Potatoes in 5 gallon bucket.....................

[Greg R.]

What has been your experience?
How much soil you put in before seed?

Any other tips you have?

I thought I'd experiment with different soil levels starting them this year.
Have great access to lot of 5 gallon buckets.
Grew tomatoes in them last year also.

 

[journey11]

Are you talking about the kind where you saw the bottom off of the 5-gallon buckets, set them on top of your garden plot and plant/hill the seed taters in them as you go? I saw a video on that once and the fella just kicked them over at the end of the season and there were all the potatoes sitting on the ground, easy to pick out. I bet it would be great for keeping the competing weeds at bay too. Shouldn't be too hard to get quite a few buckets. If you ask nicely at the deli or restaurants they'll give you piles of them! They just toss them out otherwise.

 

[Greg R.]

No, I'm talking about where you drill holes in the bottom of the bucket and use the bucket only.
I have plenty of buckets due to my work.
Trying to utilize them more to grow in.

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome to TEG Greg! last year I planted potatoes for the first time in a 15 gal. nursery container. I added about 5 inches of soil, placed 5 small potatoes and covered them with soil. It produced 30 potatoes, half were small and half were the size at stores. They were the red ones. As they grew I kept adding soil till I filled the container.

This year I've planted 5 of these containers with red and yukon potatoes.

Vfem has grown them in 5 gal. before. Hopefully she will chime in.

Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

The big theoretical question about potatoes is, will they all be found at the bottom, or will there be more potatoes growing from up along the stem up to the surface...

 

[baymule]

Potatoes grow darn nigh anywhere. I have some growing in last fall's leaf piles. I just added some horse maunre and watered the piles all winter. It is my experiment. I grew potatoes in buckets last year and this year have some planted in tubs. Oh, I actually planted some in the garden too, they drowned in a deluge and rotted. It seems with all their wonderful attributes, potatoes can't swim. So I planted some more in the garden.......I'm gonna have a lot of potatoes.

 

[897tgigvib]

What's your favorite way to have taters? mashed? baked? fried?

 

[Mickey328]

If I were going to use buckets, I'd just remove the bottoms, shovel in about 4 inches of dirt, put in the seed taters and cover 'em with another couple inches. As the plants grow, add more dirt always leaving about 6 inches of growth. Then when the season is over and the plants die, knock the bucket over and sift through the soil with your fingers harvesting the potatoes. With just holes in them, I'd worry about proper drainage and then having to upend the buckets to harvest. But that's just me

We're going to make potato "towers" this year with chicken wire zip tied into a 24" diameter tube and follow the procedure. Come harvest time we'll just nip the ties and open 'em up

 

[joz]

If you've got lots of buckets, I think I would probably cut all the bottoms off, set the first bucket down, fill mostly with soil, plant your potato, and set another bucket on top to "hill". I'd think tho that it might not get enough light. Bucket rings? Slice buckets up into sections?

I've planted my potatoes in planters (12-15 gal probly) 3/4 full of compost. I have some old reed fencing broken into 2' tall pieces (but 20' long) that I'm'a use to build the hills in.

 

[Greg R.]

Thanks for all the responses. Much appreciated!