Potatoes in containers

[salpall]

Hi I have never grown veg before this year but have had good success with growing salad potaoes in large compost bags. Am i too late to try another crop this year? I've heard that maincrop pots cannot be grown in containers but wondered if there was another type I could grow this year? I suspect the answer is "no" as I cannot find any seed potatoes for sale anywhere. Thanks in advance.

[momol]

Hi salpall,

I have grown potatoes in a big pot last year ( they were from my kitchen, so I have no idea which type are they ). I think they are spring type and they produce 1.7 kg from an 40 cm pot. I am afraid I can't give you good unswer due to lack of potatoes growing experience.
I just want to say welcome to the vine. They are many grapes with potatoes growing experience. They will be coming a long soon for your search.

Momol

[Alice]

Hello Salpall and welcome to the Vine. You've planty of time to grow another crop os salad potatoes as they only need about 13 weeks. If you can't find seed potatoes you should be safe enough with supermarket potatoes since you're growing in a container and can't contaminate your ground . Kook for a salad variety you like. Charlotte are excellent, as is Cherie if you can find them. Last year I also grew some Nicola and Nadine. They did very well but the flavour was not quite as good. Nadine did so well it burst the bucket. Rooster was an excellent roasting potato and produced a whopping 6 lbs in a bucket. Good luck with the project.

[Cutecumber]

Alice is right - it only takes three months or so for a crop of "earlies".

Be aware that the later you plant, the more difficult it can be to finish off the crop because temperatures start to drop (amongst other problems).

You can order seed potatoes right now from a few suppliers for a "Christmas" crop. They send them out during July/ August, and the theory is that you get fresh new-ish potatoes for Christmas. Bearing in mind the vagaries of the Autumn weather, this is not a dead cert, and I would recommend planting in a container and moving it into the greenhouse if you want to try this. Any frost will have 'em, and blight is very common later in the year.

Don't be put off, but be realistic about their chances.

[goddess]

What size bucket will be sufficient?

[Cutecumber]

Something like 10 litres - roughly a standard household bucket size - minimum. A couple of tubers should give you a reasonable crop in this.

[vicpivo]

Salpall - my allotment neighbour puts a bag of his potato peelings in the ground and is convinced this will grow. It you can't find any seed potatoes may be a bit of fun to try and do this!!

[Salina]

mine are growing away find in bucket-sized plant pots and a large plastic fish box at the moment and I planted another few the other day. I'd say go for it, I'm not really taking much notice of the recommended months for planting seeds that written on my seed packets either and they seem to be growing fine as well lol. good luck! home-grown spuds are lovely.

[Snadger]

Hi all, just to mention, if growing spuds in containers make sure the containers are dark coloured or black!
I have just harvested some early potatoes that I had in white plastic buckets to find that the tatties nearest to the outside of the tub were partly grreen because of sunlight playing on the sides!

Learn from my mistake and use black containers!

[bluemidget]

ha ha - cool Im gonna try this! so do I just put some potatoes in some soil in a bucket? should be interesting!

[moggssue]

Having never done anything like this before, I was given some seed potatoes, turned a couple of big empty plastic compost bags inside out, put a couple of inches of compost in the bottom and covered the potatoes. When they started showing I covered them with more compost. I've done that three times now and the tops at least are growing great guns - I also have a couple in some big plastic buckets and they look just the same. Now I have everything crossed that there will actually be some edible tatties down there in another month or two. Go for it, if you dont try you'll never know. Good luck .... and rely on what other more experienced grapes on here tell you rather than me, I'm just happy to see some growth on mine haha!

[witch-1]

When planting 'supermarket specials' do you need to wait for sprouting roots, or just bung them in regardless ?? Got a few awaiting the answer.

Ta
Jan

[vicpivo]

My neighbour just put them in without sprouting.....

[mrs potato head]

I found in shed yesterday some sprouting spuds i had missed from earlier in year, decided to plant these out in one of my baths.
Got to admitt my last crop was quite a sorry looking affair.
So almost any thing has to be better.