Do you have enough space in your garden to grow potatoes? If your answer is no, you might be surprised: you can grow potatoes anywhere by using containers!
Containers even keep your crop safe from marauding critters that like to dig them up and eat them (armadillos anyone?). There's also no hilling required, so there's less work. And there's no chance that you'll injure the potatoes with shovel or garden fork when you harvest them, because you simply dump out the container.
To use any sort of container, you must put holes in the bottom for drainage. Potatoes like well-drained soil or they'll rot into a slimy, smelly mess. Hubby drilled holes in my cat litter buckets for me.
If you're planting in feed sacks, poke holes in the bottom with a screwdriver, and roll the bags down a bit to make them more sturdy.
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Then put several inches of soil and compost on the bottom of the container. Nestle your seed potatoes into this soil and add a few more inches on top. (Oh, you need to "chit" the seed potatoes before planting: cut them into pieces with each piece having an "eye" or two, and let them dry out for a day or so.)
If you're using feed sacks, unroll the sack as you add soil to make room for more dirt.
Of course, the deeper your container, the more potatoes you'll get in the end. New potatoes grow between the top of the soil and the seed potato at the bottom. My cat litter buckets probably won't yield as many potatoes as my trash can, but I have more buckets than trash cans.
When you water your potatoes, water until it runs freely out the holes in the bottom. If you're growing in buckets, leave about an inch of space at the top once you've filled the bucket with soil so it will be easy to water properly.
This container (above) is a bit over-filled, but the dirt will settle and leave more space at the top for watering.
Speaking of settling, your soil will settle a bit in the container, so be prepared to top it off occasionally as needed.
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ReplyDeleteliked reading all that is posted on your blog.Keep the tips coming.
I enjoyed it!
Thanks for sharing, this is a great idea for so many people who don't have the space to garden or the ability due to health issues.
ReplyDeleteI always grow my potatoes in containers. I use half 55-gallon plastic barrels. I get enough for us to eat through fall and winter. By spring I keep enough small ones to be my seed potatoes for the next year. - Margy
ReplyDeleteHalf barrels would be great potato containers - lots of space for taters to form and grow!
DeleteSounds like a great way to grow potatoes. Does it also work for sweet potatoes? We don't eat white potatoes anymore.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, yes, you can grow sweet potatoes in containers too, although it's a slightly different process. Plant them in a deep container, but up at the surface instead of down near the bottom. I grew sweet potatoes in a metal sink last year and am doing it again this year. You'll find that here: http://www.oakhillhomestead.com/2017/06/growing-sweet-potatoes-in-sink.html
DeleteI love your container gardening ideas. We live in a condo and have grown tomatoes, lettuce and herbs in containers. I had no idea that I could grow potatoes in containers as well!
ReplyDeleteYou can, Leslie! Of course there's a limit to how many you can grow in one container, but you can use as many containers as you have room for!
DeleteWe did this with food grade buckets from Lower when we still lived in the suburbs and it worked great for us. Highly recommend this method if you are short on space. We had a relatively small back yard with a privacy fence. We bought a few landscaping timbers and lined the buckets up against the fence. The purpose of the timbers was to get them off the ground - this helped with ants and other pests. Lining them up around the perimeter made for easy watering and access but they stayed out of the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathi for all your articles - love your site!
Melissa @ Little Frugal Homestead
Thank you, Melissa! Good luck with this year's potatoes!
DeleteI am going to try the sack method this year of growing potatoes. Found you on Simple Homestead Blog Hop.
ReplyDeleteAnother great way to make more garden space!
DeleteI grew potatoes in an old garbage can when we lived in the subdivision. I'm happy to have more space for them in the garden now. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to getting my spuds in the ground!
Good for you! Garden space is nice, but I also have to fight gophers, moles and armadillos that love to dig them up.
DeleteWe tried this last year. Great post. I need to get going on this years containers of potatoes.
ReplyDeleteI hope you've gotten them in the ground, er, containers!
DeleteMy dad keeps telling me about doing this! Seems like a good idea since by the time we go to dig up our potatoes, many times we can’t find them in the ground. This would solve that.
ReplyDeleteWith how much our crew eat we’d need a bunch of buckets!
Those kitty litter buckets work great for us!
DeleteI need to do this! I'm passionate about container gardening and this is one thing I haven't thought about trying. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Sarah!
DeletePurple potatoes are going in the raised beds today- we've never done containers for them, but the kids want to give it a shot. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSo excited to read about this! We'd been looking into buying one of those potato-growing bags but with your post we don't need to. We do have a metal trash can!
ReplyDelete