Excellent ! I've tried growing spuds for many years in bags / towers / tyres and never got the yields when I just grew them in the ground - now I know why. After this years usual failure I had already decided to give the whole deal away and to stick to the 'traditional' method - this video has shown me that I made the right decision
Yes I agree I seen towers on video and my experience. One thing I heard was that once the plant breaks through the soil growing leaves that’s it there will be no potatoes higher than that even if you hill them. I’m still struggling with production but I’m sure it’s the nutrients available.
Wow great information since this is my first year growing potatoes. I just hilled them with dirt and leaves and grass mulch in my raised beds. Guess i did it right!
i don't get why ppl think towers are a good idea. I learned this when I hilled the plants extra deep and ended up having extra work to dig the potatoes out of the deep soil. Although they appeared to be in better shape, but a bit smaller than the ones that I didn't hill up as much.
I done a cage tower once planted main crop near bottom to middle and early at top and for the use of soil I think personally the bag or plant pot method comes out on top ✌️😎
Thank you so much for the video! I was planning on trying out the potato tower this spring/summer but I guess I won't be now... although, I've seen a different type of potato tower that is built differently and allows for more of the leaves to come out. So, maybe I'll try it out after all. Thank you again!
Right! A friend told me only put them in pots if you want it for the foliage. Sweet potatoes make great hanging plants but less potatoes. I use some for decor and some for food Lol
If you lack soil to plant your potatoes into directly. You'd be as well using all that compost to fill a few builders buckets, with some holes drilled in the bottom. Then put two seed potatoes in each bucket, about 3-4" from the bottom. Throw in a handful of decent fertilizer with the compost as you fill it up, and you'll get some great potatoes.
I use 35 litre containers for growing first & second early potatoes (determinates). With first early varieties (4 seed potatoes per container), I average 3kg/7lbs. Second earlies (4 seed potatoes per container), I average 5kg/11lbs. The seed potatoes are set at two levels in pairs, at 90° to each other & the containers are no more than 40cm/1'4" tall. Best thing is, with the second earlies, I can remove the foliage once it begins to yellow, then place the containers in my cool garage & harvest each container when needed - all the way to Christmas & beyond (with smaller potatoes saved to use as seeds in blight free years).
I use a bottomless 5 gallon bucket on the ground. Seed potatoes in the bottom and cover them then add more seed potatoes as I fill it over the spring. The vines and buckets are against a fence that I tie the vines to as they grow up. Harvest is easy, cut the vines and pull the bucket into a wheelbarrow or tub to empty. Easy peezy!
I use 35 litre/9.5 US gallon containers, with two seed potatoes a third of the way up & two more at 90° two thirds of the way up. Grass clippings on top of the compost instead of earthing up & pig netting (6"x6") set on posts 12" above the containers to support the foliage.
I have 8 - 5 gallon buckets with the bottom cut out along a fence to tie up the foliage. The most mature chit’s go in the bottom and covered when they break through the top of the fill at that layer the next ones go in and so forth always in a clockwise rotation and in the middle until at the top. I use about 3kg of seed potatoes (some cut and some whole- cuts are dipped in sulpher to heal over)
Very Helpful :) I have a question though... What are your thoughts on using straw to cover inground potatoes instead of soil? I dont have enough space or soil to mound them and was thinking of using straw instead. Thanlks
I grow them in containers, mostly, because its easy to harvest. But they arent any taller than a standard hilling would provide. This hinges on early and late-early potatoes which only grow on one level above the seed potato.... as you say, I get anywhere from 10-15 potatoes for each seed potato. I could maybe see the towers working IF you added new seed potatoes at each "hilling up"
Just watched another channel where a guy did that and all he did was stunt the overall harvest. he thinned the foliage for the lower potatoes and shortened the season for the last layer. In the end he got a pathetic yield. Out of curiosity, have you found a container that works best? I need to switch to containers for them and am thinking 10 gallon bags.
@@talyn3932 I have use the large grow bags, and wasn’t terribly impressed with them. They tend to dry out quickly and a bit fragile in my opinion once filled with soil. Personally, I like large plastic storage totes.
I did see a tower video that had a few plants per dirt level with straw between. It looked like a giant potato bush, healthy green. Many plants, 4 stacks! Fill the top with mulch and compost and water with weed tea for extra nitrogen and come back in 3 months. Grow horizontally with a tower with a thick mulch outside layer, like vertical Ruth Stout. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R833pkaDBSY.html&pp=ygUWZ3JvdyBwb3RhdG9zIGluIGxheWVycw%3D%3D A tower of stacked boxes with drain hole bottoms, holes for plants E/S/W and a hatch on the back each would keep it all from compacting. Layer of soil, seed away from the outside and pack on much and compost then stack on the next box. North side hatch is for harvest while stacked, you don't have to harvest them all at the same time do you? And if you pick the flowers off, more goes to the spuds. I'm interested but in no position to test. It could be watered from top and sides, drip down. Boxes can be insulating and free of plastic. An inch or two of rockwool between thin wood should keep out heat that gets past the leaves.. Couldn't indeterminate's be loaded up right after determintes are harvested... from the back, shelf by shelf with worm size drain holes. The idea of stacking plants, many feet of a row of plants on the footprint of 1 at the N edge of a field... see? I'm from far north potato country but not there and only lately see these other total approaches to at least garden spuds. My cousins ran 12-row harvesters last i saw in 97, they don't fill a wheelbarrow, they fill train cars!
