Should You Grow Spuds in a Tub?
I have never met a potato I did not like. Seriously. There was period during the 80s that I refer to as my potato years. I shunned meats of any kind and pretty much subsisted for weeks at a time on baked potatoes, asiago cheese, and apples. That, plus my morning latte was it. I would go weeks and weeks on a steady diet of potatoes and little else.
Somewhere along the line, I gave up such foolishness and started eating a bit more normally. Well, maybe not normally but certainly with a lot more in the way of variety and protein foods.
I wrote about my teensy weensy garden in Getting Prepared Week 6: Planning the food garden. Back then, I promised a progress report but to tell the truth, there just isn’t any progress to report yet. My seedlings are scrawny and barely alive. Too cold and not enough light would be my guess. I am going to start anew when the weather dries out a bit and yes, I am going to have to purchase some starts.
But in the meantime, I bought a couple of small seed potatoes (40 cents worth to be exact – the clerk thought I was nuts, only two?) and set my sights on growing a few taters in a tub.
Here is the plan, although I will be using an old Rubbermaid tub (see above) and not a compost bag or potato growing bag
Is it going to work? Sure hope so. The seed potato variety is called “Cal White” and according to our local garden center, they are of the early season type. Here in the Pacific NW, a short season variety is crucial if we expect a harvest of anything before October.
The Pallet
Pallets are sometimes easy to get. Feed stores and other places sometimes will give you a few or you can buy them for a dollar or two. Most are made of pine that is untreated and put together with small nails. The really heavy ones are made of hardwood and not as common. Either one can be used to make a box to grow potatoes. The idea is to put 4 pallets together to form a box that you can fill with growing medium. This is lasagna gardening with potatoes. Add some compost or dirt and then plant potatoes.
Only fill about ¼ full and then keep adding dirt as the green growth starts poking its way through. This causes a heavy root system that goes deep and allows for taters all the way down. When they are ready to harvest you can remove a side and harvest with no digging.
You can also reuse the soil but it might require some shoveling back into your box. You can grow a lot of potatoes in a small space like this. A standard pallet is 4 feet x 4 feet so you get 16 sq ft of growing space with a mere 4 pallets but the amount of potatos that you get is far greater than you would get off of a comparable space that is not done using the layered method.
Smaller containers
You can absolutely grow using smaller containers. Potato blossoms are actually quite pretty and the foliage is green and nice. It is recommended that if you choose smaller containers that you
Barrels
It is possible to use a barrel cut in two for growing potatos. Use a hacksaw or reciprocating saw to cut a food grade plastic barrel in half. This gives you a bottomless circle that you can move wherever you want to grow potatoes. When they are ready to harvest you can wiggle the container and lift up. No digging no problem.
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