Potato growing in pots?

Hi all, I'm planning to attempt growing purple peruvian fingerlings and blue potatoes in large pots this spring, and I was wondering af anyone has tried this before... advice appreciated:-)

I grew sweet potatoes in an Earthbox last year. Don't know how that would compare since they're botanically unrelated.

I grew potatoes last year in a container and they did pretty well. I just didn't plant enough in it to get the potatoes I could have.

I'm planning to use a 24 inch pot Honi, how large was yours and how many did you put in it? I was thinking I could start five or six tubers per pot...

Indigoez, I grow all my potatoes in containers, but use halved whiskey barrels. I have, however used 5 gallon buckets, but the return is not as good. Good drainage is important if you have much rain, but that is probably not an issue in your neck of the woods. Here are some of the advantages I have found:

Potato scab: growing in containers, if scab occurs, which is retained in the soil, you simply dump the soil to be used in the flower garden, and get fresh soil for next year's potatoes.

Eye appeal: Potato plants drape over the barrels and look quite nice. The purple varieties tend to have lovely purple flowers resembling borage blooms.

Space: If you have limited garden space, potatoes take up a lot of room. Barrels can be placed anywhere, then moved in the fall. I grow my potatoes at the end of my driveway where I have a nice sunny spot.

Easy Harvest: I can harvest potatoes easily from the barrels without mucking around on my hands and knees in the dirt, or cutting the potatoes up with a shovel. When done, I can dump the dirt in a pile and start again the following year.

WOW! Those look like some great container potatoes. Makes me want to give it a try. I have so many moles and voles that I have almost given up growing potatoes.

containers might be an answer for that problem, rose. I've also used those 55 gallon plastic barrels cut in half.

Vertical growing is quite popular with space limited folk in the southeast. Usually use a wire cage but a big drum with the bottom cut out should work. Potato eyes are planted about 6 inches apart in amended soil so that they all fit inside the cage. The cage is added and then about 6 inches of mulch, (old hay seems to work best) when the plants get about 12 inches above the mulch add another 6 inches. Keep doing this until you reach the top of the cage. Keep the mulch damp and potatoes will form along the height of the plant. Some folk call them potato towers.

Farmerdill, thanks, that sounds very interesting. I was fooling around with some minor research and checked out the Thompson and Morgan UK online catalog and found they sell a plastic potato barrel. The diagram and description are clear but needless to say, I'm not importing a plastic barrel from England. My local feed store sells half whiskey barrels and I may give one of them a try. Haven't decided yet.
Weezingreens, the plastic half barrels sound good too.

I've considered those round plastic totes from the discount stores or hardwares... the kind that often have poly rope handles. I don't think they are very sturdy when you start adding dirt, so you'd need to be a bit more careful when filling and emptying them, but they are cheap. Whatever you use, drill lots of holes in the bottom. Here where we have lots of rain all summer, I put a layer of rocks or gravel in the bottom first.

We've tried using compost or straw mulch in the barrels without much success, but this may be due to our cool, short summers. It is my understanding that all the beneficial organisms in the soil will be busy breaking down the mulch rather than aiding in root growth. In fact, our season is so short that any additional soil to the barrels after mid July will only glean a few small popcorn sized potatoes. My potatoes are on the bottom of the barrel.

Farmdill's post reminded me that some of the best potato crops we've had have been from potatoes left over from the year before. I put them in paper bags under my pantry shelf in the basement. In early spring, the eyes start growing, and by mid May, they were coiled in the bag and two or three feet long. I lay those coiled sprouts on the bottom of the barrel and cover with a bit of soil. That seems to work well.

How do you harvest the potatoes from these 'towers' or barrels? If the ones on the bottom are the mature ones then how do you get those out and not dig up the whole plant that is trying to grow baby potatoes near the top? Also, how do you know when they are ready?

I can't speak for farmdill, but I don't harvest potatoes until the season is over. Most places harvest after the plants flower and die back. Back in Indiana, I recall my mother used to 'rob' new spring potatoes for her creamed peas & potatoes with pearl onions... yum! As I recall, the procedure was sort of like stealing eggs from under the hen... carelful not to disturb! The towers would be easy to harvest because you could just pull up the wire hoops and sift through the soil with your hands.

Actually most folks wait until the plants are finished. Then push over tthe tower and harvest the potatoes. Only the tubers grow in the mulch, The roots grow in the ground. Strange thing about an Irish potato the tubers deveop above the roots and keep devoloping as long as the plant is healthy and the portion of the plant developing tubers is dark and moist.
http://www.gardenguides.com/articles/tatertowers.htm
http://www.mastergardeners.org/publications/growing_potatoes.html
http://www.farm-garden.com/growing-vegetables/27/
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/columnists/nancy_brachey/10802830.htm?1c

Good links, Farmdill! It's interesting how different techniques can be for different conditions. Here I have to worry about keeping the soil warm enough and having good drainage so the soil doesn't get soggy. Some years I don't even get blooms and I harvest before freeze rather than wait for the plants to die back. That's quite different than the methods one has to use in the southern part of the US.

That's really interesting about Irish potatoes... which varieties are Irish?

All Solanum tuberosum, as opposed to sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas). Supposed they were called Irish potatoes because they were the main food source for the Irish during the years of English occupation. A big part of the immigrants came during the great potato famine, when a blight took the crop in Ireland. Those of us who grow both types still use the term Irish potatoes to differentiate.

Wow:-) Thanks for all the useful info everyone. The local grocery store has the half whiskey barrels right now, I think I will get some and use those, and I might also try the potato tower as well. I have plenty of cages that I use for passifloras to climb on that should work for the tower too, and I can probably find hay somewhere around.

The plants in your pic look great Weezing... I can't imagine living up there where it's so cold lol. It's been in the 50's and cloudy wet yucky here for a week now, and I am about to lose it because I can't get anything done outside.

Farmerdill, thanks for the links, very good info there.

Once I get my tubers (supposed to be in March) I'll post pics of what I'm growing them in and we'll see how each container measures up at the end of the year.

Farmdill, it never even occurred to me that anyone would be talking about sweet potatoes. We can't grow them up here... season is too short, I think. I'll have to remember the term 'Irish Potatoes'!

Indigoez, if you buy whiskey barrels, you might want to drill some additional holes in the bottom for drainage. We did that with ours. I was amazed to find that the shaving from drilling smelled like whiskey!

Farmdill, I thought you might enjoy this article about 'Irish Apples' in Alaska: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF12/1275.html