Topic: potatoes in buckets this year

[johhnyco15]

just got my first delivery of tubs for my early pots im going to grow all my potatoes in tubs this year  how about you

[brownthumb2]

 Do you get a good return growing in buckets verses the ground  ?My ground grown ones  last year was terrible  but I think I might have planted too deep  went a spade depth down , What size are those  those buckets I have an unlimited supply Of similar from my works they are about a foot across and the same high and hold about 12 litres

[johhnyco15]

i tried bags last year and got a really good return these tubs hold around 30 ltrs so will post pics as i go one of my plots is dedicated to fruit so I've a lot of spare space that i can fill with these tubs i calculated i could get 42 of them on my fruit plot however that would be a little expensive  so for this experiment I'm going to plant up 25 with early   2nd early and main crop  and see how they go fingers crossed                the picture is an 8ltr bag with charlotte in

[Tee Gee]

I would only use this method if i was planning on exhibiting the contents as it is too expensive nowadays.

It must cost around £2 a bag and much more if you are using buckets of the size Johnny has photographed, then you have the cost of the seed and feeding not to mention all the watering you would have to do.

The exercise reminds me of when I was but a lad.

The question was;  what is the best type of green manure?

Answer: Pound notes!*

Meaning if you are prepared to fork out the brass then chances are you will get the quality but not necessarily the quantity.

So basically in the end the choice is with the grower!

*For the benefit of the younger generation we did not have pound coins in the days and the pound notes were green!

[johhnyco15]

yes indeed expensive it works out around all in all £1.80 that's compost seed pots(4 per pot) and potato fertilizer  but don't include watering every other day for the next 4 months  top up fertilizer will be home made comfry tea  with a little pigeon poo in the barrel as its an experiment im not that worried about the cost next year compost will be cut with leaf mould and i save all my grow bags to bulk out the growing medium compost i normally use is durstons its a great mix i can get 3 x 75 ltrs for a tenner its got a growmore sort if stuff already in it and very little twigs etc i think its the best allround compost in my area

[Marlborough]

I also will be growing my spuds in 35l containers jonnyco15. I'm fed up feeding the slugs with my spuds. I know it's an added expense with the compost, but it has to be better than putting half your crop on the compost heap🌱

[johhnyco15]

yes indeed no holes scab or any other of millions of things that like my spuds more than me lol

[DeckerZ]

I am new to growing anything, though last year I grew some old potatoes I had in the cupboard. Grew them in a tub, but planted quite late. I did have some success and plan to grow a lot more this year. I have bought a lot of tubs, received my order of a variery of potatoes. These include Sarpo Mira, Maris Piper, King Edward and Desiree. The seed potatoes are chitting at present, ready for planting about St Patricks day. Any tips would be appreciated.

[warley]

Im the same - I got my plot last April so basically threw loads of stuff in and hoped for the best.  I got quite a bit of return but this year Im putting a bit more thought and planning into it.  Im a bit short of space so thought about growing potatoes in the plastic potato sacks and save the ground for other veg.  My reasoning behind this was because my potatoes seemed to be quite hardy and did very well last year, so I thought they would be fine in this type of container.   Fingers crossed anyway.

[johhnyco15]

I am new to growing anything, though last year I grew some old potatoes I had in the cupboard. Grew them in a tub, but planted quite late. I did have some success and plan to grow a lot more this year. I have bought a lot of tubs, received my order of a variery of potatoes. These include Sarpo Mira, Maris Piper, King Edward and Desiree. The seed potatoes are chitting at present, ready for planting about St Patricks day. Any tips would be appreciated.

one tip i learnt from last year as you earth up as it were feed with a handful of fish blood bone and keep watering im lucky i was given the tubs so at least i didnt have to shell out on themhope this helps

[Marlborough]

We got our 30l pots from the local Bobbies, confiscated from cannabis growers😄 Jonnyco15 are you going to add any fertiliser to compost in your tubs. Dan off the allotment diary videos uses blood and bone, he seems to get great results with his spuds🙂

[johhnyco15]

i bought some potato fertilizer from poundland £! for 750grms  going to give it a try and fish blood and bone in the rest  no more of this for me this year

[gray1720]

We got our 30l pots from the local Bobbies, confiscated from cannabis growers😄 Jonnyco15 are you going to add any fertiliser to compost in your tubs. Dan off the allotment diary videos uses blood and bone, he seems to get great results with his spuds🙂

Oh, it was you, was it? A dope farm got raided near us a couple of years ago, and all the pots were shoved in a skip. I was sorely tempted... but the next day when I went past all the root balls were in a pile in the garden, and the pots had gone AWOL!

Adrian

[Tee Gee]

Hi Johnny

I have just enlarged your photo to get a closer look at your soil and it is indeed very sandy.

It is even finer than my soil.

I use a bulb planter to set my tubers rather than forming trenches and leave the soil flat afterwards.

Then when the haulms are around 9"-12" tall I earth them up which is quite easy to do, so I guess it could be just as easy for you, or even easier for that matter.

So there is another idea for you to think about!....Tg

[Marlborough]

You know me so well Grey1720!!!!😂

[johhnyco15]

Hi Johnny

I have just enlarged your photo to get a closer look at your soil and it is indeed very sandy.

It is even finer than my soil.thanks a lot tg just when i had my mind made up  another spanner in the works lol                                                                                                            i am looking this year to expand then maybe ill go back to planting in the soil but at the mo just aint got the room

I use a bulb planter to set my tubers rather than forming trenches and leave the soil flat afterwards.

Then when the haulms are around 9"-12" tall I earth them up which is quite easy to do, so I guess it could be just as easy for you, or even easier for that matter.

So there is another idea for you to think about!....Tg

[johhnyco15]

not sure what happend there tg anyway yes it is easy to earth up its more space with me potatoes in tubs allows me more space i am inquiring about another plot so if this dosent work next season hopefully ill have another plot or at least half to be able to rotate my crop a little easier than at present

[johhnyco15]

took delivery of my next batch of tubs got 25 now st davids day ill start planting them out another 10 then ill have enough

[Duke Ellington]

I now grow potatoes in 30 litre containers and get a good yield depending on how good I am with watering. This year I will be doing the same, the only change being is that I will place the container on to the soil so that the roots can obtain more water. There is a very good video on u tube regarding this. We don't eat many potatoes in our house so container growing works for us.

[Marlborough]

Hi Duke, I am also using 30l pots for my spuds this year. Yesterday I planted up 9 tubs to be grown in my greenhouse, each tub had 2 tubers of Charllot, Bonnie and Maris Piper. I also used a scoop of Poundland potatoe fertiliser in each tub. It will be interesting to see what the yield will be.😊