My potatoes are pretty much chitted at this point. ( These are just a fraction of them.) This past weekend, I decided to plant a few of these beauties into pots. I will admit I don't know a great deal about growing potatoes in pots so this year's crop will be experimental.
My first challenge was to decide on what sort of container to grow the potatoes in. Some folks grow them in large nursery pots or specially-made potato bags. I opted for the less expensive option. By chance, I found these large semi-pliable plastic containers at Walmart this past weekend. They hold a little over 7 gallons each and at 5 dollars a bucket were quite the bargain. I started off by drilling a few holes into the bottom of each bucket for drainage.
Then I filled the buckets about 5 - 6 inches deep with a mixture of organic potting soil and compost amended with a bit of blood meal, rock phosphate and green sand. Into each pot went 4 tubers, which where planted about 2 inches deep. As the plants grow, I will fill the pots with a mixture of potting soil, compost and straw.
One final note: I couldn't decide on how many tubers to place in each bucket. Eventually I settled on 4, which I still felt was pushing it. I've seen people place anywhere between 3 to 6 tubers into pots this size. Common sense would dictate that the more crowded the tubers are, the lower the yield. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!
Don't ask me - i'm the worst potato grower on the internet. Really, I just can't grow them.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of potatoes! I like the idea of growing them in containers. They're easy to harvest and I like how easy it is to add dirt as they grow.
ReplyDeleteI bet those containers will work fine for you. I think the critical thing is that the drainage is adequate and that there is a sufficient amount of soil underneath the seed piece as well as layered on top of it.
ReplyDeleteNow you just need some white containers to make yourself a very patriotic potato garden display!
Mmmm...french fries. Anyway, I digress. I know nothing of growing potatoes other then you can pull them out, harvest a few and shove the rest back in. All of those being the technical farming terms, of course. However, your logic about how many to place in each pot does seem to work. Just looking at them, four would seem to me to be the maximum.
ReplyDeleteKitsap has the idea...grow a Fourth of July garden!
ReplyDeleteI don't know why the containers wouldn't work, I grew some in a laundry basket last year. My only worry would be the dark colors on the baskets. They might retain too much heat.
Interesting! I had never heard of growing potatoes in a container before. Since you are also planning to plant some in the garden, I would love it if at the end of your potato season you can share with us how the two methods compare, which turn out to give your better potatoes. Thanks :-)
ReplyDeleteSure it will work. Are you planning to add more soil as the leaves begin to emerge to encourage a larger crop?
ReplyDeleteI've seen some growing four tubers in a gunny bag, so I guess you did the right thing. I assume you'd keep adding more soil above as Sandy said for more 'tatoes.
ReplyDeleteI've tried to grow potatoes using every method I've read about. I've even tried the traditional way of just growing them directly in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI usually end up with less potatoes than I originally planted so I'd be better off just cooking and eating the seed potatoes.
Tim
This setup looks great, but I also think that the soil in them might be too warm during summer. You could be harvesting baked potatoes! :)
ReplyDeleteSo, you decided not to plant potatoes in a straw? I was looking forward to that experiment.
All around my garden everybody is having problems with potato beetle. It became so resistant to any organic pesticide that people need to use a chemical poison to destroy them. This is why I choose not to grow potatoes. I can buy those that are chemically treated.
Wow! That's very exciting. I always assumed that potatoes needed a ton of room, but planting them in pots probably means they're easier to dig up later. . .
ReplyDeleteI always plant potatoes in pots, it does work very well. You might have crammed them a bit full however, with that many in those small containers. Still, worth a shot! One thing you'll want to do is use plenty of bone meal to be sure to get the nutrients back in the soil (potatoes need nutrients for root growth more than anything, and they'll burn through a lot in pots) and be sure to keep them well watered.
ReplyDeleteHappy growing!
Great find on those plastic tubs. They look like the 7-gal Tub Trugs that sell for $14.95 at Gardener's Supply Company. It will be fun to see if they work for growing potatoes. I planted 3 potatoes per felt Smart Pot in my yard (driveway), but this is the first year I've tried growing potatoes in pots, so I have no idea what I'm doing. The obsessive/compulsive part of me wants to switch the red and blue pots at the back right so that they're alternating red and blue.
ReplyDeleteLove the tubs. I'm doing mine in containers also. I hope it works for both of us!
ReplyDeleteI also planted taties in buckets. i got 5 gallon buckets for free... what could be better... they were white, so i painted them black so as no light could penetrate thru to the tubers. I 1st put about an inch of composted soil in them, put 3 potatoes in... covered with more soil. I am adding soil almost daily to cover the sprouts that seem to pop thru overnight, and having to water daily, the pots dry out a lot faster than it would in the ground. Good luck on your tatie pots.
ReplyDeleteWhew, I'm glad I'm not the only one whose first thought was to switch the red and blue pots at the far end. Good luck; can't wait for an update.
ReplyDeleteYou may want to cut out the bottoms of the containers, drainage is a really big deal with taters, I only grow in cages and containers and have had decent yields, but they are in straw with no bottoms, the ground underneath assures proper drainage and I think the straw also helps with not giving the beetles a proper place to deposit their larvae. If you have any extra eggplant, you may want to plant them next to the potatoes for the bugs, the beetles will usually prefer the eggplant which gives you a nice spot to check for pests daily and get rid of them if necessary. Every year I fight flea beetles and a few potato beetles, and I did resort to using dust on the eggplant (which wasn't for eating anyways), but not the potatoes! I have humid 90+ degree summers here in VA, and the taters did fine this way! Good luck, and I love the colors of the pots!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feed back everyone! Yes, I plan on filling the pots with straw as the plants grow. I think I'll add even more holes to the bottom of the containers to ensure proper drainage.
ReplyDeleteHopefully this will work! If not, then lesson learned!
Good luck on your potatoes. I've never grown potatoes in pots before, but I hear it works very well.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI'm doing the same experiment, with 5 gallon buckets. I decided on 2 seed potatoes (4 fingerling) per bucket, and added much bigger holes. I'm running a soaker hose across the top of the buckets, but over at the Living the Frugal Life blog, she's got some more interesting self-watering idea in the works. Check out what she did last year:
http://http//livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/2009/09/potato-buckets-experimental-yields.html
How fun! Ditto on the drainage, I think that can make you or break you with potatoes in pots of any sort. I ended up putting less potting mix in mine than I should have, but I went through it so quickly! I added just about all the same amendments, maybe a couple of other things thrown in so hopefully we will get a good container crop.
ReplyDeleteI think four per pot should be good. I grew potatoes in containers last year and they did well. I even grew some in compost bags with the top cut off. I also tried out a potato bin and it was a complete failure, my potted ones grew better then the bin.
ReplyDeleteAs well as drilling holes in the bottom of mine, I've added some gravel, so I'm pretty sure drainage will be fine.
ReplyDeleteI'm growing mine in fabric totes. Here in Canada we have a lot of companies that sell black fabric bags to carry home your groceries. (We are trying to cut down on plastic bags here). Any way I googled potato grow bags and saw some that were about the same size as these, and at .97 cents each I figured they were a steal. I cut holes in the bottom and checked to make sue the water drained out. Rolled down the sides, put the soil and compost in, and added three seed potatoes per sack. I also came across a site where this woman made Tater Totes from black landscape material. Neat idea, too. I hope my bags work.
ReplyDeleteYes! This should work really well. I did this one year with an old recycling bucket. This year I am using bags (they are a woven plastic- left over from chicken feed.) I plan to add more soil, and dry leaves as they grow up. This method makes it really easy to harvest too! You're totally on the right track.
ReplyDeleteOne year I got distracted and didn't harvest them at the right time- I dumped out the bucket the next year and there were SO MANY and they were delicious!
I'm on the same boat, just got my seed tatoes today, and I'll be trying out Lou's method, we'll see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteThomas, One more thought on the potatoes ... if you make the soil too rich (which is likely in a container) you run the risk of lots of foliage and no tubers. So don't get too fancy with the soil ... steal it from the garden beds and give the organic potting soil and compost you would have used back to the beds. Maybe a good experiment would be to try one bucket unenriched and see how it does by comparison.
ReplyDeleteYour potatoes will be fine. I grew potatoes in containers last year and they turned out great. You don't need to buy special soils or straw. You can use leaves (not walnut leaves) and other organic materials to fill up your containers over the course of the season. I used left over potting mix from last year's flower containers mixed with lots of chopped up leaves, some coffee grounds, a little compost, and a little soil from my garden. At the end of the season when I dumped out the pots, I had lovely compost to spread on my greens bed and my raspberries.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great advice everyone!!!!!! There's a lot of great information here. You guys are the best!
ReplyDeleteI have read many times over what Leslie said, but my potato grow-bags said to use fertilizer in the bags. Hmm....I did, hope that won't be a mistake.
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