Container grown potatoes?

[Dace]

I just came across this...looks interesting.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=30464

 

[HEChicken]

I planted in straw one year, just a dab of dirt where I put the spud piece. You do have to add some compost tea or fertilize a couple times. Had great results, held the moisture really well.

Are you saying you plant in a straw bale? I have a few of those this year that I'm uncertain what to do with - perhaps that would be a viable option for me too. I saw a YouTube video a few months ago of a guy that collects urine and pours it into a straw bale (a little dirt on top to innoculate) and it composts really well. After it has turned into composts, he plants directly in the bales. Hmmm....maybe I'll have to try this as an experiment this year.

 

[yourbadd]

I grew potatoes in stacked tires last year and it worked great! I did have a few issues with mice making nests in the tires and eating a few spuds but will put a piece of hardware cloth down first to discourage them from digging up from the bottom. A piece on top will help too.
I like the idea of using straw for each subsequent layer of tire...it'll make harvesting a lot easier and less messy! Not sure how everyone else did it but I just gently knocked the tires over onto a tarp and dug through to find the taters. I was then able to gather up the dirt and either spread it in the raised beds or add it to the compost pile.

I've also grown them in large plastic totes. I drilled drainage holes then added about 5-6 inches of dirt to plant the seeds. Then just kept topping off the dirt as the plant grew. Either way, it's a great way to grow them!

BTW-I've also grown sweet potatoes in the tires. Just filled on tire, put the plant in and let the vine grow up the fence. I had HUGE, delicious sweet tater!!

 

[ORChick]

Thanks everyone, I think I am beginning to see a way here. Thank you for the link Dace; I must admit that I didn't even think about going over to the Easy Garden, just came to my friends at SS, knowing they would have answers for me

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

All we do is lay down a thick layer of hay and leaf mulch, and plant the spuds.
Then add manure and more straw as needed.

Bales are tricky. You need to loosen them up first

 

[Kimba]

I'm doing it right now, inside my greenhouse. I am using a "Garden Gourmet" compost bin which holds 80 gallons- too small to be much good for composting, but I think it's going to be great for growing potatoes indoors!

I started off with about 8-10" of old potting soil on the bottom. Once the plants grew above that I started adding buckets of shredded leaves/grass clippings which we had stored in the barn last Fall. This type of compost bin can be assembled in sections, so I started with just the bottom section and added more layers as I went. I just put the top level on today. The plants started blooming about a week ago, so I hope to have potatoes before too much longer.

The bin has a little door on the side, down at the bottom, which slides up. I slid it up today to look inside and the soil was just filled with roots!!!!

I did try this method outdoors last year but I foolishly put some fresh grass clippings on top of the plants and cooked them to death

Kimba

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I am looking at doing some container gardening with a portion of my root veggies, so that way when it gets cold I can bring them in and harvest them fresh when I am ready to use them; rather than doing a cold storage. I just figured it would be a way to preserve as much of the vitamins and living enzymes as possible (of course I could be wrong )

In the past I have used tires and then buried the plant in hay towards the end of fall, but it was really a PITA to digg them out from under several feet of snow. Unfortunately I do not have a cellar. Let me know how it works for you, and I will do the same

Good Luck with your Garden!

 

[Marianne]

I planted in straw one year, just a dab of dirt where I put the spud piece. You do have to add some compost tea or fertilize a couple times. Had great results, held the moisture really well.

Are you saying you plant in a straw bale? I have a few of those this year that I'm uncertain what to do with - perhaps that would be a viable option for me too. I saw a YouTube video a few months ago of a guy that collects urine and pours it into a straw bale (a little dirt on top to innoculate) and it composts really well. After it has turned into composts, he plants directly in the bales. Hmmm....maybe I'll have to try this as an experiment this year.

No, I just put down lots of loose straw, sometimes a bit of soil where I'm going to put the potato piece, and then more straw. You have to add some compost water or something for nutrients a couple 2-3 times during the growing period, I heard. I did that the first year.

Last year (and this year, too) I just put the potato piece on the ground and covered it up with loose straw. Did nothing else other than water once in a while. That straw really holds the moisture. There must have been plenty of nutrients in the soil as I had a respectable crop. I use several bales of straw every year for mulch. Love that stuff. My garden soil gets better every year without any tilling or trouble. I don't do true composting, just toss everything into the garden somewhere and let the hens help with garden cleanup, etc.

I tried growing stuff in bales - disaster! But it was my own fault. You have to add high nitrogen stuff aka hot chicken poo (I thought) and let it compost a while, then plant in that spot *later*. I thought the chicken pucky would get it going fast, take that out and plant with regular compost in there. Har. Everything burned since I didn't wait near long enough. By the time I tried to move the bales, the bottoms were so saturated with water/rain and full of grubs like you wouldn't believe. Hens were helping me out that day and they thought it was great. Lots of people plant in bales and have really good results.

I'm going to try urine this year (shhh, don't tell anyone in my family). Dilute 1 part urine to 10 parts water, I've been told. I don't know that I want to just go out and pee on my potatoes, but I think I'll 'water' a tomato plant or something and see how it goes.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I need to figure out QUICK what to do about my garden. Seems the neighbors who offered to share the tractor did something else instead. Meanwhile, we went from freezing nights to having lows from 50-65 and days in the 80's like THAT.

My garden area is pathetic. Uneven, bad soil. Lots of low weeds. When it DOES rain, it tends to puddle and stay in some spots for days. I just don't think it's workable really, and I'm having to do it all with part-time effort and pretty much zero money.

I'm interested in the ideas about the straw for potatoes. Would last year's cow hay work, if I can find someone wanting to have it hauled off? I'm glad I re-read that, cuz I thought BubB meant planting IN bales.

What I DO have is a winter's manure shoveled it from 4 goats, and about a dozen rabbits. Llama manure too, but it's still in piles in the pasture. A HUGE falling-down barn with a lovely earth floor of long-composted stuff that I used to build my tomato and pepper beds last year. And a fair amount of leaf litter and a small kitchen compost pile. I also have a fallow acre with tall dead stuff I could cut, but would probably involve more weeds than I want to deal with.

I need to get potatoes, peas, onions in NOW. In fact, my onions are kinda heeled into soil and growing like crazy -- I hope I can separate them ok. I need to check on planting times for other things. Oh, and I have some strawberry (pips?) that need planting now.

I have a few 55 gallon barrels I can plant in, and thought I'd try the wire cage for at least some of the potatoes.

If this year is anything like last year, I need to learn QUICK so I can feed myself. They say we're going to have a VERY dry summer and expect hay shortages too, so whatever I do I would probably be wise to conserve water as much as possible. This area usually has a long hot summer. I've heard recently not to think of it as a long growing season, but rather two short seasons, interrupted by a hot, dry, humid summer.

 

[Marianne]

If you can get old hay, grab it. Do a search for 'Ruth Stout' and you'll find gobs of info on how she gardened using tons and tons of hay...that was pretty much her answer for everything - you need more hay!
If you have some old fencing, you can make 'baskets' from that, add straw, leaves, rabbit poo and a bit of dirt and you're ready to go! If you have lots of bales to spare, you can make a raised garden with the bales for an outline, then fill the inside w/ garden cleanup dried stuff, the tall crud, kitchen scraps, newspaper, anything organic and a bit of dirt on the top, then plant. It will settle, but this will give you a start and you can add to it later, even if it's just straw or old hay.

You might get seed sprouting from the hay, but it should pull out easily, then drop the green stuff on top for 'free' mulch. If you can get your potatoes in, you can stick the onions in the spaces between or around the plants, as they are good companion plants.

Pile straw or old hay on top of those short weeds now, and they won't be a problem. If you have any cardboard or newspaper, put that down first. It's good stuff.

If your garden holds water for that long, that's not necessarily a good thing. I suppose you have a big clay pocket there? The clay pocket in my garden is gradually breaking up, but it's sure taking some time. I'll turn small areas with a shovel once in a while and dump that clay on top of the leaf litter, straw bits, etc. But I like the lazy gardener type of gardening.

I saw a picture of potatoes grown in black trash bags. They rolled the top of the bag down low, started with some dirt and organic matter. As the potato plants grew, they added more organic matter and unrolled the bag a bit - over and over. They got gobs of potatoes. If you try that, make sure you poke holes in the bottom and lower sides for drainage. I can't do that here, they'd be cooked pretty fast. I'd also be concerned about overwatering...

Just remember that you don't have to have everything in that designated garden space. The weeds are a bit of a blessing at this point, treat them like green manure. Cover them with whatever mulch type stuff you can find and they'll turn into lovely growing medium pretty soon. Cardboard and newspaper go a long way in helping there. I also can't do that as the wind here carries everything away unless there's a boulder on top of it.

I think you have lots of good stuff to work with. Just think outside of the box for some of the things, like flowerbeds, pots, your barrels, wire cages, and then remember that things can be planted in a different spot next year.

Lots of stuff vine, so think UP. You can make tripods, teepees, fence type looking things using small branches and dead wood. Then plant pole beans, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, etc and let the vines go up instead of out. That will save you some space.

The best producing garden I ever had was planted on top of grass, compact gardening style. Little bitty area, but gobs and gobs of chow came out of there.

Sorry for the length of this..and I hope I didn't repeat stuff too often.