Container grown potatoes?

[ORChick]

Does anyone do this? I have limited garden space, but would really like to grow potatoes. What sort of containers have you used, and what sort of yields have you got?

 

[SustainableAg]

A little late to this post, but entirely relevant...3 years ago my raised beds were full, there was a local sale of red potato starts, and I wanted to try my green thumb at growing red potatoes. So, because I was too cheap to go and buy another raised bed that year, I took a huge cardboard box, filled it with potting soil, and put in the potato cuts. Now, said box ended up on the driveway, and stayed there for the remainder of the season. When it came time to harvest them, I pulled out an impressive yield of very small potatoes! Not bad for a project that got away from me.

 

[Farmer Connie]

The looser the soil, the bigger the potato here. 50% top soil & 50% sand in tubs. Lots of sun/drain holes and not too of moist soil. Don't forget the pig fecal..

Goat is almost as good. Takes longer to break down.

 

[sumi]

I grew mine from whole potatoes, but they sprouted quite a bit in the bag, so it seems the best thing to do with them at the time. In future I will cut them rather (and sooner).

 

[Hinotori]

My family has always cut the potatoes. When your planting acres of them it makes a huge difference in the amount of seed potatoes needed. Yes at least two eyes. Don't plant them in the same field two years in a row to avoid build up of potato pests and diseases.

I'm going to try feed sacks with soil this year. I'd rather use my raised beds for squash and other things that I don't have to dig out. Fresh potatoes are so good

 

[sumi]

@NH Homesteader, we grew potatoes in stacked tires a time or two. It's wonderful! Made a huge mistake the first time though, we placed the tires in a spot that got a lot of sun, where we lived at the time, daytime temperatures got up to 120F plus frequently, so the poor plants got baked in the stacks. We should've thought of it at the time… Black tires, hot sun, soaking up heat.. Lesson learned.

 

[smurfette79]

I seen a post on here about stacking tires, or garbage can potato growing.. We are going to try both methods this year.

 

[okiegirl1]

oh, modern pioneer has a wonderful way to grow taters. I did it last year and it worked like a charm.

hang on and I'll find the page.

 

[lcertuche]

I saw on DeepSouthHomestead on YouTube how he compared the yield of cut potatoes to whole potatoes and he said it was exactly the same. So I will be cutting and curing my potatoes to get twice the yield or planting half as many potatoes since I can cut them in two. I know Daddy always said to have at least two eyes in each piece of potato planted.

(to cure leave potato piece out on the dirt for a day or two to dry out and turn black)

 

[NH Homesteader]

We cut ours. We grew them inside tires last year. They did ok despite neglect and a severe drought (when water's limited, potatoes don't top my watering list). I won't dig for potatoes!