Container potatoes

16 years ago

I found an article that described hou to grow potatoes in a garbage can, I planted several big yard cans as an expirement to see how well it worked, because dumping a garbage can is a lot easier than digging potatoes. Out of 8 large cans I might have gotten 10 pounds of potatoes. The yield was horrible. I followed the instructions well, I planted seed potatoes from 2 different vendors in March. As soon as they started to push a couple of inches above the soil, I woul bury them with a little more soil. I kept them moist, and fed them, but stii a low yield. What am I doing wrong?

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Comments (6)

oilpainter
16 years ago
What has your weather been like this year? It may not be what you are doing so much as mother nature. We don't plant in barrels but in the ground, but here is a comparison.

Last summer was cooler than normal and lots of rain. We had a bumper crop of big potatoes.

This year it has been very hot and dry and the potatoes are nowhere near as good
Mad Ferret
16 years ago
I'm in a similar situation, mine are new potato sized, they arnt truly 'done' yet. Nice looking things, but small :)

What I might use next time is potato fert, rather than just regular all purpose fert, you win some you lose some I guess.
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curt_grow
16 years ago
dp; To tell you the truth your report sounds like dozens of reports by rookie and experienced gardeners. Mine included. I have grown spuds all my life and have yet to see a container plant produce as well as an in ground plant in the same garden/yard/space with out more work/ attention/ water. By all means keep trying if you do not have the room for in ground. You will still get potatoes. Try to keep the container soil cool, maybe shade the soil from the sun but not the plant itself
ljpother
16 years ago
I've read most of the potato bin threads. Success is spotty. The reports suggest if you want potatoes throughout the barrel you need a late variety. Early potatoes such as Yukon Gold only grow in the bottom of the barrel. Also, you have to stop hilling eventually and allow the vines to grow and get some energy to the spuds.

This year I made two bins and a few bags. Unfortunately, I used grass clippings for mulch and an abundance of rain turned it to slime. I'm not expecting good yields and so far the bags haven't disappointed. Next year I'm thinking of doing early potatoes in shallower pots/pails. Extensive hilling doesn't improve the yield of the earlies. I don't really have room for potatoes in the ground.
albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
16 years ago
When discussing potatoes the people over on the container forum mention varieties quite a bit. The link is just one example but scan that entire thread gives one some idea as to what they are thinking there.
gardensewer
16 years ago
Where are you zone wize? I found I can't plant potatoes in black plastic yard cans because here in 6b the heat is just sucked into that black plastic and it just gets so hot the plants find it hard to take. I had better luck planting in a round potato bin that I got somewhere, but even that got really hot inside really early in the year. Haven't tried again, but if I did I would make sure I insulated the barrel from the hot sun somehow.