Sadly, the deep south - excepting the mountainous zones - is a kind of no-go area for potatoes. Curiously, farther south in north florida is the biggest commercial area for winter-grown new potatoes outside of Ca. In Georgia and Alabama and so forth you have summers as hot but much more frequent and colder frosts in winter which prevent the very early planting and harvesting that they do in the st. john's river bottom. Of course, that industry is entirely dependent on northern-grown seed, which is why no florida settler ate irish potatoes until the rail lines were built.

What about some sweet-potato-bins for the deep-southerners next year?

Anybody care to give an update on how your potatoes are doing?

Here are mine.

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I stayed with the variation on the theme. Didn't have the time, energy, or desire to spend the money to build a proper bin. I did sit a piece of plywood in front of the bin when I noticed some of the leaves shriveling up to try to keep the soil from getting too hot. I see a couple of flower buds developing too.

So, how are yours doing?

I just came across this thread, and now I'm hoping mine are doing OK. DH built me 4 stacks of interlocking cedar boxes. When all is said and done they will be 3 feet tall. I've planted Yukon Gold in them. They are about 2ft tall now, but I am concerned about the amount of growth I've allowed between adding another box. Yesterday morning I added a box and filled it in, there was about 4 inches of leaves sticking out, I watered, and it was the first real hot day we've had this year, today was also very hot and this evening I noticed there was a good foot of new growth. How the heck am I supposed to keep up with this monster? I should mention they are growing in straight compost dug out of my chicken coop. ; )

It is hard to keep up with hilling. You do the best you can, and if the hilling or binning is late then the tubers will be the deeper, is all. Apparently I didn't get with it in a timely fashion this year because I'm having to grabble down about a foot on average to find new potatoes. They are very big, though, for the time of year. Yesterday I pulled a Yukon Gold that was full-size. The Caribes are big also.

Does dug out of the chicken coop mean that there was fresh chicken-manure in that? A lot of manure or very rich stuff generally leads to major scab problems in potatoes. I guess you'll find out when you start pulling tubers.

pnbrown: You may have mentioned it and I missed it, but when did you plant your potatoes? I've read it takes 90-120 for potatoes to form. Is that about how long it generally takes?

Glad to see this thread is still alive.

Wonder how Cozy's taters doing???

Pat, glad to hear that yours were successful. Okay, give us a taste report...

GardenGoodies, fine looking stuff there!

MxBarbie, sounds like yours deserves a photo or two (hint).

Shot

I made a bin out of 3 sets of 2x10 lumber. 2' x 2' squares.

I am in zone 5 and didn't plant until last week of May. I put the 3rd square on top and it seems I can barely keep up with the growth. It has been a chore mixing up soil. I just hope it is worth it. They sure have been growing FAST!

Thinking I should have thinned them out but figured I'd let them grow crowded and see what happens. Sort of wish I had made it 4 high just to see how they'd do.

Shot, I've only taken one or two from the bin so far - they are fingerlings, which are always very tasty. GG, I plant in mid to late April and get the first newbies in late June, so around 60-70 days to the first stage. By 90 days some vines are starting to dry up and there will be large tubers, and by 120 days the vines are gone and tubers are mature. Nevertheless I usually leave them in the ground another month or two because they keep better there than in a summer-warmed root cellar.

In the morning, I plan to take the Red Pontiac bin apart and will post the results here. If there are any suggestions ( such as "not yet") or requests ( certain pics), Please let me know.
It is the one on the left.


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Since they are reds, which aren't much for keepers, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to take it apart. If it was a storage variety I'd say let it sit longer to cure up the tubers a little more.......

Cozy, thanks for the photos. Was studing the background. What did you have in the cleared area? Is that squash I see back there? Tried to figure what was on the back of your tractor. Closest guess is a pto driven tiller.
Glad you got some rain, ole buddy.
Look forward to the ton-of-taters photos.

Shot

Here is me & mine at work in 2006 season.
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Potato help, please - this is my first time trying to grow potatoes and all of my plants just fell over! In late March I planted 5 seed potatoes per half whiskey barrel - 2 barrels total (red, white and all blue). I added more potting mix as the plants grew until the soil reached the top, approximately 3 layers. They were doing great - as of the beginning of the week the barrels/plants were 4 ft high and looked quite healthy. It's been very hot here for the past couple of days but I didn't water because we had a lot of rain/storms for several days prior to the heat. When I went out to water today the plants were all laying/leaning down and looked to be at death's door. I watered to try and perk them up but I'm afraid they may be doomed. Has this happened to anyone else? Advice on how to save my potatoes?

Thanks Pat, I figured it was as good a time as any.

Hey Shot! All of this area was the mater patch last year. I cleared a swath and had collards and cabbage in part which I allowed some to stay and saved seed this year. So I'm just now finishing up reclaiming. Squash is in the back and yes, that is a 6 foot tiller on back.
You look mighty comfy and at home on the tractor Mate ;) That is some good quality thinking time eh?

And now the part I've been dreading ... net yield of the Red Pontiac bin approx 5 pounds :( Not but one little pearl in the second level which was about the time of 100 temp days and perhaps also the let get too tall and vines hardened played some there. Maybe the variety and the other two will do better. Hope all others have better luck!

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Here is a link that might be useful: Continued from original Potato Bin thread

What a bummer. I just found this thread yesterday and dreamed of potato bins all night. Still going to try it this fall. I grew La Ratte and Red Ruby this spring. Thanks to a severe heat wave the first week of June they died a month early and left me with oodles of egg-sized or smaller tubers I'll use for seed this fall. Thanks for all the great ideas guys. I'll post pictures of the grand experiment in September.

Cozy, I feel your pain, m8. About the same with mine :(
Just didn't want to discourage others. As I said before, I think if I had used straw or mulch they would have turned out better. Just no room to expand with heavy dirt on top and sides secure. Will try a bin next year using straw with just the taters in rich dirt, but will put some in rows as a backup... just in case.

Looks like a serious Kubota there, Cozy! One of my late bro-in-laws would have given a arm for one of those with the bucket and front-end loader.

Cozy, unless someone has experienced the joy of plowing some pretty peas or corn (up about knee high) on a spring day with a light wind... you know the feeling.

Bumble, wish I could help sir, but just don't know. Generally when the taters get kinda mature, the tops will turn brown and die out, but not overnight. Hope someone else has your answer.

Cozy, my neighbor down the road just bought a new Kubota 5000 (I think) and discovered that the wheels won't let out to 6 feet. Now he has to redo his planters and cultivator frame.

Shot

Bumble_Doodle, as I understand it, that's what potatoes are supposed to do. This is my first year too, but everything I've read says that the vines yellow, wither and die as the potatoes ripen. When the vines are dead, start digging.
Look at the pictures of cozy's bins up above with the vines still in the top. That's normal. Do your vines look anything like that?

I think these tall bins were a good idea but just don't work out in practice. Even without the moisture and pressure problems that could be solved, I think there's just a certain amount of potatoes you can get off of any single vine. If I were doing a potato bin, I'd keep it under 2 feet. But like I said, I'm a rookie in this.

Pat, think you need to start a new thread. lol

Shot

Hi tcstoehr, I got confused when I saw the other pictures because my plants are not yellow/dying. They're still dark green and healthy looking - if you overlook a few holes in the leaves - but are lying down. Maybe they are just starting the dying/yellowing process? The half barrels are just 19"H x 24W and the growth is about another 2.5ft for an approximate total of 4ft.

If the plants are in the dying process should I continue to water?

Somebody will come through here soon and have a wheelbarrow full of taters!
I was gone a chunk of time during this and did not get to keep them filled as they grew, the heat spell spanked them hard, we've hard a very dry year, I never fertilized. It is gardening. Some years are much better than others so please don't get discouraged!
reba_nc may be right and Fall is better here ( note the heat got those too). I was encouraged by the bigger taters on the bottom and more growing up top.

Shot, that is actually a Kioti CK30 made in Wendell, NC. Was about 6k cheaper than the Kubota I was looking at and it has been lovely! We'll get the bins next go around ;)

bumble_doodle, I kept them watered along as best I could.

Yeah, your collapsing vines sounds like the beginning of the normal process. Super-hot weather will advance it. Mine started to lay down weeks ago when the hot weather hit.

Cozy, too bad. Next time, maybe with earlier planting and not as high will give better results. Also, what about splashing a little white paint on the south and west of those sun-catching towers? Maybe easier than rigging up a shade system. My bin still has green vines going, probably about another month to go before they are withered. It's Rose Finn Apple, which I believe is a long-season variety. I'm not expecting a lot more than what I would normally get from a similar area.

Shot, yeah, maybe I should start a new thread when I empty mine. Have you melted away yet down there?

cozy, Thanks - I'll keep watering.

pnbrown, You're close to my area so it's reassuring to know someone else's vines are doing the same thing at basically the same time. Honestly, I thought they wouldn't die down until the fall - possibly the difference between container/bin and inground? Maybe next year a staggered planting to extend the harvest? Obviously, I'm getting ahead of myself as I haven't any idea of this year's yield.... :)

Bumble, no, for me the vines have always withered away by late summer. Traditional time to dig potatoes in new england is early september - that gives them time to completely cure for best keeping. If you have light soil that doesn't get water-logged in fall rains you can leave them a lot longer.

Wow, good to know! I was always told potatoes were the first thing in and the last thing out. Last year I was still picking tomatoes in October - granted it was a very mild fall - so I figured potatoes would be even later.

I'm really hoping my two little barrels yield something because I've already started mentally planning next year's garden - with lot's more potato barrels!

Hi, all:

The flowers are finally opening now on mine and the vines look healthy

Bumble, I did have a situation where I came out one day and the leaves on two plants had started withering. I kept pinching off the withered leaves, but after a few days I realized the vine had rotted just below the soil line. That happened with only two of the vines.

I'm not even going to try to find baby potatoes now. I'm going to wait until the vines die and either be very, very happy or very, very disappointed.

Hi everyone. I'm trying potatoes in an oak barrel this year for the first time. Instead of hilling up as they sprout I planted 3 separate layers and cut large openings in the side of the barrel lined with burlap (to hold the soil in) with slits for the vines to (hopefully) go through. Sounds crazy but a farmer friend of mine convinced me that going up isn't going to give me any more potatoes and he feared that the ones on the bottom by the end may rot. I'm no farmer so I went with his advice. I got everything in kind of late so there are many factors at play here but I'll keep you posted.

Dave.

Hi Dave. This might be our saving grace. Let us know how they make.

Shot

I'm glad this thread was continued. I was disappointed because my vines died, and now I see that that's what they are supposed to do. Phew. I thought they wouldn't die back until much later.

But one question... Mine never flowered. Does this mean I have no potatoes?

Thanks,
Dee

I've been watching this thread for a while now ,and wanted to say that I was trying it. I went with a little different set up. I had an old 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank that the bottom cracked out of. I live in the city and was having a hard time disposing of it, but after reading some of the early posts I decided to use it for my tater bin. I filled it with 5lbs. of Yukon gold seed taters and just covered them with good soil. As they grew I kept covering them with peat moss to hill them with. Since taters love acid soil I thought it might help them some. they were hilled to about 2 ft. deep and the vines are 2 to 3 ft. above the top of the peat. there are still no flowers, so I'll keep you all informed as to how they do.
Garbird

Okay, the fallen vines were driving me nuts - and leaning over onto the hot peppers - so I decided to tie them up. I did notice some yellowing on some of the bottom leaves so I'm thinking everyone was right - the vines are just doing their thing and dying back.

Like gardengoodies, I haven't tried digging around for new potatoes. I think I'd rather wait until the vines totally die back and see what's what. I'll try to post photos of the results.

Thank you, pnbrown, cozy, tcstoehr, and gardengoodies for your advice and patience with this potato newbie.

diggerdee, a couple of my vines didn't flower either. I noticed it more with the white potatoes. The all blue seemed to flower the most and I don't think I noticed one way or the other with the red.

Last night I dug in to look for new potatoes. There were no tubers to be found in the top several inches of soil, but the entire bin is completely filled to the surface with tiny fibrous roots. It feels like a potted plant that is root bound. I hope this is a good thing, and the spuds will come soon.
Garbird

Garbird, it seems you started rather late for your zone. It'll be interesting to see how your yields are.

Digger and Bumble... your potatoes may have flowered and you didn't notice. If you weren't looking carefully, you might not have seen them. My potatoes, all three varieties, formed flower buds that never opened, dried up, and fell off. If I wasn't looking carefully, I wouldn't have seen them. I'm told that's also normal for alot of varieties.

Thanks tcstoehr! I'd say I was watching pretty closely, since I was so excited with this being my first time growing potatoes, but I suppose I could have missed some buds - especially since I really don't even know what they look like, lol. After the visits from the beetles and the vines died back I thought I lost the potatoes, but now I am hopeful again.

I just have no idea when to look for the potatoes!

:)
Dee

Just wanted to bump this tread to see if anyone has harvested yet. I have been following this for sometime and wanted to see if it worked well for people before i tried it myself.

Thanks
Shane

Thanks for the bump. Mine is still about a month away, though probably wouldn't much matter in terms of volume if I harvested now or in October, so maybe I'll do it sooner and sow down some fall brassicas or lettuces in that spot....

I'm glad someone revived this thread because I'm very interested in everyone's results. My vines are flowering right now. Hope this setup works.

I had a few flowers that bloomed a couple of weeks ago and then stopped. The vines are still growing, so I'll just wait until they start to die and then see what I've got.

Wow, I lost this thread for a while... I still haven't figured out how to post photos which is sad, My bins are looking really good ; ) They are 30" tall and then another 18-24" of plant on top of that. No flowers yet. We've had nothing but cool damp weather all year, can count on one hand the number of days over 20c this summer. I'm still holding out hope for some warm weather in August. The brassica's are loving it! I'm sooooo tempted to take apart one bin now just to see, but I really want to wait for max yeild...
As for the compost out of my chicken coop, it was shovelled out into a bin and left to 'cure' for a year before I used it, so it shouldn't be to rich. I hope! It's very nice and light and holds moisture well. It also doesn't compact so we'll see I guess. So nice to see everyone's garden photos. I'll figure it out eventually!

With weather like that growing a couple tons of potatoes should be like falling off a log! Sounds like ole Ireland.....

mxbarbie:

If you do a search for something like "how to insert pics" you should get some good info on how to do it. Basically you establish a photo storage account (I personally use Photo Bucket and Flicker is pretty popular). Next you upload your pictures from your computer into your photo account. Next you copy and past a link into your GardenWeb post. You can have a picture or a link to your picture inserted into your message. If you click the "preview" button before you post, you'll be able to see what you've got.

Hope that helps.

MxBarbie ---- we're waiting for a pic :)

Shot

Ok here goes photo try of my potato bins

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YAY! Shot, thanks for the tips!

Wowser! Did you start the seed-pieces at the bottom tier or farther up? Is that a recent pic? If so, y'all really do have ideal potato climate out there......

Way to go, MxBarbie!!! You have a green thumb for sure.
Hope they are full of taters.

Shot (and you are very welcome)

Now this "new" thread is a lot to load up....maybe the next person to harvest should start a new thread?

Anyway, I harvested my little bin this morning. Here it was:

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And here is the result:

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About four pounds from four sq feet - not the stuff of fantasy, by any stretch. But bearing in mind that they are fingerlings, which consistently are about half the yield by weight of the most productive varieties, it isn't terrible either. Fingerlings are also about twice as tasty as high-yielding varieties; you get what you pay for, so to speak, with potatoes like anything else. Anyhoo, my personal opinion still is that the bins will make little if any difference to yield per area. I suspect that if somebody gets a spectacular yield from a bin it has more to do with climatic factors or latitude than the bin.

The best news is that I have a fabulous little raised-bed of excellent soil which I just sowed with fall carrots, radishes and broccoli.......

I took the photo about 15 minutes before I posted it.
and yes, the seed potato is right at the bottom (bottomless bin) I also have spuds in my regular garden that I did not hill at all so it'll be interesting to see which does better.
I'm just itching to tear one down now...

In the row I think you would be better off to hill them to give the newbies room to grow. You can tell when they are ready as they will start cracking the ground due to expanding.
I opened up a new thread as this one is taking so long to load.

See Bin Again, shall we? #2

Shot

Hi all, I've been following this thread from the beginning and built 4 potato towers much as the pictures posted here. I've got a profusion of flowers and the towers are now approx. 4 feet high. I used straw instead of dirt for filler. the thing is when I put my hand down to see if there were potatoes I got nothing. Absolutely nothing. The straw had rotted deep down in the tower and there were no potatoes to be found. I am stumped.

emcalister, C'mon over to the bin again shall we #2.
hopefully someone can answer your question over there.

Here is a link that might be useful: bin again, shall we? #2

Tnx MxBarbie :)

emcalister, reply posted in bin again, shall we? #2

Shot