Does anyone have experience growing potatoes in containers? I'm especially interested in trying some of the fingerling types. I've only had experience growing Tomatoes and Bell Peppers in pots, and I am trying to branch out (no pun intended) and try additional veggies.
Can Potatoes Be Grown in Containers?
they can but don't over to the nitrogen or you will have a good looking plant and no potatoes.
Hi Hoya, we are practically neightbors! Yes I grew fingerlings last summer in a half barrel from Agway. It was as easy as could be. The tubers had already started to grow when I put them in the tub. I didn't fill the tub instead added soil as they grew up. I also grew them in the garden but the container was just as productive. good luck.
Hey what kind of container are you using for the tomatoes and peppers.
How much snow did you get? We got about 8" of sloppy stuff.
Thanks for the information on growing Potatoes in pots. I am definitely going to try 2 pots worth. I just ordered these very large fiber pots - they are about the size of a bushel basket, from A.M. Leonard. I will be using Miracle-Grow Moisture Control Potting Mix, which is not my first choice, but it is the cheapest stuff I can find and the only soil that Costco carries. This will be my first time growing in these type of containers. The pots are so big I may even try to plant some corn in one of them - I doubt I will be able to stop the Raccoons from eating the ears though.
TD Garden we are practically neighbors. I have lived in VT my entire life and I'm ashamed to say I have never been through Calais, but if I remember correctly. it supposed to be one of the perfect postcard village kind of towns. We only got about 5 inches of the wet stuff, but that is on top of the 3 and 4 foot piles of snow that still surround my house - pretty disheartening.
I used to have large vegetable gardens, but since moving to Waterville, I have a very small lot in the village and I am forced to use pots for growing most things. I do have a perennial garden in front of the house so that takes up what little growing space I have. In addition the soil is so rocky that I have to grow above ground. Two years ago I planted a Bell Pepper plant in large self-watering rubbermaid planter (I bought several when Ames was going out of business), and I ended up with 30 large peppers on just one plant. I have not been nearly as successful with Tomatoes. I have attached a photo of the front porch of my house at a nicer time of year.
Howdy neighbor, what beautiful plants! Where is the snow! I have an indoor garden all winter with what I call soil-sprouts. I grow fresh greens for the salad in just 7 days. Sunflower, radish, peas and buckwheat make wonderful salads, there is a discussion here in this forum under soil-sprouts.
Calais is the home of the 'Men of Maple Corners" calendars! Not exactly picture post card stuff! But yes it is beautiful here. I enjoy the early morning drive to work.
Today on TV a guy was growing potatoes in a trash bag that was rolled down on the sides. In a 33 gallon black plastic trash bag he filled it with about 1/4 or less with soil covered up the potatoe and then as the potatoe plant grew he would add wheat straw around the plant until just the top was sticking out, let the plant grow and keep adding straw in the same manner. He said you could use soil instead of straw, and that the straw dried out faster so you would have to water more. Oh, yeah be sure on cut holes in the bottom of the trash bag for drainage. You can probably find it on diy. He said you could grow them in two old tires stacked up.
Just a thought.
Hi happy, that is a great idea! I saw that Gardeners Supply had a plastic thing like a bucket for potatoes, of course the price for the bucket you could buy 100 lbs of spuds in the fall!!!
That is the big problem with Gardeners Supply Company. They have some fantastic products, but their prices are incredibly high. I briefly worked for the company a few years ago, and if you could see what they actually pay for the stuff they sell, you would have a tough time paying their full retail price. If you actually live in VT, it can be very worthwhile to check their outlet in Williston. Occasionally you can find some great deals in there. Last week I bought three very heavy-duty grow light fixtures that each hold 3 four-foot tubes. They were regularly $70 each and they were selling them first-come-first-serve for $10 each. I also bought a stone look-a-like trough planter that reguarly sells for $89.95 for only $18. It had a little dent in it, but for that price who cares.
TD Garden, I agree completely with you about being able to buy a hundred pounds of potatoes in the fall for that price. GS also has these great flowering potatoes that I would love to try, but for $19.95 for a pound and a half, how do you justify it? That is part of the reason that for a few years I've only grown flowers and tropical houseplants. By the time you add up all the costs of growing your own vegetables, and labor involved, farmer's markets and farmstands look like a pretty good alternative. I'm growing a few vegies in pots this year more as a fun kind of hobby, but it definitely is not going to save me any money.
This is my garden right now! On the window sill. I've been growing these greens all winter. It is relatively cheap and fun to grow.
A few months ago I asked the question "can Potatoes be grown in containers?" This is a picture of my potatoes in two containers so far. I guess the answer is yes.
This may be a better photo.
A Potato flower on my container grown Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes.
WOW! I'm impressed! This is the first time I've seen this thread. I was wondering what the potato plants would look like. I remember, as a kid, my Granddaddy growing potatoes in his garden, but don't remember the plants. I just remember him out there digging them up.
The flowers are so pretty. Do the Fingerling potatoes taste like regular old potatoes? I've seen Rachel Ray, etc. use them, but never tried them myself because they are rather pricey in the grocery store.
Janet
Janet,
I always thought Potatoes were Potatoes. It did not much matter what kind you bought; they all tasted the same. It is not true. These fingerlings are very dry and kind of waxy. That is not a very flavorful description, but they are absolutely delicious; best potato I have ever eaten. Great in salads, boiled or baked, and best home fries you have ever eaten, and yes they are way too expensive. This was just an experiment. Next year I'm growing them in plastic trash cans, because it will allow me to hill them far higher and probably double my yield. Much of that exposed plant that you see could be producing potatoes if it were under mulch.
Doug
Click the link below to see Russian Banana spuds I grew this year in a round homemade earth box container. Got 5 lbs from planting 3 whole potatoes, but a lot of the stems didn't have spuds on them. I just replanted only using 2 spuds.
http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/photos/d/6249-2/Russian+Banana+potatoes+harvest+5lbs+7-9-07.jpg
That is an incredible yield from just three Potatoes. I think that I put about 7 or 8 whole potatoes in each container. The problem was that I only wanted 2 containers of potatoes, but I had to buy a whole pound of seed. I still ended up giving half of the seed away.
Earl, I thought that these Russian Bananas were a really late variety, and that you had to wait until the vines died back to harvest. When did you plant, and at what point did you harvest? That information would give me a ball park harvest date on mine.
Doug
I planted these same 'fingerlings' in a tub last year and saved them to plant in the garden this year, the plants are 3 plus feet high right now. The time to havest is after they blossom and the stems start to dry, or any time after that. They can stay in the ground, that is if you don't have moles or chipmunks. Beautiful plants!
Peter
Doug...that is incredible! It all looks really lovely also. What are the plants you have growing on your arbor? Looks like foxtail fern on steroids! Love it.
KatG... That is Weeping Larch which is growing on the arbor. They are trees, and I have two - one on each side. To tell you the truth, it was kind of a mistake to intertwine these trees into the arbor. I am going to have to gradually cut the arbor away from the trees or the arbor will begin to grow into the trees. Also, these trees are a magnet for Japanese Beetles, which are my worst garden pest. They (the beetles) however don't seem to want to eat my potatoes.
Doug
Peter, you said that you saved the fingerlings from the year before to plant this year. How did you store your potatoes. I'm worried that I don't have suitable storage for them.
Doug
I was so easy even I could do it! I put the largest ones in a paper bag and put them on a shelf in the cupboard. Last year the ones I planted where from a garden buddy in PA. I, in fact, forgot about them and finally found them in July! They were growing already, some of the stems were 8" long. I planted them anyway and they thrived. This is my kind plant, you can't kill it!!
You might try growing your potatoes in sandy soil do they great.
I just harvested my container potatoes. I got 10lbs per container for 20lbs total. I will post a picture when I get a chance. It was my most successful container crop, and next year I think that I can increase my yield by 50% with a simple modification of my existing method.
Out west, folks grow spuds in garbage cans!
Here is a link to our local guru who got us started on this behavior:
http://www.ciscoe.com/archive/spuds.html
HTH
I think everyone should grow their spuds this way.
Doug, great looking potatoes! How big was your pot?
I have 15 gallon smart pots for my fingerlings, and i have to plant these fingerling seeds now. You are so right, I bought so many seeds because mail order has minimum orders. some 1.5 lbs per variety and a few 5 lbs.
I saw Earl's fingerlings in Tomatoville, and wow!
Thanks.
I don't know for sure how big my pots were, but they were pretty big fiber pots. They probably were 20"X20"X20." I got so much rain in 2008 that my fingerling potato yield was half what it was the previous year. Good luck Moonglow! Growing potatoes this way is a fun and worthwhile project.
Doug
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1790/
Today's article is on this topic!
I have just become interested in growing potatoes in bins. Have been lurking on UK community garden forums for part of the day. Many people have been growing potatoes in empty compost bags. Grown the same way as suggested here: bag rolled down, 1st layer soil and potatoes planted, more soil mounded as they grow, bag rolled up and so on. I too found the Gardeners Supply potato bins. Found a different bag to try too at Worms Way. Cheaper and bigger, have placed my order already. The one potential drawback could be the lack of porosity of the plastic but since our UK comrades have already discussed successful growth/harvest in plastic I am willing to give it a try. I ordered some each of the 20 and 30 gallon. They have a black side and a white side, I suspect either could be used.
http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=SBG370
I have already placed my potato seed order. Have decided to push container gardening this year, won't DH be surprised?
Linda
Hoya_24
Hi I read some of your posts. I love Vermont have visited many times. Just beautiful. I wanted to share some of my experience with you and some of my tomato seeds if you would like to try them. I grew them in a container all summer they grew like weeds and were delicious. Just a cherry tomato I don't know the cultivar or anything. But you are welcome to some to try in your pots. The potatoes I want to tell you. I helped my dad grow potato's when I was a kid gosh that was hard work. Anyway last spring just being funny I threw some of the eyes off the potatoes I was peeling into a pot that was sitting on the sideboard it had minimal dirt in it. I said to my DP just watch they grow. Later way later I without thinking put a pot of I don't know something on top of the pot with the potato eyes in it. Then promptly forgot the potatoes were there. Later on I said to my grandmother I'm going to try some potatoes this year from eyes of potatoes like when I was a kid she said oh they will never grow they treat them now. She was 86 at the time. Oh gosh I remembered my potatoes in the pot a month ago. When I got home I thought for sure I would find fruit flys. Instead you guessed it a potato plant. Yup Later I planted in a larger container until finally yes a big 12in pot potatoes they were in there small but there and delicious.
Good Luck
Robin your neighbor from Maine
Now I want to try this. Where do you get the potatoes? I mean not the store bought ones but special kinds. I would like to try the red potatoes. I thank my Dad grew potatoes and I know he grew peanuts in Arkansas.
Thanks Linda
The colored ones I bought came from a very small supplier here close to home the white yellow came from my potato basket.t I hear this company is very good. They do mail order http://www.fedcoseeds.com/moose.htm
Robin
You can also try www.potatogarden.com They have smaller
quantities than most so you can try different kinds that you might
not be able to get at the store.
Annie
The problem with a lot of these "fancy organic many a variety to select from seed potatoes" are I find they are far too expensive. Part of my reason to grow potatoes and other vegies is to save money. I think this year I will just plant potatoes that I have bought at the store that have sprouted from keeping around too long. In the past, I have bought some of these fancy seed potatoes and I have to say that $19.95 or more for a few tubers is way to much money - might just as well buy them at the store to eat, and save yourself the work, if you have to pay that much up front.
Doug
I second that that's where most of mine come from. I do buy a few fancy ones to plant.
Robin
I was just looking at the Burpee catalog this morning and 10 small tubers were selling for $17.95 plus shipping. That much money would buy a lot of potatoes. The best thing to do if you are going to plant these specialty potatoes would be to hold a few over for seed use every year.
Robin, it is always nice to meet another neighbor from the frozen Northeast. It was minus 8 degrees here this morning, and it is making me really wish for spring to arrive early this year.
Doug
What a nice idea - early spring!
I have another question. When is the best time to plant the potatoes? I want to grow them in big wine barrels. I am in zone 9 N. California. Full sun? how much water? I just realized I dont know squat. lol
Linda
I looked at the potatogarden.com site, like the smaller quanties, 1/2 lb would be just about right for me. There is no listing in DG's Watchdog for this company, would like to hear from folks that have ordered from them.
I have 2 of GS potatoe pots that I ordered last fall from their sale, but may have to order 1 or 2 more as I was thinking of growing parsnips in one of them.
I may just go to my local feed & grain store for my seed potatoes if the shipping is to high at potatoegarden.com. I'm sure that the local store will only carry basic seed potatoes that are grown by farmers in this area.
You might want to check out www.smartpots.com
for 15gal. pot for your potatoes.
Annie