by Julie Christensen
Potatoes, taters or spuds — whatever you call them — there’s never been a better time to grow them. Potatoes are widely available in grocery stores and reasonably priced, but there’s something magical about growing them at home. First, the plants themselves are beautiful. They have green serrated leaves, purple flowers and a bushy, rounded form. And, harvesting potatoes is a little like going on a treasure hunt. Pop a seed potato in the soil, wait a few weeks, and voila—tucked away from view is a bounteous harvest just waiting to be found.
Another reason to grow potatoes is for variety. A generation ago, gardeners contented themselves with growing two types of potatoes – red potatoes and russets. Today, you can try blue, gold or fingerling potatoes. These potatoes command a premium price at the grocery store and are marketed as “gourmet.” However, they take no more work in the garden than regular old russets, and you can find the seed potatoes at garden centers and feed stores for a song.
Probably the main reason most people don’t grow potatoes is because of a lack of space. Like tomatoes, potatoes do take up more space in the garden than, say, lettuce or carrots. Their per plant yield is high, though. If you’ve avoided growing potatoes because you don’t have the room, take heart. Potatoes can be grown in containers with great success. Below we’ve corralled a few of our favorite ideas for growing spuds.
Potato Tower. This 4-foot tower is absolutely brilliant because you can harvest 25 pounds or more of potatoes growing in a 2 foot space. The simple plan calls for a chicken wire enclosure filled with compost and straw. The potatoes are planted in layers spaced 1 foot apart. Like strawberries in a strawberry planter, the potato plants grow on the outside of the chicken wire enclosure, completely engulfing it by summer’s end. The potatoes themselves have plenty of room to grow in the compost.
Potato Box. Developed by Greg Lutovsky, owner of Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a family-run farm in Washington, this strategy is similar to the potato tower. Lutovsky builds a simple wooden box and layers potatoes with lightweight soil or compost. He recommends using disease-free, long-season potato varieties and coiling a soaker hose through the box to keep the layers moist. He says he’s grown 80 pounds of potatoes in one 4 foot box, although one customer grew 125 pounds of potatoes!
The Barrel Method. If you don’t favor building a container out of chicken wire or wood, try the fast and easy version. Grow potatoes in any large container, such as a plastic trash can or a whiskey barrel. Use lightweight soil, layer the potatoes and keep the soil consistently moist. This no muss, no fuss strategy can yield 50 to 80 pounds of potatoes.
Recycled Materials. If you like to use what you already have on hand, try planting potatoes in a cardboard box. At the end of the season, the cardboard box will have almost disintegrated and you can toss it out with no guilt. Or how about using old tires as a container for potatoes? Simply stack two or three tires on top of each other and fill the tires with compost, according to Vegetable Gardener.
Grow Bags. For those of you favoring a more high-tech approach, why not try the grow bag, available at nurseries or online. These reusable felt bags can hold up to 15 gallons of soil or compost. Their main advantage is that they provide excellent drainage – a must for growing tasty potatoes. They also fold down for compact storage during the winter. Grow bags will typically last for several years.
Homemade Grow Bags. Like the idea of grow bags, but cringe at the price? Try making your own from landscaping fabric.
Trash Bags. Here’s one of the simplest methods for growing potatoes in a container – a large, heavy-duty trash bag. Make some holes in the bag for adequate drainage and fill the bag with compost. Layer the potatoes and line the bag with straw. Black trash bags collect heat from the sun so the potatoes grow well even in cooler climates.
Why do people keep promoting this? It doesn’t work . If you want proof go look up all the utube videos from people who have tried and failed, some of them multiple times. Potatoes only form on the roots of the plant and roots only form at the base of the stem. Period. Growing a longer stem gets you nothing but wasted energy that could have been used for forming more potatoes.
Yup. I tried too. I did everything just like I was supposed to and we had a lovely green display that was quite attractive all summer (I used the wire caging lined with straw version), but the harvest was extremely low and disappointing. I’m concentrating on other expensive crops now, and buying my potatoes at the store.
Irish potatoes grow down, sweet potatoes grow up, so if you are planting regular potatoes plant them in plenty enough soil for them to grow down, if you are planting sweet potatoes, keep adding soil as they grow up. Don’t know if this will help much but can’t hurt to try one more time.
Helpful tips.
Was discouraged but you made me rethink.
Thank you
This my first attempt at gardening in containers cheaply.
I’m 82 and still learning
There’s a little detail that these posts always fail to mention, and most people who have tried this and failed don’t know. Potatoes have determinate and indeterminate varieties just like tomatoes. Only the vining indeterminate types will allow you to keep burying the stem. The others will just wither if you bury the stem, as you have seen. I know, infuriating right.
you may not be layering more tators and covering the plant too much. When greenry is 12-18 inches lay more seed and cover. when it is tall enough do again. some think all you do is keep covering stem and more tubars, not so. must add more seed at every 12 inches or so.
Don’t know about that, I used half of a potato to try and start Roses(I read that somewhere) , but no roses, but I did have potatoes. lol That was a very interesting experiment, lol
If you cut your seed potato into pieces, make sure there are two-three eyes on the piece. The cut pieces need to be dried for a week to allow the chunk to “heal”. Planting wet pieces of seed potatoes will rot inthe soil and never grow.
I also tried to grow roses from a cut in half potato with my friends stems of scented roses they never grew but I have lots of lovely green leaves some are starting to flower. I put the stems in honey. In a big container with holes in the bottom . Looks like I am growing Rose potato’s.
Potatoes are either determinate or indeterminate just like tomatoes. Determinates never grow more stollen that produce tubers beyond the “green point” – the point the tiny potato stem emerges through the soil. As you add soil NO stollen are formed along the stems. Indeterminantes in contrast do form stollens along the stems and continue to grow as new soil is added such as in a tower method. Tubers will then form all along the vertical stem on the stollen.
Any suggestions of varieties? Which potatoes are indeterminates?
I would like to know the same thing. I looked on my seed potato package and it does not state determinate or indeterminate.
determinate potatoes, the most popular types are:
Caribe
Norland
Russet Norkotah
Red Norland
Ratte Potatoes
Chieftain
Yukon Gold
Sierra Rose
Sierra Gold
Gold Rush
Adirondack Blue
Adirondack Red
Indeterminates:
Russet Burbank
Ranger Russet
Alturas
Century Russet
Russet Nugget
German Butterball
Strawberry Paw
Green Mountain
Canela Russet
Bintje
Red Pontiac
Maris Piper
Lehigh
German Butterball
Red Maria
Butte
Elba
Red Cloud
Katahdin
Desiree
I read that Red Pontiac is determinate. But check online. There are lists all over the place.
You must be growing a determinate variety. Indeterminate potatoes are the ones that require hilling. Check out the difference.
when planting I cut them in half, dip them in organic phosphorus-potassium fertiliser and plant
Helpful and informative, I like it.
Never ever grow potatoes in tyres. They’re toxic and you’re essentially washing chemicals into your food. Also the dry out really quickly so the harvest is universally poor.
I have grown them twice but only a couple plants. And i used potatoes that grew eyes from some I bought. Both time I had potatoes. But I do want to try the cardboard boxes this year so I can plant them adjunct to my garden. That way I’ll have more room for my other plants.
I do this every year with great results in grow bags. You need to use an indeterminate variety if you want potatoes that grow up the stem and not just at the bottom of the container.
We have been growing potatoes from store bought ones that began to sprout. We used white or red potatoes from the supermarket and did not cut them, if they were sprouting we put the whole potato in the soil. Figured the potatoes itself would nourish the new growth. Mesh laundry baskets with broken handles work really well. The plants grew out of the top and sides. Kept moist in sunny area but not soggy. In the fall when the leaves died off we dumped the soil out of the baskets and rooted through for the potatoes. One broken laundry basket equaled three meals.
Learned a lot from these comments. No One ever mentioned types of potatoes, determinate or indeterminate. Now I know why my potatoes never produce much. Many thanks.