Potatoes and sizes of containers

[sumbody]

Hi, having read all your glowing reports of growing your own potatoes, I have decided to give it a try.  I  have bought Charlotte, Lady Christl and Maris Peer and will be growing in containers.  Have laid them out for "chitting" yesterday - generally there is one sprout on each potato so far.

The instructions say 2 tubers to a 30cm pot.

My question is - how do I measure the pot ? - across the top ?, or by the height ??    (planning on growing some in old swing-bins as well - but just wanting some idea of the recommendations).

Any suggestions also appreciated as I am more than willing to learn from your experiences.

Thanks in advance

Monica

[sumbody]

[jennym]

Measured across the top, but they need to be at least 30cm deep too. The old swing bin sounds good, never thought of that.

[Jockthebear.]

I too was wondering about this. I changed my plans when I read recently that containers needed to be at least 30" deep- for earlies AND maincrop. Jenny, could you elaborate on the subject from your experience, please?

[Tulipa]

Last year I used containers that were about 18"square and deep and put 2 seed potatoes in each.  I have seen it recommended to put 2 in one of those orange plastic buckets from B&Q too. This is for earlies which I grew last year, I think maincrops would need bigger containers.

Sumbody, I grew Lady Christl last year and they were wonderful, the best potaotes I have ever tasted.

There are threads on here that give full details of how to grow them, I will see if I can find a link.

This may help: http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,26/topic,7174.20

[jennym]

I think the smallest pot I have ever used was 30 cm diameter (1 foot) by about 45 cm high (1 ft 6"). And 2 seed potatoes (early, something like Lady Christl) only for this size.
In early March in a sheltered, light, place I put about 15cm (6") of compost in the bottom, put the potatoes in and just cover them by about 10cm (4"). Then, when they grow so that the leaves are just emerging from the top of the pot, put more soil in but don't cover the leaves. Eventually, the pot is full of soil, there are lots of leaves, and its time to wait. Keep it watered, the odd drop of feed (I don't feed, but use a light mix of compost and sieved clay soil in the pot) and you will find small new potatoes, clean and easy to harvest at the end of May if you're lucky.

[sumbody]

Thanks to Tulippa and JennyM for the helpful link and for sharing your experience - I will save the large bins for the Maris Peer - will also try the half-compost bag technique too.

Looking at the BBC site, Alan Titchmarsh has used tyres (as recommended by Bob Flowerdew many years ago) - and has painted them too - so they look quite attractive -

thanks agan

[stuffed]

I had my first go at growing potatoes last year and this was in bins (about 2 foot deep). I had no idea what I was doing but new the theory of how potatoes grew.  I bought some king edwards from the supermarket (choosing the biggest ones as my logic told me these would grow better ::) ::)) and chitted these in my kitchen.  I filled my bins up with compost stuck 1 potato in each and just covered it with a couple of inches of compost.  I kept them watered and put a layer of straw over the top of the compost to keep the light off the potatoes and help keep the moisture in.
I got potatoes ;D ;D ;D
I have to say that grown this way they only got about half way down the bin so a smaller container would be fine although I was wondering on what the minimum would be.
This year I will be starting them off low in the pot and adding compost as needed. I will be trying a few different containers. The smaller ones may well just get 1 in each but the bins I used last year will have 2 in each this time.
will try to do it properly this time around but it is not difficult to grow potatoes even if you don't know what you are doing.

[pakaba]

Hi
last year i bought a couple of those (expensive) potato barrells, and the crop was pathetic, i was so disappointed :'(.  i really looked after them. They were a waste of money >:(.   I had just a 'good' a crop from the seed pots i planted in a couple of old tesco blue baskets (the ones you could buy to save using plastic  bags).  This year i'm thinking of planting carrots in the potato barrells as we are on clay and just using the tesco baskets and old washing baskets for the potatoes.  Although last year i didn't have the lottie.  But i might get the children to plant some in the tubs.  I think last year they put all their energy into growing so tall and not into growing spuds.

[euronerd]

Last year was the first time I'd tried growing potatoes in containers too. I used a standard plastic dustbin and put three King Eds in near the bottom, covering the shoots as they appeared with ordinary compost from bags. The number of potatoes was spectacular, but the size of them wasn't, the largest being not much more than 2" diameter, and most of them much smaller. I put this down to not enough feeding by me to bulk them up near the end, but I shall definitely be doing something similar this year. I also, at the same time and purely on impulse, put some (can't remember how many) pink fir apples and one solitary arran pilot in a couple of compost sacks with a few slits in the bottom. The crop was just as good. Beginner's luck most likely.

Geoff.

[Jimmy]

There was a spud day at Wisley RHS a couple of weeks back attended by Colin Randell of Thompson & Morgan and Alan Roman. Colin gave a chat about planting and what to plant in and did make mention that big containers rarely give a big yield (if anything).

He even dismissed to an extent his own companies potato barrels stating 80 litres of compost will compress whatever is below.

Going to try some in the poly-pots they had -  polythene bags about 12 inches across and 1 tuber each and similar method to Jenny below

Here's hoping
Jim

[Jockthebear.]

Jimmy,
          Thanks for useful info. How deep are these poly-pots, please?

[jennym]

I quite forgot - when I had no cash for proper pots, I grew some potatoes in large carrier bags with a couple of holes pierced in the bottom for drainage - this worked fine. I think they were big Woolies ones, or M&S.

[Jimmy]

The poly-pots are 12 inches deep as well. Cost about 25-30p each and take 14 litres or so of compost (or whatever) and good quality plus reusable.

Going to have a little test to see what yields a bigger,cleaner, tastier crop: bag-grown or earthed-up. Try this for the earlies as well as main-crop.

Would try the carrier-bag (which is not a bad suggestion) but have a neighbour that would do the same but with a Harrod's carrier!!

[Anne Robertson]

If growing in pots can you earth up with grass cuttings?