Container potatoes

[duajones]

Jen, I started with about six inches of container mix and some osmocote with a little cotton burr compost mixed in, added the sulphur dusted seed potaoes and covered it with the same mixture with a little manure thrown in. As it grew, I added a mixure of container mix, peat and compost. I have no idea what the end result will be, but after doing alot of reading on it, I dont expect spectacular results by no means. Just have to wait and see

[Earl]

looks like cukes to me. :-)

[FlipTX]

Your Tower O' Taters looks great, Duane. This is my first attempt at growing potatoes in containers. Mine are extremely bushy but not very tall. I mulched them with hay as they grew, eventually covering the stems to a depth of about 1 foot. Then they quit growing taller and just started expanding sideways.

I'm itching to know what, if anything, is going on in that hay.

[duajones]

I'm itching as well Flip, but I dont have great expectations. That way I wont be hugely dissapointed if it winds up being a failure, but could still be pleasantly surprised if it works. I'm good either way. Good luck with yours!

[FlipTX]

Thanks for the good luck!

I don't have great expectations, either, but I'm already doing better than I thought I would. I thought the potatoes had rotted in the pots. About three weeks went by after I planted them and nothing came up. I was all set to dig them out and plant something else when I noticed some nubby little purple things sticking up. A week later, I had a ton of foliage.

Maybe they were just slow to get started because I planted them in a sort of cold spell.

[Tomaniac]

Hello Everyone, I am relatively new here and haven't posted much. I am always lurking around reading all the wonderful and informative information on here and tend to find what I am looking for, so haven't needed to ask questions just yet. When I did come across this thread, I did think I maybe could able to help with some information with the potatoes in the container.

You do not need to stake the tops of the potato plants, the tubers are the concern, because they grow out and along from the main stem they must have sufficient soil or covering to keep them from the sun turning the potato greenish, which probably as you know is/can be very toxic.

duajones you will need to fill your container with soil almost to the top leaving only a few inches so as to collect water for watering. The more dirt the more potatoes are encouraged to grow along and out from the stem. And you will be adding more nutrients to the plants with them being in a container.

If you are concerned with planting too many together, you can always do a thinning of tubers by carefully feeling in the dirt with your hand and pick off ones so the others can grow larger, just be careful not to disturb the others from breaking free from the plant itself or they will rot.

We have a bug up here (in Alberta) called a potato beetle, about a 1/4 inch in length, and orangey colour If you see any of those, just pick them off and get rid of them. They eat the flowers, and leaves and can do quite a good job on a plant in short period of time.

Good luck duajones I am sure you will be happy what you find when you dump your container.(:

Diana

[duajones]

Thanks for the encouraging words Diana. I added osmocote at planting and am wondering now if I need to fertilize anymore, and if so, what to use. Any suggestions?

[Tomaniac]

You are very welcome, it is so nice to finally be able to contribute too. I had to look up osmocote, since I am not familiar with it. What I do know is potatoes are heavy feeders (love nitrogen). And with the type of fertilizer I use, like Miracle grow that isn't a slow release type, I would try and fertilize once a week, since those were the recommendations on the package. Potatoes are like tomatoes, so how ever you fertilize your tomatoes, do the same schedule for potatoes.

Diana (:

[duajones]

This is what I based my setup on. Osmocote was supposed to get me through the first couple months

http://www.ciscoe.com/archive/spuds.html

They started peeking on March 1st. here they are 27 days later

[tessa]

those are some gorgeous potatoes.
can't wait to see what it looks like when you finally tip that container over!

i grew container potatoes this season as well. i'm in australia, and what i didn't realize was that here, they are a winter crop...and i grew them in summer...in containers! i wasn't supposed to get much of a yield, but i did! and now it's autumn, and i've planted out the garden with potatoes and i'm really looking forward to not buying store-bought for a few months this year.

[Tomaniac]

Wow!! that sure looks Great duajones. I do hope we get to see a picture when you dump it out. Those are also very good instructions for growing them, nice and simple. Thankyou for putting the link on, I will be saving that with my other many bits of information.
Diana

[garnetmoth]

I saw a big yellow bin like that yesterday! I was trying to remember where Id seen them.

Those big yellow bins are what they use in some nursing homes for used linens

gorgeous potatos, good work!

[duajones]

Anyone have an idea of when I might expect to dump the container?

[feldon30]

Got flowers yet?

2-3 weeks after the plants have finished flowering, you can start to harvest small potatoes. I would not dump out the container until mid-May at the earliest.

You and I both started a bit late as we're really supposed to finish harvest mid-May before the soil gets too warm which stresses out the plants. But we had a real "winter" this year -- so annoying.

[duajones]

noticed yesterday that some of the leaves are developing a purplish tint on the tips, hope thats normal.