A Garden Season Guide To Growing Potatoes In Containers

Don’t you just love your steak with fries? Potatoes are an essential part of our diet. So much so, we spend so much on it. Fortunately, I’ll let you in on the secrets of growing potatoes in containers!

Essentially, potatoes are nutritious. But the real best thing about them is you can prepare and grow them in so many ways. You’ll be surprised to find growing potato in containers convenient, exciting, and practically stress-reducing. If you want to stay on budget, try growing potatoes in containers. This lets you have fresh potato harvest of your own. Read on to know how.

A Practical Guide To Growing Potatoes In Containers

Growing potatoes in containers can be really fun with this practical guide for those who want to finally grow their own food like you. You’ll also save on space with container gardening, so no worries for those who have little space to spare for a garden. Growing potatoes in containers is a practical way to grow your own food and stay on budget. Read on to learn all about it!

 

1. Selecting And Chitting Seed Potato

While it’s convenient to follow expert tips, and choose only premium seed potatoes sold at garden supply stores, you can grow them from scraps quite easily. Even that neglected tuber in your pantry can actually grow into a plant that can give loads of potatoes back. I would suggest to only grow from the organic and healthy kind of tubers. Potatoes sold commercially are treated with solutions that prevent them from chitting. To make your potato sprouts, they must be stored in a cool, unlit area. Exposure to sunlight will not allow your potatoes to sprout easily.

 

2. Types Of Containers To Plant Your Potatoes In

You can practically grow potatoes in a variety of containers. The selection seems endless. You’d be excited to know you can even grow potatoes in recycled containers like trash bags or old car tires. Other containers you can grow potatoes in are laundry baskets, empty compost bags, plastic bins or buckets, burlap sack, and utility bags. You just have to make sure they will drain properly to avoid diseases in your crops. When using plastic bins, make sure to drill lots of holes to let water drain easily. Isn’t this a very practical way to recycle, and give back to your environment?

 

3. Preparing The Soil

Preparing The Soil | A Garden Season Guide To Growing Potatoes In Containers
Image via cedarcirclefarm

Gardening is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Don’t let taking care of your garden soil stress you out! As long as it’s well-draining, loose, and smells of nice dirt, it’s in great condition. But there’s also no harm in getting good organic compost to increase your yield. Just don’t add fresh animal manure, as it could encourage disease in your tubers. Have it aged or well-composted first before using it for growing potatoes in.

 

4. Planting the Potatoes

Potatoes are toxic but the toxins are mostly concentrated in the leaves, stems, sprouts, and fruits. However, if your tubers are exposed to sunlight, they’d turn green and increase toxicity levels. You can avoid this by making sure that they are well covered with soil.

To plant your seed potatoes in containers, first you have to fill 4 to 6 inches of soil or compost in your container. Then, lay your seed potatoes on top of the soil. Cover the seed potatoes with another 4 to 6 inches of compost, and continue hilling or adding soil as your potato plant grows.

 

5. Feeding And Watering

Potatoes don’t need much fertilizer. If you overfeed them, you’ll end up with an abundant foliage and fewer yields. A moderate amount of organic fertilizer will do for your spuds. Watering your potatoes will be essential, especially when growing them in containers. Make sure the water drains right off when watering to keep your soil moist but not soggy.

 

6. Disease And Pests

One good thing about growing potatoes in containers is being able to easily eliminate pest problems. Yes, even those rodents that go over and under fences to get to your potatoes. Potatoes need sunlight to grow well and keep its foliage dry and healthy. Make sure your seed potatoes are healthy and your soil is disease- and pest-free. Or you can naturally fend off pests by growing pest and insect repellent plants, like chives, near you potatoes. Never grow your potatoes in the same soil again. Or if you have to, make sure to amend your soil by mixing organic fertilizers.

 

7. Harvesting And Storage

Your potatoes are ready to harvest once the flowers are open. But it’s best to harvest them when the plant has wilted. This will let the tubers mature and toughen up its skin to prevent damage from all the yanking and pulling. But you can easily knock over the contents of your container during harvest. Let your kids join in, and have them pick up your harvest which they’ll surely enjoy!

Wash your potatoes thoroughly and store them in a cool dry place. They store well over the winter so you won’t have a shortage of potatoes for some time.

 

Watch this video from osmocotegarden for a more in-depth guide to growing potatoes in containers:

Growing potatoes in containers is an excellent gardening venture that’s easy and exciting. Eating food you’ve grown yourself is like growing your own money. Though money doesn’t grow on trees, they sure do in containers! Got inspired growing potatoes in containers? Share with your friends this practical guide and have some fries and mashed potatoes party!

Was this practical guide to growing potatoes in containers helpful? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

I hope this practical guide becomes a helpful tool in your gardening endeavors. Are your containers ready for a blast of potatoes coming? Share your thoughts about growing potatoes in the comments section below!

 

Featured Image via Wallpaper Zone

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1 thought on “A Garden Season Guide To Growing Potatoes In Containers”

  1. In the instructions on how to grow potatoes, you said to add more soil as the plant grows, but did not say if we should put the soil on top of the sprouts (and let them push through again) or just around them.

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