Potato Challenge Fundraiser
One seed potato - one grow-bag, but who can grow the most?
This fundraiser's spud-tastic!
The basic idea
The basic idea is very simple. Competitors pay a fixed amount to receive one seed potato and one potato gro-sack or plastic pot.
Everyone takes these home adds some soil or compost to the bag and plants their seed potato.
As the potato begins to grow they add soil / compost untill the bag is full.
On a given date everyone brings their potato sack to a Grand Reveal
The bags are tipped out and prizes awarded to the best growers.
The seed potatoes and potato grow sacks
Both of these are available from garden centres or online. New potatoes are generally best - growing well in bags and producing big crops. The potato grow sacks come in all shapes and sizes from quite minimal as in this picture to robust large bags that will last a few years growing. You cannot use anything to flimsy such as black bin liners as these would simply not be robust enough.
It is also possible to use large black plastic pots
Whether sacks or pots the important thing for a fair competition is that everyone need to be using the same size.
The compost or earth is down to the individual. Some competitors (you know the type!) have been known to put together special grow fast compost mixes etc - that is half the fun.
The Grand Reveal
On the day of the Grand Reveal everyone brings their sack or pot to one location. In turn, with as much ceremony and fanfare as you can muster they are turned out and the crop of fresh potatoes revealed.
Winning Categories
Prizes can be awardd for the following categories:
- Most potatoes by number
- Most potatoes by weight
- Biggest individual potato
- Crop failure - Booby prize for fewest potatoes
Alternatives
Another way of running this competition is to plant the potatoes straight into the ground in a long row, This is ideal in the schoolyard where pupils can plant into the ground and add an identifying stick with their name on.
The potatoes would need to be earthed up in the normal garden / allotment manner as they grow
On the day of the Grand Reveal each potato plant in turn is dug up and the crop recovered
How to make money out of this fundraiser
You should charge competitors a fixed amount or suggested donation for their seed potato and sack. That money will realistically only cover costs.
The potato challenge however provides an opportunity to undertake lots of other activities. It might form for instance an integral part of a school fair or church fete. Or you could organise an entire afternoon Spudfest with a whole range of potato themned activities.
How about:
- Chuck a spud the furthest
- Land a spud in a bucket
- 100 m dash carying a sack of potatoes
- Longest piece of potato peel
- Find the potato (A variation of Golden Egg)
- Potato and spoon race
- Who can hold the most potatoes in one hand competition
- Guess the number of potatoes in a sack - to win it competition
- Kids make potato animals
- Beetle Drive but swap Beetle for Mr Potato Head - roll a 1 for body 2 for eyes etc
Feeling Hungry?
- Baked jacket potatoes
- Potato salad
- Chips / Fries
- Potato Soup
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