Have you seen the aesthetic dishes made with purple potatoes? And wondered how you could grow Purple potatoes in your property? No worries, you can harvest them in your own home following just simple methods.
What is a Purple Potato?
Purple potatoes are basically like regular risotto potatoes and also belong to the same family, Solanum Tuberosum. There are many different types of varieties of purple potato which include Purple majesty, Magic Molly, Adirondack Blue, Violette, and purple fiesta.
Purple potatoes are not only beautiful; it is densely packed with nutrition. There is Calcium, Potassium, Vitamin C, Vitamin B, etc. in it.
You can cook, roast, fry, mash, grill your purple potato; basically, you can eat it in any way you want. You may have recently come to know about purple potatoes because of that aesthetic Instagram dish picture, but actually, the Purple potato has its own cultural value.
Why Purple Potatoes are the Food of Gods?
It is called ‘Food of Gods’ by the South American people, but recently it has got famous in social media because of its vibrant purple texture. Because of its rising popularity, nowadays purple potato is no longer only being served as a side dish in restaurants, you can cook it in your home and enjoy it.
This potato is found throughout the whole year, but mostly you can find it in September and December. You may wonder about the origin of the purple potato. It is actually found only in Bolivia and Peru, but in the sixteenth century, some foreign sailors collected it. Nowadays it is widely harvested in western countries like Europe and South America and North America.
How to grow Purple potatoes in the field?
You must be interested to know how you can grow these beautiful potatoes on the lawn in front of your house. Well no need to worry, we got you! We will follow an easy technique to harvest these potatoes. You just need to follow a few steps.
Collecting Sprouts
In order to harvest anything, the first thing you need is to collect the seeds or sprouts. You have to do that this time too. You can order the nodes online or you can find them in your local garden. You can call someone who knows how to grow purple potatoes and collects sprouts from them.
And if you are unable to collect the sprouts from anywhere then don’t worry. There is a technique. Buy some purple potatoes from the local store and leave them in the dark drawer for a few days. After some days you can see that beautiful long purple legs are coming out of these potatoes.
Paul Gautschi Method
Have you ever heard of the Paul Gautschi method? This is a super easy technique to grow purple potatoes. So let’s use this technique to produce these beautiful things. In this method, you will need some wood chips or barks of trees.
Planting
You need to dig the earth and plant the sprouts eight to twelve inches apart. Then it would help if you covered them with these wood chips and barks and you have to do that in a way so that it looks like you have made a pile until it’s about twelve to fourteen inches deep.
Watering
The next thing you need to do is thoroughly water the entire thing.
This method is famous for harvesting potatoes because the grass on the earth dies under the thick mulch covering and it provides nitrogen to the sprouts.
Harvesting the Potatoes
You can take out the purple potatoes three to four months after planting. If the plants have gone yellow, then you need to cut the plants and carefully take out the purple potatoes. Dig the potatoes carefully in order to avoid any cuts and don’t just wash them off after digging out.
How to plant Purple Potato in containers?
Are you worried that you can not grow purple potatoes because of not having a lawn? Then just chill out, we got you. You can grow these beautiful potatoes in your home now in a container or pot. You just have to follow a few steps for that.
Choose the vessel for the purple potatoes
Almost any kind of container of the pot will do the job. But it would be best if you kept in mind that the container should be tall rather than a short one. Also, make sure that the container is not toxic or anything, give it a good wash, add some extra hole, and then you are ready to go.
Choosing the seed potatoes
You need to choose suitable quality cultivars and seeds. You can find these online or local nurseries.
Planting the seed potatoes
Just like the previous Paul Gautschi method, plant these potatoes in the same way. Make sure that you are piling up in a proper way.
Watering
Watering the soil is a very important factor while growing potatoes. Make sure that you are watering them thoroughly. Also, keep adding soils around the purple potatoes. If you see that it is growing six inches or longer adds soil on that.
Harvesting the purple potatoes
You can dig out the potatoes after two to four months. Harvesting time actually, depends on the season. After harvesting the potatoes, you’ll just have to do one last thing which is enjoying the taste of your hard work!
5 Benefits of Purple Potatoes
- It increases the blood pressure level, as Purple Potatoes contain potassium.
- Purple Potatoes helps you to keep your glucose level under control, despite the carbohydrate content.
- Purple Potatoes are extremely nutritious.
- It reduces the risk of cancer.
- It will help you to fill up your fiber gap.
Conclusion
Purple Potatoes are a great source of nutrition. You should add them in your food menu.
And to grow purple potatoes, use these 2 easy steps. From choosing the seed potatoes to harvesting them, we covered all. But, if you have any further questions about how to grow purple potatoes, let us know in the comment section. We will try to answer them as well.
Read this article to know how to grow avocado?
Special thanks to GardeningKnowHow