Clever potato growing idea or just nonsense?

Not sure where to file this one away so I thought I could trust y'all to help me keep track of the idea and to ask if any one here has perhaps tried this or a version of it. Our family does a lot of potato side dishes and probably next year (I think it's too late to try this year) we will try to grow our own.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#7ku6k6/tipnut.com/grow-potatoes//topic:Gardening

I click on the SU at the bottom of the page in the iris forum just to see what happened and "stumbled upon" the idea.

I think it's kinda cool.

Roni

Roni, That is one beautiful potato box! There are folks on DG that have grown potatoes in plastic boxes, stacked up rubber tires, and even big heavy plastic bags. I don't see why this wouldn't work. I don't know about the claims of hundreds of pounds, but what if you only got 20% of that? I'd be fine with that. If I had this box, I'd make it the centerpiece of my garden. I've grown small amounts of potatoes and found it very easy and rewarding with white flowers and nice foliage to boot--my problem was the space traditional growing takes.

Pam how would you make it the centerpiece? What would you to do make it a focus?

Roni

Roni, LOL I was just being silly, but it did remind me of a very expensive compost bin featured in one of the garden catalogues for $199. It was more than I could pay, but they looked like they were worth every penny, and I thought if I had it, I'd put it in the center of the garden where everyone could see and admire it. Pam

LOL. Okay consider my leg dislocated. I thought you were serious. :)

Roni, Yes you could make it a center piece. Depending on how you lay out your garden Possibly plant a few annuals at the corners like Marigolds or maybe some ornamental peppers or possibly one of the newer and colorful veggies. There are some very pretty and productive veggie gardens. As people are going back to gardening they are prettying up the old vegetable garden with some very interesting designs and combos. To make their Veggie Gardens as pretty as their Flower Gardens.
There is a whole thread devoted to Growing potatoes in straw
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/937306/
Ric decided to give it a try this year. Not sure yet what type of a harvest we will get but he did get about 2lbs of very nice potatoes from one plant that he did harvest from the smallest drum. I had something like that in mind earlier this spring when we started but Ric's injury really slowed us down and the Veggie Garden doesn' look near as nice as we were planing but we are getting some very nice veggies from what we did get planted.

The plants are dying back right now but they sure were pretty earlier. One type had these very pretty blue flowers.

That's cool Holly.

Where did you get your barrels? I've been collecting rain water from the down spouts to keep from paying the city for water coming and going even if it doesn't go back out the pipes but into the ground. I'd like to be able to harvest the gray water from my washer's rinse cycle.

Roni

We have a local guy that sells them for about $5. You have to be careful though that they were used for a food product if you want to use them for that. I've heard that you can get them from the pepsi plants if you have one near you. Possibly another food industry nearby. Someone on the other thread mentioned growing her potatoes in wire cages with straw and said that they take a lot more watering. I would think those wood bins might, too.

GROW A SACK OF TATTERS............a "SYNTHETIC ANIMAL FEED BAG" makes just as good a container. Start in the bottom and follow the same instructions. A stack of old tires works fine too. The black tires will keep them warm early in the grow. You can start as early as the middle of March. Using the bag your soil will mostly stay in the bag. This applies to patio space without having a mess.

Doc, Years ago we used to plant in a tire stack, it worked very well. Ric put wooden slats between the tire stacks and planted the taters through the spaces between the the rings that the slats made. Last year I tried that old trick with my ornamental sweet potatoes but the GH got them. With my OSP I planted annuals in the top.

If it's to make any sense you will have to translate the last sentence. LOL

LOL Doc, guess that was kind of cryptic. I stacked up the tires with wood cross pieces between each one to make a small space and planted the OSP Ornamental Sweet Potatoes in that space. As I planted one tire I would add another and fill it and plant it adding the spacers as I went. When I had four tires stacked up I planted annuals in the top tire like you would a pot with the OSP growing out between the tires and down the sides. The idea was to get more actual potatoes from my Ornamental Sweet Potatoes to over winter for plants the next year. I would probably have a few nice pics of the whole thing but we had a Ground Hog strip it and the regular Sweet Potatoes planted in the garden, too. I hope to try that again next year.

I tried mine in garbage cans this year... June 14th

just buried them deeper as they grew... granted not as pretty as the wooden box

July 14th

Clever. I have some old ones with the bottoms cracked that I used for yard waster, perhaps they can be put to more productive uses.

How do you plan on harvesting them? 30 gal of dirt is very heavy...

looking forward to hearing results! I just dug my small row yesterday and reminded me that I'd rather heave over 30 gal of dirt than fork it up. Oh, well, guess you have to be careful where you heave it over! Or did you use some straw? I just can't see me buying $5 worth of straw to grow $5 worth of taters.

Last time I did this I used second hand 2" X 8" plank material to make the levels. 95% of the fill was last fall's leaves saved in piles for mulch and leaf mold. The remaining 5% was a sifting of compost and my garden soil at each layer. Each layer got a light dusting of an organic fertilizer my old standard Fertrell's 2 - 4 - 2. Those plank pieces held up for three or four years as second hand well used non treated lumber. Our kids had a great time hunting up a few for the charcoal grill while the plants went on and finished a nice lot of tatters. My cost might have been a dollar all considered for a peck or more each year.
There is no need to buy hardly anything to do this if you snoop around and plan to do it next year.

Elizabeth that's what Randy is for... LOL

Sally I used what I had... promix, a bag of garden soil, some MG and some compost... no real science there

no really I was thinking of putting it on it's side ... over a tarp and digging them out that way... won't know until I get there though

:)

So when do you first plant and how do you get "seeds" just hunks of potatoes with their eyes? Yukon Golds from the grocery or go to the mill and buy "seed potatoes"?

Roni

Absolutely go to a certified seed source and buy seed stock. Grocery store eating stock is often treated for long shelf life. That is a growth inhibitor. Somewhere around the edges of Hagerstown I'm sure seed potatoes are sold. If you do a local produce market ask the growers. They will sure tell you where to find them next spring..

I grew up in Greencastle. The Hagerstown girls were always cuter at the drive-in East of the city. I only went for the milk shakes. Never looked at the gals. LOL

Another Hagerstown attraction were the Twig brothers. They were racing bikes at the speedway and recording wins all over the country about the time their mother got the diapers off of them. Their dad ran a cycle shop. If they lived to tell the stories they have to be approaching their seventies in age.

Twigg cycles? I'm familiar with it but the brothers' feats were pre-my time. I think their kids must run the shop now.

The drive-in I remember is the one on Leitersburg Pike. But the drive-in on Rt. 40 was just a shell when I was dating age 20+/- years ago.

Thanks for the advise on the taters doc.

Roni

The one on Rt. 40 was our hang out but it was fifty five years ago. It was a wing dinger of a money maker at that time. To bad it played itself out or what ever transpired. There was no monkey business there under the management of that day.

I bought seed potatoes online

Liz,You should get your seed from the mill. They are usually the most reliable. My GF taught me to cut the seed with at least 2-3 eyes and don't be shy about leaving some extra tater. I've always cut them the night before and dip them in wood ash as he did, supposed to reduce rot. I guess the ash acts as a fungicide and the over night allows a "skin" to form on the cut surface. Planting in our area is usually done around St. Patty's day to avoid frost and if you listen to the natural home farmers, in the dark of the moon to ensure a good crop.LOL
When the sprouts are 3" tall or so, start cultivating and hilling the soil, or in a container begin adding your medium (I use Promix and straw). Our containers are used 55 Gal. drums cut in half and drilled on the ends and about 3" up to ensure good drainage.
After the tops die back (varies with var. and weather) harvest, wash gently, and air dry in the dark. I just got about 5# from my Kennebecs. Of coarse one of the pest controllers had to be on hand to inspect the results. :-) LOL Ric

My dad and many of the kin folk plated tatters on Good Friday....rain or shine. Some biblical thoughts were that anything planted on Good Friday would grow well. By the moon the new moon appears about that time. Moon folks assure us things that grow better will do so when the points of the moon are up where in you could hang a coffee cup on the lower point. This applies to the Northeast and old German Dutch belief or folklure.

good info... thanks.. I will defiantly try the wood ash next year

Wood Ash...........can be considered equal to lime. Wood ash should be used very carefully. No matter how much wood ash or lime you use the PH will be raised. Potato plants will get scab if the PH gets much above 6 .0. I leave my cut seed potato pieces air cure in the shade until they scab over with no additives what so ever. They will self heal or scab over very easily without any help.

Some commercial cut pieces are covered with a fungicide powder. I find that is not needed for we who only air dry or cure for a day or two. The fungicide used by commercial sellers may be needed for the long time period in the process of cutting, boxing and selling.

That explains, my Southern MD farm girl friend, swears her dad would dust them with lime. I thought it odd knowing that lime will raise pH, but I guess it isn't much quantity.