How to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes from the comfort of your home?

To grow luxurious potatoes or sweet potatoes in indoor conditions, for example in a block of flats, you do not need any special experience. Ensure a supply of these foods all year round, ideally in BIO quality!

What you will need for indoor growing of potatoes or sweet potatoes:

• A sufficiently large growing container.
• A quality substrate that will be sufficiently airy while also retaining moisture well. We recommend, for example, the purely natural soil BioNova SoilMix. 
• A small amount of fertiliser. If you want to enjoy potatoes or sweet potatoes that are truly 100% BIO, make use of the fact that, as a home grower, you have the whole process under control and choose proven organic nutrition, such as BioNova Veganics. For potato cultivation, the organic soil improver Bat Guano from the traditional brand Plagron, which is characterised by its bat droppings content, has also proven effective.
• A source of artificial lighting or a sunny spot, which in urban conditions is provided mainly by south-facing balconies and terraces. In extreme cases, a sunlit part of an inner courtyard may also be sufficient.
• After that, you only need warmth, which is not a problem in urban conditions and in flats, even in winter.
• And we must not forget water, without which it would of course not be possible.

Let us mention some further specifics of home potato growing:

• Different potato varieties differ from one another in the length of the growing cycle. For example, early or even very early potatoes usually have a growing cycle lasting about a quarter of a year. Late varieties then take approximately a month longer to grow.
• The advantage of growing potatoes in the comfort of your home is undoubtedly the fact that you do not have to start planting as early as in a field or garden.
• Potatoes form so-called mother tubers upwards, and a single tuber often yields up to several kilogrammes of potatoes. For every 50 litres of growing container volume, you will need at least 3 tubers.
• If you decide to plant shop-bought table potatoes, wait until they have formed sprouts. Seed potatoes are the most suitable.
• Did you know that a potato harvest is made up of up to 80% water? Nevertheless, there is no reason to water potatoes daily during the growing cycle. Watering a few times a week is more than enough. The important thing is that it is truly generous!

How should potatoes be planted?

• Layer substrate to a height of approximately 20 cm from the bottom of the growing container.
• Place the seed tubers (potatoes) on the base layer of substrate and cover them with another, this time only half, layer of substrate.
• Water the seed potatoes regularly and monitor the moisture of the substrate. Make sure that the soil is not waterlogged and that sufficient drainage is ensured.
• At the same time, keep adding further layers of substrate, because as we have explained, potatoes form mother tubers upwards.
• Do not add substrate all the way to the edge of the growing container.

A suitable and sufficiently large growing container is essential

Let us return for a moment to the first point on the list of things without which you cannot do when cultivating potatoes indoors. If you are thinking of trying to grow delicious potatoes first on a small scale, and by that you mean a small growing container, it makes no sense. Do not go below 55 litres in volume, whether you choose a deep planter, a large substrate bag, or other “DIY gardening” gadgets that you may encounter not only in urban conditions and among which old barrels or even stacked tyres commonly belong. Here, however, it is good to remember that you can keep higher-quality containers cleaner, and therefore without an increased risk of pests or diseases. Airtight growing containers need to be perforated at the bottom so that sufficient drainage of excess water is ensured. The best solution is certainly large fabric pots, such as the non-degrading, 56-litre Rootpouch with handle, which you can buy for just under two hundred, and after washing you can use it repeatedly. Fabric pots ensure optimal drainage of the substrate and are made for ecological crop growing in the comfort of your home.

Which pests or diseases should you watch out for most when growing potatoes?

• Colorado potato beetle. It will probably not surprise you that the well-known pest is listed first. Regularly observe the developing crop and as soon as you spot even a single beetle, it must be removed immediately. Otherwise, your efforts could soon come to nothing.

Our TIP: Try an insecticidal product with a natural active ingredient against the beetle – AgroBio Sprintor.

• You can more easily detect the presence of flying insects with practical sticky arrows, which you can simply place around the