatoes

Potatoes are the reason 10 to 15 gallon bags exist: planted in April, buried deeper as they climb, and turned out whole in summer. Store potatoes are cheap; new potatoes an hour out of the bag are a different food.

Growing

Half-fill a big bag in mid April and set certified seed potatoes six inches deep, two or three pieces per bag, then add soil in stages as the vines rise until the bag is full; that buried stem is where the crop forms. Even water matters most while the vines flower, since that is when the tubers size; once the vines start to yellow, let the bag run drier. New potatoes come by July; for storage skins, wait until the tops die back in August, then turn the bag over onto a tarp and pick the crop off the surface, no fork wounds, no digging.

Varieties

Red Norland makes the earliest new potatoes; Yukon Gold is the all-purpose standby; German Butterball wins the taste argument and still stores well.

Pests

Colorado potato beetle finds potatoes even in bags on a patio; knock the striped adults into a can and crush the orange egg masses before the soft larvae strip the plants. Bag culture at least dodges the wireworms that trouble rows dug into old lawn.

In the kitchen

Boiled the day they surface, with butter and a fistful of dill, they justify the bag space annually. Anything uneaten cures two weeks in the dark before storage.