🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach: https://eliasyoder.com
Grow an abundant potato harvest in a small space with the simple soil bag method! In this video, you'll learn how to grow healthy, productive potatoes in grow bags using easy techniques that even beginners can follow. Soil bags improve drainage, make harvesting effortless, and are perfect for patios, balconies, and small gardens.
We'll cover the best potato varieties, the right soil mix, watering and feeding tips, hilling techniques, and the most common mistakes that reduce your harvest. With proper care, a few seed potatoes can produce an impressive crop, helping you save money while enjoying fresh, homegrown potatoes.
If you enjoy practical gardening tips, sustainable growing methods, and easy DIY food production, be sure to like this video, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss a new gardening guide!
#Potatoes #GrowPotatoes #Gardening #GrowBags #VegetableGarden #HomeGarden #OrganicGardening #GardenTips #GrowYourOwnFood #SelfSufficiency
Grow an abundant potato harvest in a small space with the simple soil bag method! In this video, you'll learn how to grow healthy, productive potatoes in grow bags using easy techniques that even beginners can follow. Soil bags improve drainage, make harvesting effortless, and are perfect for patios, balconies, and small gardens.
We'll cover the best potato varieties, the right soil mix, watering and feeding tips, hilling techniques, and the most common mistakes that reduce your harvest. With proper care, a few seed potatoes can produce an impressive crop, helping you save money while enjoying fresh, homegrown potatoes.
If you enjoy practical gardening tips, sustainable growing methods, and easy DIY food production, be sure to like this video, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss a new gardening guide!
#Potatoes #GrowPotatoes #Gardening #GrowBags #VegetableGarden #HomeGarden #OrganicGardening #GardenTips #GrowYourOwnFood #SelfSufficiency
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Let me put a plain question to you.
00:02How much money did your family spend on potatoes this past year?
00:07Stop and reckon it up.
00:09A bag here, a bag there, week after week, all the year round,
00:15for they go into near everything, the soups and the stews and the fried suppers and the roasts.
00:22It adds up, quietly, to more than you would guess, year upon year,
00:27a steady little drain of money out of your pocket and into the store's till,
00:32for a food that is about the cheapest and easiest thing on this earth to grow for yourself.
00:39And that is what I want to fix for you today.
00:42I am going to show you how to grow a whole winter's worth of your own potatoes
00:47in nothing but a few sacks set in a corner of your yard,
00:52so that you need never buy another potato as long as you care to grow them.
00:57No field, no garden even, just a few sacks and a bit of soil.
01:03Let me show you how it is done.
01:05My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.
01:11And of all the crops a body can grow to get himself free of the store,
01:16the potato is very near the best there is.
01:19For it grows almost anywhere, it stores for months through the winter,
01:25it fills a belly like little else, and, as you will see by the end of this,
01:30once you have grown it the first time, you need never spend a cent on it again,
01:36not on the potatoes and not even on the seed.
01:40It is about as close to free food as this world offers.
01:44My grandmother, who lived through hard, lean years that folks today can scarcely imagine,
01:51used to say that a family with a full potato bin was a family that would not go hungry that
01:58winter,
01:58no matter what else befell.
02:00She kept potatoes by the hundredweight down-seller,
02:04and she saved her own seed every single year without fail, in a box in the cool dark,
02:11and I do not believe she bought a seed potato in the last forty years of her life.
02:17She had gotten free of it entirely long before,
02:21and she counted that freedom a greater riches than money in a jar.
02:26I have come to think she was right.
02:29Before I go on, I will say this once, and then leave it be.
02:33I gathered the whole of it, all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book.
02:40You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:44The book is the long version.
02:46If you want it, it is there.
02:48I will not mention it again.
02:51Now, I have shown you before, in other videos,
02:54the fine points of how a potato grows in a container.
02:58How the crop forms up along the buried stem, and not down on the roots,
03:03which is the whole reason the sack method works.
03:06And how you hill it up with soil as it grows.
03:10So I will not go over all that same ground again in full today.
03:15And if you want that closer, how-to, you can find those.
03:20Today, I want to stand back and show you the bigger thing.
03:24The whole picture of how a few sacks of potatoes sets a family free of ever buying them.
03:31And I will give you what you need to do it, start to finish, along the way.
03:36So let me start with why a sack, of all things.
03:40Because a sack costs you nothing, and you likely have some already, or can get them for the asking.
03:48Any stout sack will serve.
03:51An old feed sack, a burlap grain bag, a coffee sack, a heavy woven bag of any kind,
03:58even an old barrel, or a sturdy tub with holes knocked in the bottom.
04:04You do not need to buy a special thing.
04:07The whole beauty of it is that it costs you nothing to set up.
04:11And a sack has real advantages over a hole in the ground for growing potatoes,
04:17which is why I favor it even having good ground to spare.
04:21A sack sits up off the cold earth and warms quick in the spring, so you can start earlier.
04:28It drains freely through the weave, so your potatoes never sit in a waterlogged patch and rot,
04:36which is the great killer of potatoes.
04:38You can set it on a porch, a patio, a bit of gravel, a rooftop, anywhere at all,
04:45so a body with no garden ground whatever can still grow a good crop.
04:51And come harvest, you do not dig and spear half your crop with the fork.
04:57You just tip the sack over and pour the potatoes out clean.
05:01For a great many folks, a row of sacks is simply the best way there is to grow a potato,
05:07not the second best.
05:09Now let me walk you through the whole of it, plainly, so you have all you need.
05:13It begins with your seed potatoes, and here is your one and only cost,
05:19and it is a small one and a one-time one, as you will see.
05:23A seed potato is just a potato you plant, and it grows into a whole plant that gives you many
05:29more.
05:30You want good seed potatoes to start, and the wise thing the first year
05:35is to buy a few proper seed potatoes, the certified clean kind, from a garden supplier,
05:41for they are free of the diseases that can trouble a potato, and it is worth doing once to start
05:48clean.
05:49You cut the larger ones into chunks, each chunk having an eye or two,
05:53those little dimples where the sprouts come from,
05:56and you let the cut pieces sit a day or two for the cut to dry and skin over,
06:02which keeps them from rotting when planted.
06:04A pound or two of seed potatoes cut up will plant several sacks.
06:10That is your whole outlay, and I will show you, before we are done,
06:14how you never need spend even that again.
06:18Then you fill the bottom of your sack, and here is a thing that matters,
06:22so do not fill it up full to start.
06:25You roll the sides of the sack down low, so it is short,
06:30and you put only a few inches of soil in the bottom, four or six inches.
06:36Onto that you lay your seed potato pieces, eyes up, a few to a sack, spaced apart,
06:42and cover them over with another few inches of soil.
06:46Then you water it, and you set it in the sun,
06:49and you wait for the green shoots to come up.
06:52And what soil do you use?
06:54Good, rich stuff, for a potato is a hungry plant.
06:59A mix of good garden soil and plenty of compost and old rotted manure is just the thing,
07:06loose and rich and full of feeding.
07:09Do not use poor, thin dirt and expect a rich crop.
07:14Fill your sacks with the best, richest, loosest soil you can make,
07:20and the potatoes will answer it.
07:22Now comes the one clever part, the hilling,
07:26and I will keep it brief since I have taught it before,
07:29but you must know it or the whole thing fails.
07:33As your potato plant grows up out of that soil,
07:36you do not just let it grow.
07:39Each time the green stem has risen up a good six or eight inches above the soil,
07:44you unroll the sack a bit higher and add more of your soil mix in around the stem,
07:51burying the lower part of that stem again, leaving just the top leaves poking out.
07:57And you keep doing that again and again as it grows,
08:02hilling up more soil, unrolling the sack taller,
08:06burying more stem until the sack is filled up to its full height.
08:10Why?
08:12Because, as I have explained before,
08:15potatoes form along that buried stem,
08:18so the more of the stem you bury as it grows,
08:21the more potatoes you get.
08:23A stem left short gives you a few potatoes.
08:26That same stem, buried up tall a handful at a time as it grew,
08:32gives you a whole sack full.
08:34That is the entire secret of a big crop in a small space,
08:39and it is why the sack, which lets you build up tall,
08:42is such a fine way to do it.
08:45Then through the summer, you simply keep it watered and fed.
08:49A sack dries out faster than the open ground,
08:52so you must watch the water and never let it go bone dry,
08:56especially in the heat,
08:58for a potato wants steady, even moisture to swell its crop,
09:02and a drink of manure tea now and again,
09:05through the growing, keeps it fed and driving.
09:09And that is truly all the tending there is.
09:12Water, feed, hill it up as it climbs.
09:16No great labor in it at all.
09:18Now to the harvest,
09:20and there are two sweet ways to take it.
09:23Through the summer, once the plant has flowered,
09:26you can reach a hand down into the side of the sack
09:29and feel about and steal a few young new potatoes for the table,
09:34the little tender ones,
09:35without disturbing the rest,
09:37and there are few finer things to eat
09:40than a new potato you robbed from the sack an hour before.
09:44But the main harvest,
09:46the storing crop,
09:47comes at the end.
09:48When the plant up top yellows
09:50and dies back of its own accord in the late season,
09:53that is the potatoes telling you they are done and fully grown.
09:57You stop watering then
09:58and let them sit and firm up in the dry soil a week or two.
10:03And then comes the best moment in all of gardening, to my mind.
10:07You just take hold of that sack
10:09and tip it over onto a sheet or a barrow
10:12and pour the whole of it out.
10:14And there, among the spilled soil,
10:16tumble out your potatoes,
10:18clean and whole,
10:19a great pile of them from that one sack,
10:22and there is no digging
10:23and no spearing
10:24and no work to it at all.
10:27Folks who have only ever dug potatoes with a fork
10:30out of hard ground
10:31can hardly believe how easy it is.
10:33You just pour them out.
10:35And how many sacks does it take,
10:37you will be asking,
10:38to truly keep a family
10:40and get off that potato aisle?
10:42Well, that depends on how many mouths
10:44and how fond of potatoes they are,
10:46but let me give you a plain figure to reckon from.
10:49A single good sack,
10:51well-grown and hilled up tall,
10:53will commonly give you back
10:55something like eight or ten pounds of potatoes,
10:58and often a good deal more,
10:59off just a pound or so of seed.
11:02So a row of ten or a dozen sacks
11:04in a corner of the yard,
11:05which takes up hardly any room at all,
11:08can give a family a hundred pounds of potatoes,
11:11and better,
11:11enough to eat on right through the winter,
11:14with seed left over.
11:16Set out that dozen sacks,
11:18and you have very likely bought
11:19your last bag of store potatoes.
11:22Scale it to your family,
11:24more mouths,
11:25more sacks,
11:26but that gives you the shape of it.
11:28Now here is the part that truly sets you free,
11:30and it is the part the title promised,
11:33so hear me close.
11:35I told you your one cost
11:37was those first seed potatoes.
11:39Well, after the first year,
11:41you need never buy even those again,
11:43and here is how.
11:45When you harvest your crop,
11:47you simply set aside a portion
11:49of your best potatoes,
11:50the sound, firm, middling-sized ones,
11:53and you keep them back,
11:54and those become next year's seed.
11:57You do not eat them,
11:59you save them.
12:00Stored right through the winter,
12:01they will keep till spring,
12:03and come spring,
12:04they will sprout their eyes,
12:05and you plant them,
12:07and they give you next year's crop,
12:08from which you save some again,
12:10and so on,
12:11round and round,
12:13year upon year,
12:14forever,
12:15never buying another seed potato
12:17as long as you live.
12:19That is the whole circle of it,
12:21one small purchase,
12:22one time,
12:23and then free potatoes
12:24for the rest of your days,
12:26each year's crop,
12:27planting the next.
12:29That is what it means
12:30to truly get free of the store
12:32on a thing,
12:33not to buy it cheaper,
12:35but to never buy it again at all.
12:37And to make that circle complete,
12:39you must know how to store them,
12:41both your eating potatoes
12:42and your seed,
12:43through the winter,
12:44so let me give you that plainly too.
12:47A potato wants to be stored
12:49cool, dark, and dry,
12:51with a bit of air about it.
12:53First, when you pour them out,
12:55do not wash them,
12:56just brush the loose soil off,
12:58and let them sit a few hours to dry,
13:00and then, if you can,
13:02let them cure a week or two
13:03in a cool, dark, airy place,
13:06which toughens their skins
13:07for keeping.
13:08Then store them somewhere cold,
13:11but not freezing.
13:12A cellar is perfect,
13:13in the dark,
13:14for light turns a potato
13:15green and bitter,
13:16and in something that breathes,
13:18a basket or a wooden crate
13:20or a burlap sack,
13:21never sealed up tight in plastic
13:23where they sweat and rot.
13:25Kept cool and dark and dry like that,
13:28your potatoes will keep you for months,
13:30right through the winter
13:31and into the spring,
13:32feeding you long after
13:34the growing is done.
13:35And your seed potatoes
13:37keep the very same way,
13:38waiting in the dark of the cellar
13:40for spring to plant them again.
13:42Let me say a plain word
13:44about who profits
13:45from you buying your potatoes
13:46instead of growing them,
13:47and it is no dark scheme.
13:49The store sells you potatoes
13:51by the bag,
13:52week after week,
13:54year after year,
13:55your whole life long,
13:56and there is good,
13:57steady money in that,
13:59a small,
13:59sure sum out of your pocket
14:01every week without fail.
14:02And there is no money at all,
14:05none,
14:06in you learning
14:07that a few free sacks,
14:09a bit of soil you made yourself,
14:11and one small,
14:12one-time purchase of seed
14:14would give you
14:15all the potatoes you could eat,
14:17forever,
14:18for nothing.
14:19Nobody earns a wage
14:21teaching you that.
14:22There is no bag to sell,
14:24no product,
14:26no repeat custom,
14:27only a man made free
14:30of needing them.
14:31So it does not get taught,
14:33and folks go on buying
14:35by the bag all their lives
14:36what they could so easily
14:38grow by the sack full
14:40in a corner of the yard.
14:42It is not hidden from you.
14:44It is only never encouraged,
14:46because your freedom on this
14:48is the store's
14:50small, steady loss.
14:51The money runs toward
14:54the bag on the shelf
14:55and away from the sack
14:57in your yard,
14:58and it always has.
15:00So there is the whole of it,
15:02and the whole circle.
15:04Get yourself a few
15:05free stout sacks
15:07and fill them with
15:08the richest soil
15:09and compost you can make.
15:12Buy, one time only,
15:14a few good seed potatoes,
15:16cut them,
15:17and plant them low
15:18in the bottom of the sacks.
15:20Hill them up with more soil
15:22as they climb,
15:23unrolling the sacks taller
15:25to build a big crop
15:27up the buried stem.
15:28Water and feed them
15:30through the summer.
15:31Then tip the sacks out
15:33and pour your harvest
15:35onto the ground,
15:36steal new ones all summer,
15:38and take the main crop
15:40when the tops die back.
15:42Store them cool and dark
15:44and dry for the winter,
15:46and save back your best
15:48to be next year's seed.
15:50Do that,
15:51and you have not just
15:53grown some potatoes.
15:54You have stepped off
15:56the potato aisle for good
15:58and set up a thing
15:59that will feed you free
16:01year on year
16:02for as long as you please
16:04to keep it going.
16:06Tell me down in the comments
16:08what county you garden in,
16:09and reckon up honestly
16:11what you spend on potatoes
16:13in a year,
16:13and put that number down,
16:15for I think it will surprise
16:17a few of you
16:18to see it written out,
16:19and it is exactly
16:21that number
16:22you are about to keep
16:23in your own pocket.
16:26And if you already
16:27grow your own
16:28and save your own seed,
16:30tell me how many sacks
16:31or how much ground
16:32it takes
16:33to keep your family
16:34through the winter,
16:35for folks always want to know
16:37how much to plant.
16:39Next time out here,
16:41I want to show you
16:42how to build
16:42a proper compost pile
16:44the old way,
16:45layer upon layer,
16:47so that you make
16:48your own rich black soil
16:50to fill these sacks with
16:52for nothing.
16:53For you will need
16:54a good deal of good soil
16:56to fill a row
16:57of potato sacks,
16:59and buying it by the bag
17:00would spoil the whole
17:02thrift of the thing.
17:04That compost pile
17:05is how you make
17:06the very soil
17:08this all depends on
17:09for free.
17:10It is the foundation
17:12under all of it,
17:13and it is past time
17:15I showed you.
17:16But for now,
17:18remember this.
17:19There is a great difference
17:21between buying a thing
17:22cheaper
17:23and never having
17:24to buy it at all,
17:26and it is the second one,
17:28the true freedom,
17:30that the old ways
17:31are really after.
17:33A few sacks
17:34in the corner of the yard,
17:35and you have taken
17:37one whole item
17:38off your grocery list
17:40for the rest of your life.
17:42Do that with potato
17:44after crop after crop,
17:46and one day you look up
17:48and find the store
17:49has very little left
17:51to sell you.
17:52The people who built
17:54this country
17:54with their hands
17:55knew that,
17:56and we are only
17:58just starting
17:59to remember it.
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