We are trying something new (or old, depending on who you are) in The Soul Patch; a potato tower. Erik Warner, founder of The Soul Patch, was inspired to include a potato tower in The Soul Patch after seeing one installed in the community garden on the campus of St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN.
The concept of a potato tower is that as the plant grows, successive levels of a box built around the plant are added. Each level adds soil in a vertical tower, allowing potatoes to grow above ground. Not only does this method allow for above ground harvest, it is supposed to increase production. This is being done as an experiment around two potato plants which may produce an average yield, an increased yield, or we may have just killed two potato plants….we’ll wait and see.
Potato Tower in The Soul Patch.
I’ll be curious to watch your potatoes, I’m not sure we’d have a prayer here in Florida. We’ve not broken ground yet for our garden, hoping for our fall season. The gardeners are coming, but we MUST have irrigation before we can start. If the rain barrells will work, there’s enough rain to cover the gardens. If there’s no rain in the barrells, it’s because there’s just no rain. I’m going to keep watch though–we have ton’s of black-eyed peas in our test plot, and some tomatoes that we’ll need to switch out for something hardier–