John Fowkes dumps a small container of purple potatoes to find How dark potatoes can grow. This short video shows the inside and out side of a Purple Potato and Urges all to Grow Someplace.

John Fowkes has been growing gardens off and on for 30 years in the Pacific Northwest. As a youngster in Florida he developed fond memories of gardening while gardening with his mother. After her passing he was brought to Whidbey Island and at 15, found a mentor. His neighbor Jim Smith grew wonderful organic heirloom plants and proved that with care you can grow where they say you can’t. Don’t believe what they say, just keep trying. John now has gardens to the north of a bank of trees that shadows his garden most of the day but still makes it work. “You can do it, Just Grow Someplace!”
Garden channel in the Pacific Northwest, on Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor

This is the first time growing potatoes in a grow bag. The first bag was ok. The Purple Viking grew to a nice size, but the Augusta were very small. Three more bags to go
Video Rating: / 5

Purple Potatoes, When Potatoes move to the darkside, Harvested from a container, Grow someplace

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14 Comments

  • DJMovit

    Well it's a start and you got a couple good size ones. Last year I did potatoes for the first time and did well considering I didn't follow the instructions. My plants are starting to die back. I'll post an update when I check mine in the five gallon pail's and the 55 gallon drum

  • The Garden Pit

    Thank you and yes I am. Been waiting a loooooong time for a season like the O's are having. Another WIN today too! I have never tried to grow potatoes for a fall crop before. Some of my spring planted potatoes are growing in the garden. When I dig the rest of my potatoes (this weekend) I'm going to plant the sprouted ones in bags and see what happens. I think it's worth a shot planting some. They like cool weather. Just plant them in a very sunny location and protect them from frost.

  • B Murphy

    Well done! I assume you are in MD from your hats. (How bout them O's?!!!) I am in MD as well, and was wondering if its too late to do fall potatoes. Ive never grown them in my garden before.

  • The Garden Pit

    I don't know why the white potatoes were so small. I know that they are a smaller variety then the red ones, but the grew bigger in the garden, as you will see in the next video. I have never grown the Purple Viking before. It's a white flesh and they say it has a sweet taste to them and they get a little sweeter after storage, but not sweet like a sweet potato. The plants die back when they are ready for harvest. Mine died back a month ago. There was a few dried stems when I dug half of them up

  • The Garden Pit

    I'm going to grow more in bags next season. It's a challenge now to do it better. The challenge is one of the fun parts and seeing what you end up with in the end. Growing something under ground that you can not see, then digging it up and seeing what you get is exciting. You never know what you are going to end up with until you dig them up.

  • The Garden Pit

    Much easier then digging them in my garden. I dug some of the potatoes from my garden after I shot the video. The tree root that have grown in the bed since I planted the potatoes were crazy. I had a hard time digging the potatoes up. I will do more grow bags next year. I'm going to try a few bags this fall and see how they do. A few potatoes have sprouted in the garden and they are a foot tall.

  • baconsoda

    Those potatoes look like they are really good quality so it would be worth another try to see if you get more. Maybe the other bags will give more spuds but it's all a game of chance I think. I've sent you a message.

  • onlybev1

    Been waiting for your next vid.. Talk about easy harvesting. Wow. Why do you think the white ones were so little? What do the purple viking potato taste like? Never had them. I am waiting for my sweet potato harvest. It is looking good. How did you know when to harvest? Did the leaves turn brown? Thanks Bev

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