Q&A: Grow Potatoes

Can we grow potatoes in a hydroponics system without soil? Has anybody tried this method?

Tian

Look at how NASA grows potatoes, look at the tuber inducing factor, and the candidate crop testing specifically. Don't let tubers become exposed to light or this could render them inedible.

Steve

 

I have sort of done this. I've put potatoes in an 18 gallon rubbermaid container with a mixture of a little top soil, perlite and vermiculite. Potatoes need a lot of nutrients. I got potatoes, they were just dinky. When I finally got a soil testing kit, I found there weren't nearly the nutrients needed, but it can be done. They don't require nearly the light of say, tomatoes, 12 hours a day is plenty.

John

 

I've had no experience with that here. I do know that exposure to light causes the tuber to transform its starch into a substance that is ill-tasting and if consumed in large amounts (with nothing else to dilute it) can cause illness, but it doesn't make the tuber inedible. I have eaten plenty of green potatoes and I'm still among the living (and didn't suffer any illness). Of course if your only source of food was potatoes and they were all green, this would be a bad thing, so the tubers should be protected from the light as much as possible.

Roger