The following article is all about growing potatoes indoors, and is going to answer all your questions on how to grow potatoes indoors.
While growing anything indoors, you always have to keep in mind the amount of light available for that plant. Growing potatoes or any kind of indoor plants will require a good amount of light, moisture, and other nutrients. But what is the technique to grow them? Have a look…
There are many ways of growing potatoes indoors. Growing potatoes in bags and tires are just two of them. You see, it is not rocket science, and the technique is very simple as well. All you need to do is have a little patience and take proper care of the potato seeds. Buy a few potato seeds from a nursery, (for a beginner, it is advisable to begin with three or four only), and a bag full of soil. Now, you have to find the right conditions for these potato seeds to grow. Adequate moisture, the right temperature, and enough of sunlight has to be provided. In addition to this, you will also need a deep container where you shall place all this. Choose a container which has a wide mouth, as this will allow as much sunlight as possible to reach the potatoes. Add two to three inches of soil in the container and place the seeds in them. Take care that all the seeds have at least two to three inches of soil from all sides. This gives them enough space to grow. Mound the soil slightly around the container.
Adequate moisture is one of the most important tips for planting potatoes over here, considering the fact that the indoors are much drier than outdoors. You have to water the potato seeds continuously and at regular intervals as well. If they don’t get enough moisture, the health benefits of potatoes will be reduced, and their taste will be ruined as well. After a week or so, you will see that the potato shoots start coming out. Put more soil into the container and cover the shoots again. All you have to do now is to regularly water the plants.
Under Lights
As I have mentioned before, growing potatoes require sunlight, but you may not always find sunlight in an indoor setting. You can use a regular fluorescent light fixture as a substitute. One thing you have to remember though, is that outdoor potato plants get about fourteen hours of sunlight daily. So see to it that the indoors potato plants also get about the same time of fluorescent light.
In Winter
The ideal soil temperature for growing potatoes is about 15ºC to 20ºC, which is about equal to room temperature. But when you are attempting to grow potatoes in winter, the temperature will be far less than ideal. I suggest that you keep your indoor potatoes setup at your furnace room. There, you are most likely to have ideal temperatures. If you don’t have a furnace room, keep the setup in the room where you have the heater, so that the potatoes get an ideal temperature.
Hydroponically
The hydroponic method of growing potatoes is to grow them without using soil. A plant doesn’t necessarily need to have soil if it is getting the required nutrients and other growing conditions. Growing potatoes hydroponically is actually quite interesting, and there are many different types of potatoes which can be grown hydroponically. Out of many different ways of growing potatoes hydroponically, to grow them using compost is the easiest way. In this method, just replace the soil with compost. There is one key difference over here though. The potatoes will require fresh compost every now and then. So, you have to provide fresh compost in about regular intervals of a week or so.
By reading this article, I think you must have got a good idea on how to grow potatoes indoors. Growing potatoes indoors requires a little bit of patience and good care for the vegetable. So if you don’t fret away from that, you are bound to have a good crop.
