Spud Growing...
Posted 07-29-2007 at 07:00 AM by mycoupons
Our gardening question chosen this week was submitted by Tori S. from Mass. Here's her question:
Hello Annie,
I live in Mass. A friend of mine told me, that she has heard of growing potatoes in a container. I would love to grow potatoes in a container if I could, as I really don't have the space for them anywhere else. Is this true and how would I go about doing this?
TY!
Tori S.
Hi there Tori!
Yes it's true, you can indeed grow potatoes in a container. I've been doing it successfully for the last 2 years. There is nothing like the taste of fresh home-grown potatoes. Of course, with container growing potatoes you will not get a high yield, but enough to enjoy for a few meals.
To grow potatoes in a container, you need to purchase certified seed potatoes. These can be found in your local nursery or garden center usually around January or February. They also can purchased online at sites such as Burpee.com, Gardeners.com or JohnnySeeds.com. Make sure the seed potatoes you purchase at a local nursery or garden center have at least 3 to 4 "eyes". You can try using potatoes that you bought from a grocery store that you have in the house, that do have eyes and either have started to sprout or have sprouted, however they are not as disease resistant as seed potatoes and also many not do as well as certified seed.
Potatoes like cool weather, so the general rule of thumb is to plant three to four weeks before your last expected frost date for your area, or to plant when the soil has warmed to 55 degrees.
Before planting you need to get the seed potatoes ready by placing them in a warm spot and letting them sprout. The smaller seed potatoes may be planted as whole, and the larger potatoes should be cut into two or three pieces and set them aside to cure for a couple of days. Each piece of seed potato must contain at least one eye or sprout. Once the sprouts are about one inch long, you can transplant them into their main containers.
For a container, you can use a 10 or 15 gallon container such as a plastic trash can or use a whiskey barrel or a large plastic storage bin that you can find in stores such as Wal-Mart.
Next you want to drill several holes around 1/2 inch in the bottom and a few in the side, about half-inch up from the bottom of the container.
Now fill your container with a mixture of half soil and half compost or use a good potting soil and add about one shovel-full of peat moss that's been moistened to each 1 cubic foot bag of potting soil you use and mix very well. To this mixture add a timed-release fertilizer such as Osmocote granules. Follow instructions on the fertilizer box and mix into your soil mixture. There should be about six inches of soil to the bottom. Now plant a layer of seed potatoes - five or six. Cover with an additional inch or so of soil and firm the surface and water.
Be sure to water the potato container two or three times a week during the entire growing period.
When the potatoes vines have reached 4 - 5 inches, cover all but the top 1 inch (three-quarters of the stems) with compost or straw, if you don't have compost then straw. Repeat this again every time the vine grows another 4- 5 inches. It is wise to insert a few wood stakes so you can tie the vines to the stake so they don't break.
You can begin to harvest the potatoes about 10 - 14 days after your potato vines bloom. Harvest them by just reaching down and picking up the potatoes. These are new potatoes and must be used soon as you have harvested them. You can also choose to just let the potatoes grow until the tops have yellowed and died down. These potatoes will have reached full size and can be stored as long as you store in a cool and dark place, these are storage potatoes.
I grow Yukon gold variety in my potato containers, but the Superior variety is another excellent one for container growing and if you love red skinned, then try Norland variety.
Good Luck and keep on gardening!
Annie~
Hello Annie,
I live in Mass. A friend of mine told me, that she has heard of growing potatoes in a container. I would love to grow potatoes in a container if I could, as I really don't have the space for them anywhere else. Is this true and how would I go about doing this?
TY!
Tori S.
Hi there Tori!
Yes it's true, you can indeed grow potatoes in a container. I've been doing it successfully for the last 2 years. There is nothing like the taste of fresh home-grown potatoes. Of course, with container growing potatoes you will not get a high yield, but enough to enjoy for a few meals.
To grow potatoes in a container, you need to purchase certified seed potatoes. These can be found in your local nursery or garden center usually around January or February. They also can purchased online at sites such as Burpee.com, Gardeners.com or JohnnySeeds.com. Make sure the seed potatoes you purchase at a local nursery or garden center have at least 3 to 4 "eyes". You can try using potatoes that you bought from a grocery store that you have in the house, that do have eyes and either have started to sprout or have sprouted, however they are not as disease resistant as seed potatoes and also many not do as well as certified seed.
Potatoes like cool weather, so the general rule of thumb is to plant three to four weeks before your last expected frost date for your area, or to plant when the soil has warmed to 55 degrees.
Before planting you need to get the seed potatoes ready by placing them in a warm spot and letting them sprout. The smaller seed potatoes may be planted as whole, and the larger potatoes should be cut into two or three pieces and set them aside to cure for a couple of days. Each piece of seed potato must contain at least one eye or sprout. Once the sprouts are about one inch long, you can transplant them into their main containers.
For a container, you can use a 10 or 15 gallon container such as a plastic trash can or use a whiskey barrel or a large plastic storage bin that you can find in stores such as Wal-Mart.
Next you want to drill several holes around 1/2 inch in the bottom and a few in the side, about half-inch up from the bottom of the container.
Now fill your container with a mixture of half soil and half compost or use a good potting soil and add about one shovel-full of peat moss that's been moistened to each 1 cubic foot bag of potting soil you use and mix very well. To this mixture add a timed-release fertilizer such as Osmocote granules. Follow instructions on the fertilizer box and mix into your soil mixture. There should be about six inches of soil to the bottom. Now plant a layer of seed potatoes - five or six. Cover with an additional inch or so of soil and firm the surface and water.
Be sure to water the potato container two or three times a week during the entire growing period.
When the potatoes vines have reached 4 - 5 inches, cover all but the top 1 inch (three-quarters of the stems) with compost or straw, if you don't have compost then straw. Repeat this again every time the vine grows another 4- 5 inches. It is wise to insert a few wood stakes so you can tie the vines to the stake so they don't break.
You can begin to harvest the potatoes about 10 - 14 days after your potato vines bloom. Harvest them by just reaching down and picking up the potatoes. These are new potatoes and must be used soon as you have harvested them. You can also choose to just let the potatoes grow until the tops have yellowed and died down. These potatoes will have reached full size and can be stored as long as you store in a cool and dark place, these are storage potatoes.
I grow Yukon gold variety in my potato containers, but the Superior variety is another excellent one for container growing and if you love red skinned, then try Norland variety.
Good Luck and keep on gardening!
Annie~
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