Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Potato Grow Bag: The Weird New Growth

"What in the world?!  What weirdness is this?  How...?"

It was all very strange.

I had walked outside to discover new growth in my potato grow bag.  Completely baffled, my response was to turn around and walk right back inside, pretending that it was all just a strange dream.  I wanted to keep my brain from going into sudden shock.

But it wasn't a dream.  It was real.

The last time I talked about my potato grow bag, I was excited about how close I was to harvest.  They're getting closer to harvest time, I said.  It won't be much longer now, I said.

Yeah, so... I've said a lot of things in my life, and not all of them were particularly correct.

Gee, grow bag... thanks for making me into a liar.

See, over the past few days, I've had a lot of weird new growth.  It's as though I just planted some brand new potato pieces.  That's how much I've discovered.


I mean, seriously... what is this weirdness?  This isn't the only new growth.  I have other leafy branches shooting off of stems that were in the process of wilting.  These leaves are all perfect and healthy.

Now, I'm sure there are many people who would simply pat themselves on the back and say, "It's going through a second growth period.  Wonderful!  I'm doing a great job!"

I'm not one of them.

Instead, I'm trying to figure out what went wrong.  Many questions spring to mind:

- Did the heat wave cause early wilting?

- Did the grass mulch I through into the bag at a later date cause too many nutrients to flow into the soil too - fast, causing a weird upsurge of growth?

- Did my daughter's compulsive need to pick away all of the dead leaves cause a renewed process of growth?

- Did the sudden end to the heat wave (due to the large amount of rain) cause this irregularity?

- Does that big mosquito bite on my cheek look like a pimple?

Ok, maybe not that last question.  

I was just making sure you were still listening!

You can see, though, just how weird this whole situation is for me.  My potato grow bag has suddenly appeared to have gained a mind of its own, and it's not letting me in on its plan.

Any ideas?  I have to admit that this new change has completely baffled me.

2 comments:

  1. Have you dug your potatoes yet? I had exactly the same growth pattern on spuds in my grow bag. I dug them a couple of days ago and the potatoes look like creatures from Mars with small potatoes growing on large potatoes and smaller potatoes growing on the small potatoes. Wish I could attach a picture here. This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen and I have been growing potatoes here in Idaho forever.

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    1. Wow!!! No, I haven't dug them up yet, although I was considering doing so this week. The strange new growth has caused me complete confusion, so I've been hesitant to do anything yet, worried that it may still be too early. This is my first *true* attempt at potatoes, after all, my first planting being a simple I-wonder-what-will-happen type of thing, throwing a potato out of a grocery bag into a big pile of dirt!

      Your description of your own potatoes has me rather excited, though... I wish you could attach a picture here, too! Maybe I'll discover that I've been breeding a form of weird martian potato creatures, as well. How cool would that be?!

      I'll dig them up this week, and we'll see what I end up with. Hopefully I haven't waited too long, in my caution. Cross your fingers for me!

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