Need advice on planting potatoes in cages

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essentialplanet Wilsonville, OR(Zone 8b) Apr 04, 2008

Hi,

I am going to plant potatoes in cages for the first time ever, and need any and all advice you can give me.

I intend to use a wire cage, and I would like to know how deep it should be.

I have seen recommendations of 4-5 feet and that seems way too high for me, it seems it would be hard to access that way.

3 seems better. Would just 2 feet be high enough?

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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) Apr 04, 2008

Three feet would work. When the potatoes are done you simply turn the cage over and dump out the potatoes so five feet is not a problem. You know about adding black plastic and mulch ( hay, ground , etc) as the plants grow- right?

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essentialplanet Wilsonville, OR(Zone 8b) Apr 05, 2008

Hi Farmerdill,

Thanks so much for the information - and yes I do intend to add soil/mulch as the plants grow.

It's been over 20 years since I grew potatoes, and it was in Sweden in rows, so this will be a bit differen! I am looking forward to it.

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jenhillphoto Danbury, CT(Zone 6a) Apr 07, 2008

I used two plastic tubs with drainage holes drilled in them last year to good effect. They were probably only two feet tall. I put about 4 inches of potting mix in the bottom and planted the seed potato (I think I did three per tub). Then I filled them with straw as the plants grew. It was great! The potatoes were much cleaner out of the mulch! This was an experiment for me. I grew more potatoes in my raised planting beds as well.

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essentialplanet Wilsonville, OR(Zone 8b) Apr 07, 2008

jenhill,

How do the potatoes get enough nutrients from the straw mulch? Do you use fertilizers? Organic? Chemical?

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jenhillphoto Danbury, CT(Zone 6a) Apr 07, 2008

I planted the seed potato in potting soil and mixed in some fertilizer in the potting soil first. I use the espoma fertilizers, garden-tone, which is organic and slow release. Other than that, I didn't fertilize any further. It's my understanding, they get the nutrients down where the seed potato is. The purpose of the straw mulch is to keep the forming tubers from seeing any light.

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