Last spring, I tried an experiment in growing potatoes. This morning, my daughter Louisa and I went out into the garden to harvest them, which was like opening a present! A barrel full of potatoes all nice and neat! Here’s how we did it:
1- cut the bottom off a plastic or wooden bucket or barrel (or drill multiple holes into the bottom to insure proper drainage). The barrel should be about 2 feet high.
2- lay old carpeting under the barrel
3- lay seed potatoes (or cut up chunks of bigger potatoes) spaced out on the carpet that serves as the floor of your barrel. If you are using big potatoes cut into chunks, let them dry after cutting overnight to reduce chance of molding. Grocery store potatoes will work, but only if they have not been treated with anti-sprouting chemicals. If your potatoes in your pantry are sprouting, they’ll work fine.
4- sprinkle soil lightly over the potatoes, just to cover about 1″ with soil. Use “Mels’ Mix” —a blend of 1/3 part peat moss, 1/3 part vermiculite and 1/3 part compost (mix 5 different types of compost so all nutritents are present). You’ll find the recipe and lots more valuable information in Square Foot Gardening). The type of soil is vitally important—I wouldn’t recommend this with “plain ole’ dirt”.
5- water well and wait a week or so, until green sprouts are pushing up through the soil and leafing out.
6- when the leaves are about an inch or two up through the soil, sprinkle on another layer of soil, completely covering the potatoes with another inch of soil.
7- keep watering very well. Lots of water means big potatoes!
8- keep up the process of adding more soil as soon as the leaves push through the soil. About once a week will do.
9- when you’ve added soil to cover the growth each time, the barrel will eventually get full of soil. When you’ve reached the top, your only job is to keep those potatoes well watered. The vines will grow up and tumble out over the top and blossom. When you see the blossoms, you’ll know potatoes are forming. Red potatoes have pink blossoms, and white blossoms form on plants with yellow or brown potatoes.
10- fall harvesting: if the leaves have died back, you are ready to harvest. My potatoes had lush green foliage right up to the frost, however. To harvest, just put on your garden gloves and “go fishing”. We did not need any tools at all, as the soil mix is so loose and light. Just fish around in the soil and you’ll feel your potatoes and can scoop them out! Very fun!
I planted red potatoes, brown russet and yellow Finnish potatoes, which are supposed to be “waxy” and best for potato salad, as well as lower on the glycemic index than standard brown grocery store potatoes (russets).
The great thing about confining the growth to the barrel is that when you scoop right down into the barrel with your hands, right to the carpet floor to harvest, you know you have them all. I had a big crop just laying side by side on the carpeted bottom! The potatoes form on the stem, so as you add more soil, another layer of potatoes forms higher on the stems, and more and more. If you have a long growing season, and give them lots of water, your whole barrel can fill up with potatoes. It seems magic to see soil transform itself into delicious fresh potatoes!
No tools at harvest means no cut or damaged potatoes, and being able to stir the soil around with your hands and pull the potatoes out means you get every single potato, including the “babies”, which will be saved for seed potato for next spring’s planting.
Once the potatoes are out of the barrel, stir in compost to fill the barrel back up to the top and smooth it over. Cover with an old blanket, tarp, or piece of cardboard, secured by a rock or log, and you’ll be all set for spring to come. (We buy old blankets at yard sales for this purpose.) You’ll be surprised, with a blanket cover, how clean the soil stays over the winter! No weed seeds will blow in and your potato barrel will be weed-free and ready to go as soon as the snow melts!
When spring comes, and danger of frost is past, remove all the soil from the barrel, lay down your seed potatoes, sprinkle on an inch of soil over the seed potatoes, and here we go again . . .
Easy, easy painless potatoes!
Wheeeee!
Save the "babies" for seed potatoes to plant next spring.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I'd sure love to hear your comment!
thank you for the info. I am so excited for this, as we don't have room for a big garden, and I don't care much for digging potatoes anyway! =)
If you are using seed potatoes (those little tiny baby potatoes the size of a marble), spread them across the bottom of the planting area with an eye to how big they will ultimately grow, leaving space for that. Maybe about 3" apart. They grow upwards as well as across. The goal is to have the entire bottom of the planting container "wall to wall" potatoes when you harvest. Best success!
about how many seedlings did you put in the bottom of your pot? I am so excited to try this!
Hi Jill,
Start your potatoes in the spring, about a week before last frost. If you use grocery store potatoes, they may not sprout because they are often sprayed with anti-sprouting chemicals. You'd have to buy them now and let them set in your pantry long enough to determine if they are going to sprout. If not, you'll have to get potato starts (just tiny potatoes) from the garden shop. I don't put them in brown bags, but if you cut them the day before and let them just set out in the air, they will seal off a bit and that can retard molding once in the ground. The method works for sweet potatoes also, but once again, they must be able to sprout, so you might have to order those from a nursery, in which case, you will get sweet potato starts (very small ones) and these do not need to be cut. Once you have grown your own, you can save the smallest of the harvest for next year's starts, when you harvest in the fall. Actually, if you neglect to get all the potatoes out of the planting area, they will sprout and grow into potatoes without you doing anything!
Best success!
Diane
Hello,
I live in Massachusetts and I am considering planting some type of garden this year. Your potatoe method looks wonderful. I have a question, do I start this potatoe garden in the spring or fall in my area?
If I use a store bought potatoe do I just cut it up in chunks or do I need to store it in brown bag first? Also, will this method work for sweet potatoes?
Thank you,
Jill
We tried making tubes out of landscape fabric this year to plant potatoes in. Just stitch up one side and fold the ends under to create the bottom. We rolled the sides down and planted potatoes, adding soil as they grew (and unrolling the tops to make the tubes longer). Super easy to harvest.
However, most of our potatoes grew only in the bottom. Our seed potatoes were largely fingerlings. Are there only certain varieties that respond to the layering?
Anything will do–no need to buy barrels. Even a sturdy cardboard box would probably do the trick! We found a scrap piece of new plastic sewer pipe that a road construction site was throwing away that was about 3 feet across, and we sawed it into 2 foot segments. You can use a plastic bucket that bakeries get frostings and fillings in, and cut off the bottom (or drill lots and lots of holes in it). I'm sure a wooden box would work too, as long as it is deep enough. Be creative! Best success!
Thanks so much for your helpful insight…we will give it a try and I'll try to come back and let you know what happens.
Many blessings ~
Hello Diane!
How I've enjoyed your blog, website and catalog through the years! You are such an inspiration and have helped mentor me through years of homeschooling (even though you have never met me). I guess it would be the same as one has with authors of books huh? The idea of being a student of someone who emulates what we hope to become.
I had a question about the potatoes (this is the first year we have grown them). We live on the edge of the foothills here in Colorado (Fort Collins). We haven't had a frost yet, so I've not pulled up our potatoes. When I do, how should I store them? We have a basement that stays nice and cool and a emergency/deep pantry that is dark unless we turn on the light. Would this be an o.k. environment for them? Should I wrap them in anything?
Whenever you get a moment, I would so appreciate any storing tips you could give. May the Lord continue to bless you and your precious family!
Under His Wings,
Malinda
vintagehomesteademporium.com
Diane,
This is fantastic! Now to find a barrel to be ready for next spring. I am due with a baby in April, but I should be able to plant my potatoes in March and have them well covered with soil before baby comes. I do love home grown potatoes. Thanks so much for sharing.
Potatoes love cool weather, so I wonder if you could grow them now in Florida? They prefer a soil temperature of 60 to 70 degrees, and can stand a light frost. They grow the maximum number of tubers when the weather is cool. Keep your seed potatoes in a cool, dry, dark place. About 35 to 40 degrees is ideal. I just put mine in a brown paper sack and store them in a basement area in the dark, and they are shriveled when spring comes, and maybe sprouting a bit, but they work fine. I have read that storing them in straw, or even packing peanuts, works, but I am pretty low key, and I still get potatoes. In fact, if you don't have a hard freeze there, you can just put them in the ground now, and they will come sprouting up when it is the right time, although some may get eaten by bugs. Before I did the barrel method, and just had potatoes in the garden, I always had potatoes growing early spring, just from what was left over from the previous year. It is pretty fun trying different varieties than you can get at the grocery store: blue, yellow Finns, etc. Best success!
Hello Diane ~
Great post and thank you for packing it with so much information on how simple growing potatoes can be! We live in Florida (our county grows a lot of potatoes). We, however, have not as a family grown potatoes and would love to try this coming year. Being that our climate is so different from were you live, I have a couple questions:
1) when would you suggest we begin our 1st planting? It usually begins warming up in March here.
2) how do you keep your seed potatoes from going bad…storage, perservation techniques, etc. (the babies you kept from this harvest to use next year as your seed potatoes)
Thanks so much for any advice you can give.
Blessings in Him ~