Dumb Potato Question(s)

[joz]

I'd been planning on building the potato tower... until I saw Durgan's photos proving this method a fallacy. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QHBIN

So now, in planters. I've got several square planters that are 24x24x24. Are these big enough? Durgan's Red Pontiac potatoes look like they would fit. I'm doing Yukon Gold and French Fingerlings. What are the basic dimensions of the finished potato root ball?

How far DOWN does a potato go? Do I plant my potato near the top of the planter, to allow it to grow downward 2'? I'm thinking I can make a wee fence around each pot and hill up within the fence, if the angle of repose of a straw and compost mix isn't sufficient.

Most of my in-ground space is spoken for, and I like the idea of being able to dump-harvest the taters. I don't mind if they're smallish... I kinda want to have lots of smallish round things that can be roasted together without cutting (wee beets, wee turnips, round parisian carrots, radishes).

 

[so lucky]

I am sure not the potato expert, but I think your planters would be big enough. The potatoes won't go down two feet, I don't think. You can plant them about a foot from the top of the planter, then as they grow taller, add soil (as in hilling them up) They will send roots all over the place, mostly down. I think the stem you bury will grow roots. The potatoes should be at the level you planted them, when you dig in. If this is wrong info, someone on here can set us both straight.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i've always had luck with double digging and trenching mine but i have never done fingerlings before. usually if i have missed a spud i kick it up with the tiller.

 

[Smart Red]

I'd been planning on building the potato tower... until I saw Durgan's photos proving this method a fallacy.

Potato towers do work. They don't work for all potato varieties. I wish I could tell you which varieties do well with the tower concept. I can't. I do know that Yukon Gold is one variety that will NOT work in a tower.

It is something about how and where potatoes form on the plant. Some varieties WILL form potato buds all along the stem, so burying the stem as it grows will produce more potatoes higher up the plant. Some varieties form potatoes only at the roots and adding growing medium will only make the potatoes deeper.

Love, Smart Red

 

[digitS']

Joz, I have never grown potatoes in containers. Still, I imagine that your big containers should work.

Washington State University say that potatoes have a "maximum root depth" of 2 feet in good soil. They are talking about 2' from the soil surface, since this is an irrigation concern.

Probably lots of plants suitable for containers would have greater root development in open ground than what is considered adequate with a container.

Here's what I do with the seed potatoes: I plant them about 6" down. Later, I will mulch the plants. I don't apply any more than what I consider just enuf. I'm not trying to grow tubers on top of tubers on top of . . . I'm just making sure that I don't get greening of the tubers and - I use the mulch to cover fertilizer. I still have to go around and look for tubers pushing thru after a couple of weeks. No fertilizing then.

You know, farmers may try to reduce the size of their potatoes by crowding. It has to do with marketing.

Steve

 

[nelson castro]

Growing potatoes in a tower can definitely saves space by getting the crop to grow up rather than sprawling out in the ground. Potato Towers are easy to build garden beds that can house baking potatoes, new potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams. The taller your potato tower is, the more tubers you can grow. This is also a good method for protecting your potato beds from pets that tend to dig things up. My chickens circle the potato tower looking for beetles but cannot get into the enclosure to do any damage.

The plant grows and its stem lengthens, as do the underground stolons from which the tubers grow. Give the stem more height to grow and it will, increasing the space for stolons and thus tubers.

 

[Jared77]

After having argued this with Durgan, the reason his tower failed to produce more is he never got enough leaf growth and additional leaves to produce enough photosynthesis to support additional tubers.

The results of experiments are often in how they are set up. Check out this design. http://www.henleypotatotower.co.uk/content/ and the experiment here http://www.henleypotatotower.co.uk/content/science

All of the plants growth is focused on stem growth to get taller to produce more leaves. But then it was hilled back up and the growth was covered again. So the plant grows taller and its hilled again. Instead of working WITH the potato your working against it. Given the pictures he posted you saw the very tall stem with minimal leaf production and nearly the same potatoes produced as his in the ground hilled potatoes. It was the same hilling except it was focused upright instead of a mound.

Its an easy design to replicate and I plan on doing so this spring. I've done potatoes in trenches and hilled them but I'm trying to try something different. I think if Durgan had made the notches in his boards like the Henley towers do then he may very well have gotten a much higher yield.

And Nelson

 

[joz]

Soooo.... If I plant at 18", drill holes in the sides of my planter above that for some side shoots (selection and direction of these seem to be key), keep burying the rest of the plant ("hilling", probably within a bit of reed fencing I hope the contractor hasn't taken away today), I'll get the most potatoes?

Plants are weird.

I very much like seeing science.

 

[Jared77]

If it was my planter I would drill holes at 18" around, and repeat at 24" up from that first set of holes. You may even need to put a 2nd set of holes in the pot depending on how high your plants go. That's what I'm seeing on the planters they have on their video and website.

I think you will get a lot more potatoes if you did less than if you just hilled them. But then its a theory based on what I saw on their website. What I posted was my thoughts on the actual science of why you get more potatoes.

 

[Jared77]

By the way I LOVE science