I can't recall why can't he grow more potatoes?
Why couldn't he start the entire process from scratch, get more soil, get more poo, build another garden and plant the potatoes he had?
shareThe greenhouse walls were too damaged.
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MovieChat Forums > The Martian (2015) Discussion > I can't recall why can't he grow more po...
I don't think he had any viable potatoes left. Everything was frozen solid by exposure to the Martian atmosphere and were effectively dead - edible but never going to sprout.
shareExactly. Once frozen a vegetable can no longer grow.
shareHe had tons of potatoes left that he could have grown new plants with. Didn't you see the giant tubs of potatoes that he was counting as it was storming after and he looked worried that the tarp door wouldn't hold.
shareMoonglum, read the most recent reply in this thread before yours. It explains it fully from the book.
shareI get it now. Took me a while. The potatoes he had left that were already harvested and stored in the space hut were also exposed to the cold and thus made ungrowable as well. It didn't mentally connect for me that the rest of the HAB was also coldified when that entrance room blew off. I forgot that it wasn't a separate room, but just tarped off to contain the moisture.
shareThe book explained that the extreme cold and lack of oxygen killed the potato plants and bacteria in the soil needed to farm them. The only reason he was able to start the farm to begin with it that he had fresh (ish), not frozen, viable potatoes to start with as seed. With everything frozen for the time it took to restore the HAB, he no longer had anything to start over again with.
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