Spuds in tubs experiment

[Aberdeenplotter]

In growing potatoes for exhibition, most National Vegetable Society Members us 17ltr polypots. A light covering of compost in the bottom of the bag is all that is needed and then the bag is filled up leaving only some space for watering. We get exceeedingly good potatoes without earthing up.

If you use a redundant rubbish bucket as a growing recepticle, make sure it has drainage and put no more than a foot of compost in the bin to start with and then add more as the plant grows.

[Loudbarker1]

Doesn't this method cost a fortune in compost? How does it work if you just plant into the soil dug out from the trench?

[Suky]

I use the cheapest growbags mixed with home made compost and dressed with BFB or a potato fertiliser. I then use the old compost as a top dressing on the beds.

[Two_Sheds]

Doesn't this method cost a fortune in compost? How does it work if you just plant into the soil dug out from the trench?

I can't grow spuds in my soil - they get scab. I now grow them in pots filled with leafmold & MPC

[Florence Fennel]

Like TS, I use some compost, but I used lots of grass clippings as well because that's free!

[annacruachan]

I grow second earlies - Kestrel - in tubs using an initial layer and covering of all purpose compost then earthing up with seaweed. This seems to work very well.
The compost is from my own bins and I don't use any fertiliser.
No depth of soil in my garden, so I can't use the original idea, but it's a good one, especially being able to keep the spuds in their own little 'clamp' in the shed!

[mary-belle]

I was looking into the patio bags that suttons and the like sell for planting potatoes and for what they are seem very expensive.

So i was having a think (always dangerous) and figured that those reusable bags that tesco sell for your shopping (about 39p blue with ladybirds) look about the same and should work well if i popped a few drainage holes around the bottom.

What do you think? Better than paying a fiver for 3, and look quite sweet.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Mary more or less any type of container will do providing it will hold the compost as drainage and will not contaminate the compost.

When I first started I purchased the potato containers with sliding doors, waste off money. I then purchased plastic dustbins for my main crop cost a bout £6 and last for years.

Colin

[jojo2910]

I was looking into the patio bags that suttons and the like sell for planting potatoes and for what they are seem very expensive.

So i was having a think (always dangerous) and figured that those reusable bags that tesco sell for your shopping (about 39p blue with ladybirds) look about the same and should work well if i popped a few drainage holes around the bottom.

What do you think? Better than paying a fiver for 3, and look quite sweet.

We used these bags and they worked fine. They don't have as much structure as a pot, so our had a little middle spread, but apart from that brill.

[wilbert79]

Maybe worth giving the below a look at? (polypots manufacturers) Can buy online.

Hadopots? - polythene plant pots and plant bags, plastic pots, polypots, bag pots