Digging up potatoes is probably the most rewarding and exciting part of growing your food.
The unexpected treasures that await below the earth’s surface will surely put a smile on your face come harvest time. To grow potatoes in containers, you will need containers, good soil and patience!
This crop is relatively easy to grow and fantastic in containers. This article will teach you how to grow potatoes in containers to get the best yield in a small space.
Helpful Products from Amazon for Growing Potatoes
Why Should You Grow Potatoes in Containers?
There are many reasons why growing potatoes is desirable for home gardeners.
1. It saves space! Growing potatoes take up a lot of a growing area that most of us simply don’t have available to us.
By using containers, the average home grower can produce pounds of these tasty spuds.
2. Predator protection! Potatoes grown in containers are not susceptible to animals like voles that might otherwise snack on our precious spuds.
3. It’s just so much fun! Unearthing spuds is one of my kids’ favorite gardening experiences. My daughter still talks about the purple mammoth potato she unearthed almost a year ago. It’s a great plant to involve children in. They love digging in the dirt!
When to Start
Depending on your growing zone, you will want to plant your potatoes about two weeks before your last frost date.
In zone 7b, we plant right around Mother’s Day, ensuring a late summer harvest.
There are times where we are able to produce a second harvest if we plant immediately after our first harvest. Our second potato harvest us usually some time around mid-October.
Potato Varieties
There are two types of potato varieties to choose from when growing potatoes. They are determinate and indeterminate. The difference between the two is the time needed to create the potato and their growing style.
Determinate varieties generally grow much faster. These varieties allow for a layering of potatoes in each grow bag, maximizing your yield.
Indeterminate varieties are slow growers and produce tubers along the stem. This variety requires you to add the seed potato to the bottom of the bag and then add soil as the leaves grow. You will need to continue adding soil as the plant grows until it reaches the top of the grow bag.
Because of our growing style, set it and forget it, we like to use determinate varieties.
Determinate Varieties
- Yukon Gem
- Norland
- Caribe
- Red Gold
- Superior
- Viking
- Dark Red Norland
- Cherry Red
- Mountain Rose
- Adirondack Red
Ideterminate Varieties
- Kennebec
- Russet Burbank
- Yukon Gold
- Red Pontiac
- German Butterball
- Purple Viking
- All Blue
- French Fingerling
- Russian Banana
- Rose Finn Apple
What is a Seed Potato?
A seed potato is what you will be using to grow your potatoes. Simply stated, a seed potato is a potato that has growth along several different parts of the potato.
These growths, called “eyes”, are part of the potato we need to plant underground. As the potato eye sends out. new growth, new potatoes will grow from it and fill our containers.
Seed potatoes can be purchased online or in big box stores but you can use potatoes you have purchased from the grocery store and simply forgot about.
Whichever you choose, be sure to determine the variety so you understand the method of planting you will need to employ to get your potato harvest at its best!
What to do with your seed potato
If the seed potato you are using is small, it can be planted as is.
However, if you are starting your potatoes from a rather large potato, the potato can be cut up into smaller pieces to use.
Simply leave one “eye” per piece. Allow your potato seeds to dry out for a few days before planting.
What You Need
1. Our preferred method of growing requires 8-gallon grow bags. We have experimented with different sizes and found that these work best. They are breathable, and we have been successfully using them season after season.
2. The potting soil you use dramatically impacts your success as a grower. Plants need nutrients to grow, and you will not get the results you are after using soil that is depleted. Our favorite potting mix is FoxFarms, but you can use any organic mix.
3. Fill the grow bag about 1/3 of the way up with soil. Place two seed potatoes in the first layer and fill it 1/3 of the way up. Lay another two seed potatoes on this layer and then fill it the rest of the way up. You should have four seed potatoes for each grow bag.
4. Water well and keep the potatoes watered throughout the season. The bags tend to dry out more quickly than potatoes planted in the earth, so you will want to keep an eye on them.
Do Potatoes Need Fertilizer?
Potatoes, like all other vegetables, can benefit from a rich fertilizer during the growing season. We really like using Bumper Crop but any well balanced fertilizer will do.
Follow the directions on the bag based on the container size you are using to grow your potatoes.
Mulching
The biggest downfall of growing potatoes in containers is that they dry out quite quickly.
You will have to make sure you water them often ensuring the bags do not dry out.
A moisture meter comes in handy for this task as does mulching the top layer of your growing bags.
I have used leaves as well as hay to help retain moisture in our soil once the potatoes have been planted. Another option is to install a drip irrigation system. This system can attach to your outdoor hose spigot or a rain barrel if you have one installed.
Harvest Time
Your potatoes will be ready to harvest when all the leaves die back. Try not to gather them before this. As excited as you’ll be, you want to ensure you get the best harvest. After all, if you’ve waited this long, you might as well get the most taters for your time.
Once the plant dies back, you can pull your potatoes. Try not to use a shovel or any other sharp implements. We like to dump the bags on a tarp or wheelbarrow. This seems to be the method that works so that we ensure no damage to our potatoes. If the potato is damaged, it won’t store well.
Storage
Potatoes can be enjoyed right away or stored in a cool, dry place for quite some time.
If storing your potatoes, be sure not to wash the dirt off. Wipe off as much as possible; it will help your potatoes store for a long time.
If you lack the storage space, potatoes can also be frozen for later use. If freezing potatoes, you will need to cook them first or blanch them.
Once your potatoes are blanched, freeze them in a single layer so that the potatoes don’t freeze in a giant clump. Once they are frozen, you can move them to a freezer bag for longer-term storage.
Final Thoughts
When you don’t have the space, using containers is a great way to grow potatoes. Make sure you choose a suitable-sized container, fill it with rich organic soil, fertilize and water as needed.
Soon enough, you will have delicious homegrown potatoes that you can enjoy immediately or store for later use.
Make sure you let us know in the comments section which variety you plan to grow this season. Happy growing!
