PIXIE POTATO UPDATE - HARVEST

Do you remember my two little Pixie Potatoes from a post earlier this year?  Here is an update on the Pixie (and bigger) potatoes.

The sprouted potatoes that I planted in the Styrofoam cooler grew and looked like this.  They were very healthy plants.  They got taller and taller until they were drooping over.  I was reading about growing potatoes and found out that as the potatoes grow, they are supposed to have dirt mounded around them.  I hoped it wasn't too late, as my potato plants were already so tall.  I got another Styrofoam cooler and cut the bottom out of it and fit it on to the top of the first one.  In my mind's eye it was going to perfectly "sleeve" onto the first one to make a collar for me to mound  the dirt around the potato plants.

It didn't work out quite as I had planned.  The soil got in the way and there was a gap between the containers so I made do and skewered it to the bottom container.  It stayed in place, even through storms. 

The potato plants continued to grow, until one day I noticed that they were starting to wither and die.  When the plants wither it is time to harvest the potatoes.

I could have left the potatoes (if there were any) in the soil a while longer,  but at the time,  we were having a wet spell around here and I was afraid they would rot in the container.  Plus I only have the patience of a six year old, and couldn't wait to see if there were any potatoes in there.

As the dirt from the top container poured out,  there were only plant stems and roots.  I started to get a bit disappointed.  But when I dumped that bottom container out, there they were!  It was like finding all of the goodies in your Christmas stocking, or hunting Easter eggs and finding them. 

There they were!  Pixie Potatoes and some bigger ones.  Maybe Brownie Potatoes?  Anyway, my potatoes had gone forth and multiplied. 

We will be eating some of them this week.  Yum!