I would like to grow some potatoes this year. I have no ground to put
them in. Any suggestions? I've heard of 55 gallon drums being used.
Planting then adding soil as the plant/plants grow. Any advice is
appreciated. Particularly personal experience.
TIA
Stan zone 5 and warmer today

In article , stan wrote:

I would like to grow some potatoes this year. I have no ground to put
them in. Any suggestions? I've heard of 55 gallon drums being used.
Planting then adding soil as the plant/plants grow. Any advice is
appreciated. Particularly personal experience.
TIA
Stan zone 5 and warmer today


This just came up yesterday out at my community farm. Some friends have
a compost bin but have just planted it with potatoes and plan to use it
for that purpose this year to see if it works. They started it near the
bottom and will add more and more soil over time as they grow.

The purpose is because our community farm is overrun with pocket gophers
and squirrels, and they eat more than their fair share of our crops
every year!

I'm thinking about trying this with a big container, maybe with some
chicken wire around the bottom, to keep the gophers at bay. Had some
very delicious gold yukons last summer but the gophers had a nice little
feast on many of them.

karen

No promises, but I am experimenting with keeping rabbits out of my
"goodies". It might work on other pests also. Once I planted about 100
feet of potted cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Within
3 days, all I had left was about 12 cabbage plants left. I put a small
fence up around them and saved them from the rabbits.

The next year I decided not to mess with them at all, but my daughter bought
21 Brussels sprout potted plants and gave them to me. This time I started
on one end of the 50 ft row, and planted a clove of garlic, then a Brussels
Sprout, then a garlic, and so on to the other end of the row. The rabbits
left them all alone.

Again, no promises that it will work, or that my experience wasn't a fluke,
but I am convinced it kept them out. I will try it again this year. With
the cost of bulk garlic in the stores, it is worth a try.

Good luck. Dwayne




"Karen Zack" wrote in message
...
In article , stan wrote:

I would like to grow some potatoes this year. I have no ground to put
them in. Any suggestions? I've heard of 55 gallon drums being used.
Planting then adding soil as the plant/plants grow. Any advice is
appreciated. Particularly personal experience.
TIA
Stan zone 5 and warmer today


This just came up yesterday out at my community farm. Some friends have
a compost bin but have just planted it with potatoes and plan to use it
for that purpose this year to see if it works. They started it near the
bottom and will add more and more soil over time as they grow.

The purpose is because our community farm is overrun with pocket gophers
and squirrels, and they eat more than their fair share of our crops
every year!

I'm thinking about trying this with a big container, maybe with some
chicken wire around the bottom, to keep the gophers at bay. Had some
very delicious gold yukons last summer but the gophers had a nice little
feast on many of them.

karen

Dan Mazerolle wrote:

I tried the 45 gallon barrel twice with limited success. As others have
suggested, I started with a foot of soil and filled it to about a foot from
the top as the tops grew. The first year I got about 20 pounds and the
second around 15. I think the problem was not enough moisture. Even though
there was enough rain for the rest of the garden, the leaves kept out much
of the rain. I would suggest a holey barrel for drainage, and a vertical 6"
perforated pipe in the center for watering to the bottom of the barrel.

This year I am going to try again but instead of the barrel, I will use a
wire cage made of 2" x 2" mesh. Maybe I can force the tops to grow through
the openings so there is more area under sunlight.


I used a 3 foot diameter 2 foot high bin made of one inch mesh rabbit
wire. Normally a compost bin. I got around 15 to 20 lbs the first year
which was okay, but the second and third years I got less then 5 lbs
which wasn't really worth the effort.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very
easy to govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over
expenditures on armaments and military equipment. It pays without
discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the
syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors
are an abundant source of gain."
Anatole France

I've tried old tires years ago, putting in soil planting, and then
adding soil and a tire each time u can. It works!
On Tue, 18 Feb 2003 19:16:14 -0600, stan wrote:

I would like to grow some potatoes this year. I have no ground to put
them in. Any suggestions? I've heard of 55 gallon drums being used.
Planting then adding soil as the plant/plants grow. Any advice is
appreciated. Particularly personal experience.
TIA
Stan zone 5 and warmer today

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 19:24:03 -0600, stan wrote:

Thanks for all the replies!! really appreciate it. I don't think my wife
would like the stack of tires in the yard, but some of the other ideas
are great. I will indeed be trying them. Let you know what happens.
Stan zone 5 and beautiful


I'm going to try this also. Seems a lot easier than trying to
dig them when they are ready.

stan wrote:

I would like to grow some potatoes this year. I have no ground to put
them in. Any suggestions? I've heard of 55 gallon drums being used.
Planting then adding soil as the plant/plants grow. Any advice is
appreciated. Particularly personal experience.
TIA
Stan zone 5 and warmer today

1. Get a bushel basket. If you can't find one, a laundry basket will do
nicely but will not be nearly as purdy.

2. Cut up a couple of seed potatoes, two eyes per section, and drop them
in.

3. Cover with 2-3 inches of nice potting soil.

4. Place in a pleasing, sunny location. Mine go at the edge of the garden
behind the strawberries which makes the whole thing look very homey.

5. As they grow, gradually put in more soil. Just like hilling up potatoes
in the garden, except they're in a basket.

6. Stop adding soil when you get to within an inch or so of the top.

7. Harvest any time after they start dying back. To harvest, turn the
basket upside down.

It works great. When you dump the basket upside down, it will be half full
of potatoes. And you don't lose a one of them or cut any of them up
accidentally while looking for them.

I have not used a barrel for this, but I believe the basket, being
breathable, is part of the success factor. Plus it drains easily. After
2-3 years the bottom will rot out of the basket. Never fear, keep on using
it, the taters will like the potting soil so much they won't root down much
into the regular garden soil.

Once you've done it this way you won't go back to the regular in-the-row way
.... unless of course you need a whole lot of taters.




"stan" wrote in message ...
I would like to grow some potatoes this year. I have no ground to put
them in. Any suggestions? I've heard of 55 gallon drums being used.
Planting then adding soil as the plant/plants grow. Any advice is
appreciated. Particularly personal experience.
TIA
Stan zone 5 and warmer today