Allotments 4 All

There seems to be a 'trend' at the moment for growing a few spuds in rubble sacks. You can now buy three tubers and a sack.  I presume you make few holes in the sack, put some compost in then the spud and cover with compost then keep filling as the tuber grows. As this will be much easier to harvest rather than digging them all up it sounds very attractive but not sure what the yield would be.

Has anyone tried this way of growing?

Use the same method as for any container growing of spuds:

4" of soil/compost on bottom, plant tubers cover with 4", Keep earthing up the growth - when ~6" of stem above the surface just top up with soil/compost until the leaves are just on the surface.

Bags are better than solid bins as you can roll down the sides to just above the level of the soil/compost to allow more light to the plants.

I don't know if the bags are porous, if not then a few cuts 4" from the bottom of the bag means that the tubers will not be under water if there is too mmuch water around but means that there is reservoir of moisture.

Remember potatoes are hungry and thirsty (they are ~80% water after all)

So keep them well fed and watered throuhout the season

Phil

Thanks Phil. think that i will give it ago with a few at home as well as on the lottie. How many tubers per bag do you think?

I have just bought spud sacks from T&M, they came Friday, they have quite large holes punched in them at the botom,about 3/4 inch in diameter.  I have never used them so thank you about the tip for rolling them down.I got them for heritage potato plants. Thank you Jeannine

Have only used old tyers to grow mine the last few years.  Always got a good yeild - best of luck with yours

BB

Hi, I tried some spuds in rubble sacks and compost bags last year. mine were a bit of a disaster really, mainly because the foxes kept ripping them open and making a mess of them. Mind you, my whole potato crop was a bit of a flop, so I'm hoping for better things this year.
  Best Of Luck to you anyway. :)

Quote from: nitiram on March 04, 2007, 14:52:45
How many tubers per bag do you think?

I don't know the size of the bags but the local horticultural college advise that 1 maincrop, 2 2nd early or 3 1st earlies to  12" pot so you should be able to calculate form that

Phil

I grew four "bags" full last year, i don't if the ground would be better, but i was happy with probably about 4-6 lb a bag, different sizes, already being used again with some spuds in, don't know if it's the right thing to do but, try it and see what happens.

I grew 1st earlies in empty compost bags (three per bag) and big pots/buckets last year.

The bags were ok til I needed to move them - I've not got much room so have to shift stuff around sometimes - very hard to move without disturbing the compost/plants. They also seemed to need more water than pots.

Will be using pots for this year, easier to manage and suit my little plot better.