potato towers

haav6 2/20/2013, 11:03 am

Has anyone tried the potato towers, I have such limited space for my 4 X 4 SF beds...that I am looking for ways to grow more fun stuff, lol! I am also limited on sunlight...we have way too many trees in our yard and I am hopeful that we can work around it. My 5 existing beds have been in place for 4 years...one is all strawberries, the other 4 a mix of garden goodies. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated, lol...oh, yea...our growing season is VERY short, our last frost date is June 10th (though we have had frost up to June 21st) and our first one is early September (though we have had a few in mid to late August)...
thanks,
Nina

Gunny 2/20/2013, 11:25 am

I am trying the tire method of growing potatoes down here in the desert. A friend just dropped of four 18" tires from his car. I have already planted in one and as the potato grows I can add another tire with MM and keep going until I have a four tire tower. Just a suggestion. Also Mel says you can grow 'em in five gallon buckets though that seems limited to me, but for small areas that would work out great. I've seen one that was home built with a door at the bottom that you open to harvest, don't know how you would keep the growing medium inside though. Hope this helps.

Hoggar 2/20/2013, 11:47 am

Here is the method I will be trying this year.
The Box is 2' x 2' x 2'

Grow 100 lbs. of Potatoes in 4 sq ft

**Turan** 2/20/2013, 12:53 pm

When you do this the real important points are growing the indeterminate varieties, and giving the plants the extra food and water they need to produce extra. There was a lot of talk about this last spring. Keep us updated. I am really curious if you can manage the 100lbs or anything above 20lb, Hoggar. If so I really want to know every little thing you did. I managed about 20lbs, and did a google search on this in gardening blogs and found no one getting even close to 50lbs.

FamilyGardening 2/20/2013, 2:30 pm

Hoggar wrote:Here is the method I will be trying this year.
The Box is 2' x 2' x 2'

Grow 100 lbs. of Potatoes in 4 sq ft

Thank you for this link.....it has really great info on how to grow potatoes.....

to use a tower type planting they suggest

*We recommend doing this with Yellow Finn, Indian Pit, Red Pontiac, or the fingerling types*

http://info.irisheyesgardenseeds.com/index.php/growing-potatoes

Very Happy

what type of potato are you going to use?

happy gardening
rose

haav6 2/20/2013, 3:36 pm

Wow, thanks for all the great responses...the 100 # method looks pretty interesting, would like to see how that ends up! I am going to try the chicken wire tower, as I know I have some of that on hand...though this suggests using hay as your growing medium...we did it once years ago and it seemed to work well, but you really have to stay on top the watering, as they dry out quickly. I am not sure what variety I used then, but could be part of my issue! Thanks a bunch!!

CindiLou 2/20/2013, 7:07 pm

Hoggars post was how i did potatoes last year. However with being distracted by family disasters, I did not pay as good attention. But without adding more then the first two 1x4s I got about 10 lbs of potatoes from three boxes. I am going to do that again this year, using mulch or leaves or straw instead of the expense of MM.

I did find out one thing. If you cover the boxes with tulle you won't get those darn black bugs!

I used kennebec and have them ordered already for this year!

littlejo 2/20/2013, 9:02 pm

Haav6,
I had real good luck the first yr. with potatoes in a reg bed, then last yr, built a tower, etc, then got Southern blight, killed them all.

I suggest you choose what you will grow them in, plant early, maybe May?, and cover with plastic. Just don't let it touch the greenery. Potatoes will do fine in the shade for they like it cool. I usually have to put shade cloth over my potatoes in the summer to keep them cool.
If they are not done before frost, you can put the plastic over if you expect a hard frost.
Potatoes are really a winter crop down here.
Jo

Gunny 2/21/2013, 8:54 am

Hugger, thanks for the link. I have a great big russet that is sprouting and will have to build me a few of those. I like the idea of getting to the oldest first. With the tires I will have to harvest all at once and know that the two of us can't eat all those by our lonesome. I still have a few seed potatoes left, too. Again thanks for posting that link.

Thomas 2/21/2013, 9:50 am

This topic caught my eye and I am going to build some of the boxes described. I just ordered "fantastic fingerlings" from Fedco-five different varieties- to ship in April. That is 5 lbs of seed potatoes. Rolling Eyes

I think I need to find some fellow gardeners to share with!!! I have never grown potatoes before. My cousins did-always talking about "hilling". The plan for the potato box pretty well explains the concept. The box, as it is added to, becomes the hill. By the way, how many "hills" will a pound of fingerling seed potatoes require? thinking

Hoggar 2/21/2013, 4:00 pm

We found some Blue Potatoes at a local over priced organic store, the wife didn't catch the name when she picked them up but there in a brown bag in the cupboard waiting to sprout.

I have all the stuff for the box but I need the dang snow to clear off so I can get started.

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