Feed Sack Potatoes

7/16/2021

Society has made an enormous number of advances in technology within the last century alone to make our lives easier. Everyone has that one thing they would prefer not to live without, even if society fell and the zombies came. (I mean, totally a likely scenario, right?) For me, it’s my washing machine. Since doing laundry with a washboard and washtub when we lived the tent, I feel that I’ve earned my modern luxuries; at least I know I could do it again if I had to.

As a homesteader I am all about making my own life easier. My goats are grain-trained (gasp!) for when they escape. Solar power is inexpensive, we love our solar electric fence. Having both a drilled well and a dug well for access is awesome, as well as having both an indoor toilet and an outdoor composting toilet. But gardening…gardening has its own tips and tricks you can take to make your life easier, and I found one that I love so far.

Spider friend on my potatoes.

Pros and Cons

There are the ups and downs to anything and, so far, I have not found many downsides to feed sack potatoes. I do know many of the downsides of planting potatoes directly into the ground! Issues like rot and pests can arise, not to mention all the hard work of planting and hoeing. Then, of course, there is the harvest. I have only planted potatoes once before this and it was directly in the ground last year. I wanted to figure out a way of growing them that would work better for me.

Harvest time is not here yet, but I feel that it is safe enough to say that this year’s potato yield will be easier and better than last year. I will update this post when it comes time to harvest so that you all know for sure.

The pros I have discovered so far are as follows:

Planting is much easier.
Bags are movable in case you do not like the location.
Weeding is pretty much not needed.
No hoeing necessary.
Because of the way most feed sacks are made, the bags will not hold water – easy drainage to help prevent rot.
When harvest time comes, just dump the bag.

While hard to think currently (I will update if there are more that arise), here are the cons:

Feed sacks or something like them are necessary.
Chemicals from the feed sacks can leech into the soil.

Honestly, that is all I can think of currently. I absolutely adore this method so far, so here is what I did and what you can do, too

The Potato Feed Sack DIY

Feedsacks
First off, just as the name would suggest, you are going to need feed sacks. We have livestock on our homestead so chicken feed, horse feed, and cracked corn are a regular thing for us to buy. Therefore, we had feed sacks to spare. If you are nervous about chemicals leeching into your soil, understandable of course, then you might invest in some burlap sacks or sacks made of some other natural material like hemp.

Soil
Healthy, nutrient rich soil is the foundation to quick growth. I am getting the hang of building and using our compost, but I supplemented with store bought potting soil. Let me tell you what, I learned a thing! Not every soil type is equal. I accidentally bought potting soil that had woodchips in it and only placed it into one of my three bags. The bag that had the woodchip soil mix did poorly when compared to the others.

Potatoes
And finally, you will want potatoes. No brainer.
You will want to cut them and let them scab overnight.

Your bag will be rolled down low to where the soil covers the potato in it. I did one potato per bag, the eyes facing upward. Roll up the bag as you need to add soil. When all is said and done, come harvest time you should be able to simply dump the bag and find your potatoes!