It wasn’t my intention, but here it is. Still too frosty to plant outside but it’s getting bigger every day.
This also isn’t the best pot to have used for transplanting, I have a feeling this thing will be too big in a week.
Advice is welcome. No I won’t eat this potato, because it’s raw.
Congratulations! Actions have consequences! Now you’re the proud parent of a baby potatoe plant!
Thank you! I am taking the advice of this thread and will ensure that it lives a happy and healthy long life.
I am curious what your intentions were for a potato that you planted that wasn’t supposed to grow?
I ask because it might help formulate a plan if we can determine your intentions and expectations.
Maybe they watched The Martian and wanted to test the scientific accuracy.
This raises even more questions! Did they poo in that pot? And still, if they didn’t intend for it to grow, why did they put it in soil‽
I saw a picture of a potato Eldrich horror (posted elsewhere in this thread) and figured I should give the potato a home
A potato is much happier as vodka as indicated by common potato lifecycle charts.
Potatoes form underground but they can also flower and make fruit. The fruit looks like a little tomato. My advice is to not eat the fruit; it is toxic.
Also, it needs a way bigger pot to make more potatoes.
mmmm, tasty toxicity, yummy!
Potatoes, tomatoes and nightshade are all related species, yep. Tomato is the odd one out for not having poisonous fruit.
To be more specific, potatoes and tomatoes are nightshades. Eggplants, too.
Don’t forget peppers! Hot peppers are my favorite nightshade.
I’m not a potatologist, but it seems like it should be fine to let it grow in there for a couple more weeks. It’s happy there, and that’s the main thing.
Then transplant it to a big bin/pot/raised bed or the ground outside. If it’s root bound just cut down on the sides of the root tangle and detangle them a bit before planting. Put a big clear plastic tub/tote over it at night if it will be frosty.
Also don’t plant any of the seeds these flowers may make. They could be poisonous.
Potatoes (and tomatoes, and I think eggplants) are nightshades, and we grow them by sticking them in the ground because new offshoots are clones.
Keep it as a flower, though, its neat.
What are you talking about? Planting the seeds just produces true seed potatoes which wont look like the original potato since they are a product of hetero plant reproduction.
It looks like a vigorous potato, I hope you can find a place to put him outside
That will need repotting soon. Just don’t neglect your ear muffs.
wtf do you mean, you fucking planted it xD of course it growing was your intention, unless you didn’t know that plants grow when planted, which I wouldn’t believe you even if you said it.
I mean, I barely planted it. I just tossed it into some dirt and here we are. I had no Step 2
Yeah, but I mean your intention was still “lol this is so stupid, let’s see if this shit will grow”, maybe subconsciously or something. But maybe I’m just being autistic and that’s just what you wanted to express by “lying” about your intentions, I sometimes forget that’s how people communicate.
Sorry in any case, carry on, have fun, love you :)
Yeah, potatoes don’t give a flying fuck. Literally just drop them on the ground and half ass cover them in straw and they’ll grow.
What did you expect? Kittens? A diamond?
Omg are kittens an option? :D
You’d need to plant a kitten for that. At least that’s what I’m concluding from our very small sample size, I’m not a scientist.
Life, uh, finds a way.
You planted a potato. You had plans.
Plans to see what happened with the progress of time. I definitely had no plans involving any particular expectations
If you want to pollinate it to collect seed (debatable if that’s a good decision), use an electric toothbrush. The pollen needs the vibrations of a pollinator to be released.
Interesting, thank you!
I have a feeling this thing will be too big in a week.
The potatoe part isnt going to get bigger…
It’s shriveling up and dying so it’s using all its stored energy in a last dying grasp for survival…
You need to fully bury it, or chop off the bits where it grew sprouts and store it like a regular one till you plant it. Neither way is guaranteed, but they’re both better chances than exposed like that.
Ah, appreciate that
So if I bury it in deeper dirt, should be good to go?
Probably.
I mean, you should take the time to Google it if you want it to turn out well.
But in general bury a tuber and it’ll grow. It’s basically just a root that stores crazy amounts of energy. They all evolved to have that part buried underground.
Get a 5 gallon bucket, put a few inches of dirt in the bottom, and transplant your potato plant into it. When there is no chance of frost, stick it outside in a sunny spot. As it grows higher, keep adding more soil, until it reaches the top.
In the fall, when it starts getting cool, dump it out and sift through the dirt for the spuds.
