Veg Grow A Lot Of Potatoes In Buckets

[Martinhouse]

Summerthyme, thanks for the decent explanation. I think I'm going to do some digging during the growing season this year and try to see this for myself, as to my knowledge I've NEVER had it happen to my potatoes when they are hilled.

I've sometimes piled semi-crushed-up leaves from the previous year on my potatoes when it wasn't possible to hill them with dirt and I didn't have any straw.

 

[dioptase]

My comment about wondering if anything could grow from the broken stem was because a) I don't have a knowledge base when it comes to potatoes, but b) other plants can/do grow roots from their stem (at leaf nodes). In any event, I am not dependent on this crop (or not) of potatoes, though of course I would like it to succeed.

Given the constraints of the raised bed, I piled it up with redwood mulch (easier for me to drag around than bags of compost or planting mix), and if necessary maybe I could add some more mulch, and throw landscape fabric over the whole thing to keep it sliding down off the bed (on 3 sides) or into the interior of the bed (where other things are planted).

I still need to go plant out my rose potatoes in grow bags, but right now there are too many things (both garden and other) screaming for attention. (And I think I have some Russel Burbank potatoes incoming too... talk about biting off too much to chew!)

 

[Galoutofdixie]

Thanks, really enjoyed the videos, and have put Hollis and Nancy in my favs.

 

[Rabbit]

I'm asking someone who knows how to post pictures to see if I can show you the potatoes I am growing in pots now. I really don't have much experience with potatoes but they are looking good so far.

 

[xtreme_right]

At the top of the reply box, there’s all the icons. The one on the top, right that looks like a photo of a mountain. Click it and it’ll go to your photo library.

 

[Rabbit]

At the top of the reply box, there’s all the icons. The one on the top, right that looks like a photo of a mountain. Click it and it’ll go to your photo library.

I've been trying to and so far all I've learned is how badly I hate google.

 

[Rabbit]

I think I did it. Here are two of my potato plants

 

[Rabbit]

I thought I was on a roll with the pictures, but alas no. Anyway, I have two more pots the same size that is doing just as well as those pictured, and then I have three one-gallon buckets that look good but won't know for sure until it's time to dump them all out.

It will surely be a boon if this works because my regular garden is just not big enough to grow them. By the way, these are Kennebec.

 

[Sherrynboo]

I think I did it. Here are two of my potato plants

So proud of you! I knew you could do it! I still have not found the one I saved to my computer, hahaha!

 

[AlaskaSue]

I'm restraining myself. The days are very nice this week and we are seeing 50s. But still too cold at night so I've just been prepping the raised beds, the giant containers, and hovering over my starts of veg, herbs and getting the spuds ready. Have a few cole crops seeds in and a few new peonies. The rest I will wait at least a week and then space out what I plant. Starts for herbs, greens, beans, spaghetti squash, turnips, broc, cabbage, flowers, tomatoes....we are almost to staying above freezing - I just have to hang on a bit more

 

[bethshaya]

What about the Ruth Stout method? Has anyone tried that in their garden and been successful?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0Q2YlQOUU

 

[Rabbit]

I'm restraining myself. The days are very nice this week and we are seeing 50s. But still too cold at night so I've just been prepping the raised beds, the giant containers, and hovering over my starts of veg, herbs and getting the spuds ready. Have a few cole crops seeds in and a few new peonies. The rest I will wait at least a week and then space out what I plant. Starts for herbs, greens, beans, spaghetti squash, turnips, broc, cabbage, flowers, tomatoes....we are almost to staying above freezing - I just have to hang on a bit more

Alaska Sue, I've watched so many potato growing videos on YouTube all I remember is he is either the older English guy or the Aussie but he got an early start with his seed potatoes. He took each seed potato and put it in a large yogurt container and filled it with peat moss. He didn't water it just left it. So I did the same thing with some small potatoes except mine were small enough to go in solo cups. Those are the ones I planted in gallon buckets. They had roots all over them when it was time to plant.

 

[Jaybird]

On a side note... Not to change the subject but i got my Rogue hoe in today. Wasn't the one i ordered but i'm keeping it. I'll order another one and see what happens. It looks beefy.

 

[Txkstew]

I completely missed this thread last year, as I was working out of town, and gardening was not on my list of things to do. Thus my repost about Hollis and Nancy recently. I've been watching all their videos and duplicating his growing methods and building projects. He takes a lot of the guess work out of gardening. I'm especially interested in moving into container growing. I have a ton of Nursery pots left over from when I was in the Greenhouse growing business. Some look brand new after 20 years in stacks, back behind one of the old Greenhouses.

 

[summerthyme]

Soooo.... everyone who tried this, how were your yields?

Summerthyme

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Is there a reason that I couldn't grow potatoes right in a large bag of Miracle Gro garden soil? I know that I would need to poke drainage holes on the bottom side. Then cut maybe 3 holes in the top for 3 potato slips to go in. Anyone know if this would work? We've tried growing potatoes in large bins, raised beds, tire stacks, and in the ground with not much success. This way, we haven't tried, yet, and was wondering if it would be worth our effort.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Is there a reason that I couldn't grow potatoes right in a large bag of Miracle Gro garden soil? I know that I would need to poke drainage holes on the bottom side. Then cut maybe 3 holes in the top for 3 potato slips to go in. Anyone know if this would work? We've tried growing potatoes in large bins, raised beds, tire stacks, and in the ground with not much success. This way, we haven't tried, yet, and was wondering if it would be worth our effort.

Other than depth of the soil and then mounding up being a bit more difficult it should work in theory

 

[AlaskaSue]

I think I want to add a couple pics to this thread today for this year’s crop….

First, I staggered planting my spuds in different containers this year and they are all looking lush. There are two varieties that I saved potatoes over winter from last year,to see if I could, and a new one I picked up at my local greenhouse. The blue doo-hickey is a late planting of bush beans.


Second is a pic of my container where I put the starts I grew inside from the potato berries that I collected last year and saved over winter. They are doing very well and I look forward to seeing what I get. Since they are not clones, as you get planting seed potatoes, they will be considered something new. Will follow up at summers end.



Meanwhile, I’m hanging out in the shade because this is far and away the hottest day of the year. Edging really close to 80 but the breeze makes it nice!

Will have to add more mid-summer pics in the gardening thread

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Other than depth of the soil and then mounding up being a bit more difficult it should work in theory

Ok. I see what you're saying. I was thinking I would just cover the slips with soil, and let the potatoes spread out and fill the inside of the bag. Nothing is easy, I guess. I'd love to grow potatoes, but it's just not meant to be.

 

[Bps1691]

It also depends on the type of potatoes you use. I grow fingerlings in Rubbermaid tubs of different sizes and get a fair yield. I put drain holes about 2" above the bottom and do have to water them regularly WITHOUT OVERWATERING. Also don't overload a tub, instead use two or three tubs. I've tried the towers and bags and always do better with the tubs. I use these for early potatoes and for the grand kids to gravel.


There are three sets in this one and it is one of the last left. My Grandkids have graveled out the rest of the tubs.

Here are some graveled a couple of weeks ago by my youngest grand child before I wash & split them, boiled them 2/3rds done, then fried them crisp in bacon grease. He loves them better than potato chips.

This is just about a third of the ones for this one set. After the grands gravel them out I cover the area with dirt and let the rest continue to grow.

The type of soil makes a huge difference in potatoes. I live among some of the best field corn and soy bean ground in the world, but it is heavy and if it isn't prepared yields a small crop of potatoes.

Any potato areas in my AO has to be conditioned before thinking of putting in seed potatoes. Lot's of well composted manure and other organics tilled in to make the soil as loose as is possible. CAN't PUT SAND IN MY SOIL- it will make it set up like concrete. You want loose soil to get better yields and larger potatoes.

My tribes main garden is at my daughters farm and her husband worked in composted cow manure for two years before we were going to start using the current main one. That and a green manure crop during the winter and tilled in the late summer. The potato area will be moved for next year's crop.

I also have two 40 foot rows of potatoes between the fence at the back of the sheds and the west field at my house. I use it for new potatoes and some odd varieties that I like. Next year I'll move it north down the fence line for two years.


South of gate North of gate

I have 7 different types of potatoes along the back fence. As you can see in the picture on the left I've already dug a few hills of some Yukon Golds to check. To the normal person who would happen to wonder up on a fence line with potatoes scattered along it, they wouldn't have a clue what they were seeing.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Ok. I see what you're saying. I was thinking I would just cover the slips with soil, and let the potatoes spread out and fill the inside of the bag. Nothing is easy, I guess. I'd love to grow potatoes, but it's just not meant to be.

Hey it's worth a shot...never know until you try right ?

 

[summerthyme]

Ok. I see what you're saying. I was thinking I would just cover the slips with soil, and let the potatoes spread out and fill the inside of the bag. Nothing is easy, I guess. I'd love to grow potatoes, but it's just not meant to be.

You just need to know that the tubers form ABOVE the seed piece you plant.,and they don't want any exposure to light, as it turns them green and poisonous. You could try planting them 6" deep or so, and then covering the bag with something like landscape fabric (to block light from any tubers that grow through the soil top.

I'm really not sure it would be worth the trouble... you get between 5 and 15# of potatoes for every pound of seed you plant.

Summerthyme

 

[SouthernBreeze]

You just need to know that the tubers form ABOVE the seed piece you plant.,and they don't want any exposure to light, as it turns them green and poisonous. You could try planting them 6" deep or so, and then covering the bag with something like landscape fabric (to block light from any tubers that grow through the soil top.

I'm really not sure it would be worth the trouble... you get between 5 and 15# of potatoes for every pound of seed you plant.

Summerthyme

I'll take your wisdom, and not bother with this idea then. Thanks.

 

[Murt]

I have started planting potatoes by tilling the soil to get it soft
The I lay the seed potatoes on top of that and cover with compost
As they grow I keep covering them with more soil and leaves and rabbit and horse manure composted with 3 or 4 year old wood chips
If I have straw or hay I will use that as well
I keep piling stuff on them until the plants hit the belly of my tractor (8N)
I am blessed to have plenty of room and a small tractor

 

[Murt]

I am trying to grow sweet potatoes in a large bag that some of my compost is delivered in (42"X42"X42")
But the results last year were less than impressive
I am trying again this year and if I don't get better results I will be planting in the ground next year and fight the rabbits that love the leaves

 

[AlaskaSue]

Here we go…pics of my potato yields so far. I agree planting in the ground is good if you can, but I have a cement-like matrix peppered very generously with head-sized rocks of granite, that was laid down by the Matanuska Glacier a while back. We have dug (and it’s heavy pick-ax work) 11’ down and it’s all the same. Thus, without a tractor and many yards of soil brought in I’ll have to stick with pots and raised beds

First pics are of a plant I pulled today of the brand new spuds, grown from potato berries I collected and saved last year. As many of you no doubt know, growing spuds from seed potatoes creates clones. If you can grow from berries, something one doesn’t see often, they are a new thing. If I can save some of these to regrow next year, I can name the new variety.

We have had a LOT of rain last few days, went to check this and here’s what I saw. Hadn’t dug anything so decided to pull this first one up:


Looked like a bunch of purple grapes. Well this one plant had deep purple, dark rose, and white spuds all growing on it:


Hers what I ended up from that one plant. The rest of this pot can wait a few days as they are not exposed. These range from fist-size to grape-size of all three colors This was a just-for-fun experiment.


This is what I pulled from a pot grown with seed potatoes I saved from my last year’s crop. I also threw a Caroline Rose spud in that someone had given me, so there are a few that look different. Decent sizes and all sound.

 

[fish hook]

I've tried to grow potatoes stacked up and hilled up, in the ground, in baskets in whatever and I never got those glorious rewards that AlaskaSue has gotten or that I've seen on YouTube.

What Hollis does is puts a series on drainage holes in the bottom of a five-gallon bucket then adds a few inches of soil, puts a seed potato in and fills the bucket up to a few inches from the top. He says you only get potatoes between the seed potato and where the green breaks the surface and it doesn't matter how much you try to hill beyond that point that is all you are going to get.

He also raises the buckets off the ground so there is good drainage, no water left in the bottoms of the buckets to cause rot.

I'm going to try it this way, plus I don't have enough room in my small garden to risk failure. This way I'll have containers placed all around my yard and if it doesn't work, oh well.

I have tried several ways to grow potatoes.Her in the deep south it is a crap shoot at best. Some years i don't even get out what i put in. I have FAR better luck with sweet potatoes. They are reliable croppers, very nutritious, good keepers, easy to reproduce saving money on buying seed potatoes every year. Plus it is a two crop producer, you can eat the tubers and the tops as well.

 

[tech]

I have tried raised beds...barely got back what was planted.
Buckets...not worth the effort.
Picked up a couple watering troughs...this worked. Five pounds of seed netted forty pounds.
Ground planting is out. Water table is so high they just rot.