Container grown potatoes?

[Icu4dzs]

I like the feed bag idea. Got lots of them with all the critters I feed. Might just try that inside as well with gro-lights.
Attagirl SD Farm Girl. Thanks for the tip!
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[sumi]

I was looking to see now if I started a thread on my little container garden when I found this thread, and it's perfect. I just harvested this from my first attempt to grow potatoes in a storage tub:

Sorry, not the best pic, but the largest one pictured is bigger than my fist. I put two potatoes in each tub with compost and had fairly good yields from them all, this being my last one. I wouldn't got more if I planted them earlier in the season.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's great Sumi! I need to do more in containers because of the weed problem here just never ends! AND - for the last two years it's been so wet that it's almost impossible to garden in the mud. UGH!

 

[MoonShadows]

@sumi - those potatoes look great! Congrats.

@frustratedearthmother - raised beds...I switched to them a few years ago...easier to control weeds and they drain well, too. I'll never go back to planting directly in the ground.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ya know - A few years back I added 4 raised beds... 4 x 8 each. Dug out the sod, laid down several layers of cardboard, filled them up with purchased dirt, potting soil and bagged manure - all in an attempt to outsmart the weeds. Native weeds took about a season to get through all barriers and invade those beds too...Our weeds are tenacious here. Bermuda grass (not exactly a weed, but...) and wind borne weed seeds just never give up!

Next step - I bought some tubs that originally held cattle minerals a couple years ago and they are so much better than my raised beds or in-ground garden. I set them out on weed barrier fabric, put a few holes for drainage and filled em up with the same mixture as above and they do much better. But, having said that, I have noticed some weeds in them also. I think I'm going to actually raise the containers off of the ground with some bricks and that might solve the problem of weeds entering through the drain holes.

I'm debating on adding some dirt from inside the barn that is actually mostly decayed poop and hope that any weeds that come up from that will be easily pulled. Only issue is that I can't get the volume of veggies from them that I can get from the regular garden, or the raised beds. Wish I had a hundred more of them!

Sigh...maybe when I retire I'll have time to have a big garden again.

 

[sumi]

This was the only option for me to grow anything here. 2/3's of the backyard is concrete and the bit of lawn is the chickens'. Growing anything there would mean fencing it off and and and… Too much hassle. So I looked at the storage tubs and thought hmmm… Compost, potatoes (and beans and carrots and tomatoes) here we go! The carrots did so-so (I need to mix some sand in with the compost… and get a pic of some of the "fails", it's hilarious), the rest did great

The pic is not the best, as I said, there must be at least 2 lb of posts in there. I'm definitely doing this again!

 

[Denim Deb]

I've been trying to raise potatoes in containers for awhile now, just haven't gotten it completely figured out. It also doesn't help that I haven't really had the time I need to spend in the garden.

 

[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.

 

[AnnaMary]

Garden beds are available in the market. You can use one such kind of things.

 

[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)