Topic: Potatoes in pots

[cb]

I am considering growing potatoes in 10 litre polythene pots as I gather they are not so browne to disease. I will put the pots on top of well composted ground so that the root can get plenty of nutrition. Is anyone able to give me a comparison of how these would fare in terms of quality and weight compared to planting in standard beds? Which is better?

[Curryandchips]

Ten litre pots do not sound very large to me, you may get a crop but I would be uncertain of its quality. I would have thought larger pots (20 litre?) would have been necessary for decent tubers.

[cb]

Thanks Curry.

Same questions apply to 20 litre pots.

[RW]

Even in 20 litre pots I did not have much success compared to open ground. I have had some very large potatoes by growing them in a 220 litre compost bin.

[sandersj89]

I agree 20 litre may still be on the small side, have a look at this post from a year ago to see how I do it:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,7174.0

As regards yeild and quality, yield can be as high if not higher in post if you get the watering right and quality can be very very good as you do not have to deal with soil borne pests and can control other pests very easily.

HTH

Jerry

[Tulipa]

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,26/topic,16885.0

The above link refers to a thread on Potatoes and sizes of container which appeared quite recently in the edible section, not sure if it will help or not!

[Curryandchips]

How fascinating ... not as I would have imagined. I find the idea of carrier bags impressive, and certainly cheap!

[aquilegia]

If you do - try first or second earlies rather than main crops.

Last year I grew Charlottes in half growbags turned on end, so they were probably about 10-15 litres. I used a mixture of homemade compost, manure and sieved soil.

I got pretty good yields from them. Not as much as the ones in the ground, but still more than enough for two meals for the two of us per bag.

If you don't have the space (my problem) it's well worth trying. Just make sure you give them enough water and shelter them from the sun on really hot days.

[devonbarbara]

I have grown tatties in pots for the last 2 years as I don't have much space, and last year as I had too many seed potatoes I ended up putting some of them in compost bags as well.

I don't suppose I did as well as I would have in the ground but I managed to grow enough to keep our family of 4 in tatties for several months and all from 1 small bag of seed pots - and I had little slug damage compared to the rest of the veg plot!

I always use 2nd earlies like Charlotte's and keep watering!

DevonBarbara