In March I put together 3 potato towers {How to Build a Potato Tower}. Now here we are, the beginning of July and the potato towers are growing much better than I expected them too.
This is my second year growing potatoes in towers. Last year I tried and it was pretty much a disaster. I think it may have been my fault though, I had placed the potato towers in a spot that was to hard for me to reach with the hose. As a result they were only watered handful of times or when it rained.
But this year, I am on top of watering. And I think it has made all the difference in the world.
Potato Tower #1 – I covered the potatoes with 6 inches of dirt. My plan with tower #1 was to add additional dirt {but no more potatoes} as the potato leaves begin to pop through the soil.
I’ve been adding dirt a little at a time and so far so good.
Potato Tower #2 – I covered the potatoes with 6 inches of dirt, then added 5 more potatoes. I ended up doing this 3 times. Someone had suggested I try this method to see if it would grow more potatoes.
Ding, Ding, Ding! I think we might have a winning combination on our hands. I’m super excited to see what the final result of this tower will be.
Potato Tower #3 – This tower was planted with alternating layers of potatoes, dirt, potatoes, straw, potatoes, dirt. Again, someone suggested this growing method because it had worked for them.
Because I’m not seeing a whole lot of foliage popping out of this tower, I am skeptical it will work out. We’ll see though, who knows, there may be some giant spuds in there.
And last but not least,the compost bin. I made this compost bin out of recycled wooden pallets. Once I noticed there were some volunteer potatoes growing, I said what the heck, let’s see if this will work.
So each week we have been adding our grass clippings, weeds, and other garden waste to the compost bin. I have no idea if we’ll get any potatoes from this experiment, but it by the look of all those potato leaves, I think we just might.
Are you growing potatoes this year? Did you go the traditional route, plant some towers, plant them in burlap sacks? How is your crop of spuds coming along?
Mavis
To find out how I built my potato towers go here: How to Build a Potato Tower
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Faith says
My parents (with help from my older brother) harvested their potatoes this morning. They had two rows of plants, and harvested 14 and a half bushels!. It was one of the largest crops they’ve had off of their small North Alabama garden. They still use a middle buster to pull them up, but chain it to a tractor instead of a mule 🙂
TINA says
Hi Mavis! I’m growing potatoes in coffee bean bags this year and they are doing awesome! I’m excited to see how many actual potatoes I get. I have 15 bags going 🙂
Peggy Stenglein says
You should get great potatoes from the compost bin, I do every year! The idea of potatoes is to hill them up, compost, straw, whatever, will do that as long as it can decompose. With potatoes, what’s underneath the soil is what matters, not the leaves on top!
Julie says
Hi Mavis! Love your blog and all your great info. I have a potato question for you. I made a huge, huge boo-boo this year with my potatoes. I decided to try the potato tower method this year with a very large wooden box I had from a failed free-labor chicken experiment. I planted some German Butterball potatoes and covered them with dirt. They began to grow and I continued to cover them with dirt. Then I ran out of dirt and kind of forgot about them. They continued to grow and were about 2 feet tall when my hubby suggested I use grass clippings. A quick Google search didn’t come up with any reason not to, so I began piling the grass clippings into the potato tower. About a week later I noticed the foliage wilting and found that the stalks were rotting. All of the foliage has rotted and died. I took all the grass clippings back out down to the dirt. I checked a few of the plants and the original potatoes have turned to mush but there are a few new potatoes on each plant. So my question is, if I leave the new potatoes in the ground will they start new plants since the parent plants have died off and maybe I will get a crop? Or should I dig up what I have, cut my losses and chalk it up to a learning experience? Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Mindy says
You inspired me to plant my first potatotes – have been wanting to. I used green pototato tubs (sort of like sturdy plastic type bags with a threaded plastic ring threaded through the top. I liked that I could scrub them with bleach water at the end of the seaon and store in the shed easily. I planted two and am following your method #1. I have been keeping them well watered and they keep poking through the soil (which I am done adding at this point) and are several inches tall. Two leaves in one bucket look like maybe something is snacking on them though so I am a bit concerned. Any tips? So anxious to see how many I get. Depending on your results I may change it up next year.
Wynne says
I planted my first potatoes this year, in a raised bed. Hilling them has been an adventure–I can’t wait to see your results and try towers next year.
Renee says
I live in Central Alabama. This is my first year growing potatoes. Early March, I had the idea of using the plastic buckets from the bakery. (they are free) I drilled holes all over and planted red potatoes and purple potatoes, 2 buckets of each. Not sure what happened but in mid April the leaves on the red potato plants turned yellow and spotty. I dumped them out and found the original potatoes mushy but had a handful of little red potatoes. The purple plants were doing ok but now they have the same leaf problem. Too much water? Poor drainage?
I obtained a couple of bales of hay (free) and made a potato tower and threw in 4 potatoes I found in the shed that I had leftover from my March planting. Is it too late to plant these? We have a longer growing season here so I thought I would try.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Missy says
We live in town so we have very little space to garden. But thanks to you, we are going to try the tower method to grow potatoes. We are also going to put in peas tomorrow. So, we’ll see, thanks to you Mavis.
Cindy says
I just finished hilling my tower and one of the plants snapped off below the soil line. I am assuming the potatoes from that plant will not rot? I can’t dig up just that plant because they are planted close, will those potatoes cause disease in the rest?
Lynn says
So…what was the final outcome? Which of the three methods was best?
Mavis says
Here is the results post: http://www.stage.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/potato-tower-update-and-harvest/.