potatoes grown in bags

[sully]

please can someone advise me before the site shuts down, i have searched for an answer to my question to no avail. I am growing 6 lots of potatoes in bags 3 charlotte and 3 pentland javelin ( my dad used to grow these on his lottie) i have the bags in the greenhouse, is it safe to keep them outside yet if i stand them on some pallets? Thanks for your help x

[ladylottie]

please can someone advise me before the site shuts down, i have searched for an answer to my question to no avail. I am growing 6 lots of potatoes in bags 3 charlotte and 3 pentland javelin ( my dad used to grow these on his lottie) i have the bags in the greenhouse, is it safe to keep them outside yet if i stand them on some pallets? Thanks for your help x

Hi. I too grow some potatoes in pots on my patio as well as at the allotment.
The potatoes in bags are always grown outside (don't have a greenhouse) and in fact I planted some (Rocket) outside last week. They will be ok.

[Shadylane]

Hi sully, I'm also near Rotherham and won't be putting my spuds in the ground until next month. I'm also going to put a few in flower buckets in the placcie greenhouse as soon as I get organised. You need to keep an eye out for frosts when the shoots are showing. If the frosts get to the leaves it will set them back or kill em. Once the shoots are up keep earthing them up to protect from frosts, or cover them with some fleece or anything else like a sheet/blanket/newspaper etc.

If they're not showing yet they should be fine unless it gets really cold. Not sure how much protection a bag offers them while still under the soil. last year I had them in an old compost bag placed inside a cardboard box with bubble wrap wrapped around for extra insulation.

[scarletrunner]

Have filled potato growbags with 4"of compost,divided bag in to 3 separate compartments with some sturdy cardboard,added a further 4"of compost to second compartment and 8"to the third,then one seed potato was placed on top of compost in each compartment and a further 4"of compost added on top of each potato,will add more compost as required,when foliage is growing above height of bag the cardboard will be pulled out.Hoping this method will produce crops as seen in advertisements.Has anyone else tried this? Will cover bags with fleece until frosts have passed.

[sully]

Thankyou both for your help x i will put them out in the morning, my dad used to grow pentland javelin on his lottie many years ago, and i have never tasted potatoes as good as that first couple of boilings so here goes ,fingers crossedxxx shadylane we could be neighbours !!!!!! lol xx

[mrpaulbradley]

I've had a fair bit of success growing potatoes in bags - it's ideal if you don't have loads of space. A wee tip though - don't spend cash on expensive bags in gardening stores...
Go to your supermarket and buy some of the heavy duty reusable bags - they cost around 40p each. Punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage - and you're away.
They're really easy to move around as they have strong handles. It means you can rotate them around the place quite easily for share & control of sun/water etc.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I prefer the plastic dustbin mainly because there is more room, also handy if a frost is forecast just pop the lid on.

Colin

[Kristen]

Do you need the space in the greenhouse? If not I would leave them there. They will come on sooner, and you won't have to worry about keeping the frost off the tops (when they poke through).

Once danger of frosts has passed, or the greenhouse starts to get very hot, you can move them outside.

[rob the roller]

After several failures I managed to grow potatoes in bags successfully last year. I used compost bags, which I rolled down to about a foot and gradually raised them as the bag filled. They were all grown on the patio.

Potatoes in bags can be frustrating. The trick appears to be watering, which needs to be done every day. Provided the bags drain adequately you can't overwater them. They will also need feeding. I used mainly barnyard manure and they seemed to like that.

This year I am intending to usereclaimed sand sacks, the big square type you see standing in the road where building work is being carried. They are about 2 feet square and about 3 feet deep. These are also going to stand on the patio. My only concern is that they are white, and so will reflect the sun, rather than absorb the heat.

Remember, you must water well and regularly to avoid disappointment.

All the best

Rob

[chilliking]

i'm planning to use old compost bags this year for spuds.

my plan is to roll down the sides, pop about 8" of compost in then add a couple of seeds (currently chitting) then another 2" of compost. once i have a nice bit of foliage i'll keep adding compost and unrolling the bag until full.

so long as i water regularly do you think this plan will work?

[rob the roller]

That's what I did last year, and it worked for me. Make sure there are adequate drainage holes and keep the plants well watered. You won't need as much in the beginning, but as the bag rolls up you will have to increase the water until you are putting in about a can full a day. Don't be fooled into thinking everything is fine by the sight of beautiful green foliage. If you don't use enough water all you will harvest is strings.

[Kristen]

The "problem", as I see it, with Builders' Bags is that you wind up harvesting a lot of Spuds all-at-once. They also need a lot of compost.

Whereas if you use proprietary Potato Bags, or even something like Compost Bags stood vertically and part-filled with compost, you only have, say, 3 Seed Tubers per bag. You can plant a few every fortnight, so you have a succession coming on, and you can tip just one out when you want to harvest some Spuds for a meal.

If you are using something other than proprietary Potato Bags make sure you create drainage holes AROUND the base, rather than IN the base. The water won't manage to escape from the very bottom, so it needs some holes a around the sides, a few inches up from the bottom.

[sully]

thankyou all for help and guidence, i had allready purchased the bags, but have some spare pots and i have lots of heavy duty morrisons bags so im going to plant some more. I really appreciate your help xx

[sewer rat]

I am growing exhibition tatties this year (45 tubers chitting away nicely at the moment) and these will be grown 1 tuber per 14 litre polypot. The polypot will be full of seived compost with added fertilser then all the bags will be placed in a trench about 6 - inches deep, dug in the soil with manure forked in along the bottom. The soil from digging out the trench will be pulled up against the bags to support them The idea being the tubers grow in the compost, staying nice and clean and blemish free but the roots grow through the bag and extract the moisture and nutrients from the soil. This does away with the worry about having to water every day.