Container Gardening With Potatoes
May 14, 2010, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Apparently it is pretty easy to grow potatoes in a container garden. I decided to try growing some Idaho potatoes that were purchased from the grocery store and had sat around a little too long. I noticed there were lots of buds growing from the eyes in the potatoes that were left in the bag. I know that it is recommended to buy special ‘seed’ potatoes, one reason being that supposedly store-bought potatoes have certain inhibitors to keep buds from growing.
However, having observed my surprising little vigorous batch of potato buds, I decided to give it a real world try to see if it actually works well, which could prove quite simple and economical for people who are trying to save money, grow their own food, and to be more self sufficient and prepared.
How To Grow a Potato Container Garden
I cut each potato into about 2 inch slices, each slice having one or two sprouting buds. Then I let the pieces dry out for a few days, which causes the fleshy part to crust over and helps to keep it from rotting when it is planted into the soil.
I used a bucket container that I found on sale for only $5, and is about 2 feet tall and 2 feet diameter. I drilled 6 holes in the bottom for drainage (about 1/2 inch each) and cut a piece of landscape cloth the diameter of the bottom of the bucket and placed inside to keep the soil from plugging the holes.
I filled the container with about 10 inches of soil and planted the potato bud pieces about 2 to 4 inches deep with the bud sprout side facing up. The soil is a mixture of 3 parts generic gardening soil with 1 part compost manure.
After planting, I soaked the soil with water and kept the container out of the sun so it would not dry out before the sprouts broke through the surface, which took about 1 to 2 weeks for all of them. I had planted 8 potato pieces, which may have been a bit too much for this size bucket, but I wanted to load it up good.
After the potatoes have grown to about 8 inches in height, add 4 more inches of soil to cover the foliage and stems. This will allow additional potato tubers to grow. When the growth again reaches about 8 inches above the surface, add another 4 inches of soil. Do this until you reach a few inches below the top of the container. This will maximize your yield.
So far this potato container garden has been doing extremely well and is growing quite vigorously.
Video of potato container garden
Another garden that I have going is container gardening with onions.
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