Homegrown: Potato update

 Judy Stevens, Linn County Master Gardener, answered my call for tips on potato container gardening.

Judy offers this excellent advice:

Container grown potatoes are great because you can grow them vertically underground. This will yield many more potatoes than the conventional "hill of Potatoes".

The container can be a wide variety, such as a plastic garbage can with drain holes in the bottom. a sturdy gunny sack staked with a couple of small steel posts,  your compost pile, old tires, or lumber fastened together as if you were to build a raised bed but 2-3 times taller. The garden centers and the catalogs are now selling potato bags, which I am trying this year for the first time.

  Put approximately 6 inches of loose soil in the bottom of your selected container. Plant the potato and add another 6 inches of loose soil. Wait for the potato to come up which usually takes 3 weeks. When the plant is 3-4 inches tall add more dirt or shredded leaves(if in the compost pile) up to the top leaves of the new potato plant. If you are using tires or raised bed type lumber add another tire or section of lumber, add more loose dirt and continue the process until the garbage can, gunny sack, tire stack or stacked lumber is full. The potatoes will grow along the stem of the plant and literally fill the container in a vertical pattern.

    I only fertilize with a small sprinkle of 10-10-10 as I add each layer. According to any reading I have done, the tire method is popular in the inner-city gardens where old tires are easily found in vacant lots and space is very limited. I have not tried the tire method.

       My experience says do not use ordinary garden soil because it gets really hard. It seems really loose and moist this time of year but if you have ever used it in your containers and hanging pots it will turn harder than a rock by early summer. I use my own compost, leaf mulch or a mixture of 1/3 top soil,1/3 peat or compost and 1/3 vermiculite to grow these potatoes. I never use dirt if I plant in my compost pile. I just keep adding mulched leaves that I have saved from cleaning my flower beds and yard. Container growing make it possible to hand pick the Colorado beetle and still get fresh potatoes without devoting your entire summer to one row of potatoes..

       Also as an interesting note, Did you know you can plant potatoes again in late July and August for a fall crop. You will have trouble finding seed potatoes at that time, so it is wise to buy a little extra seed now and keep it in a cool dark place until then. Most of your containers will be empty by then as you enjoy the new potatoes in early summer.  -   Judy Stevens, Linn County Master Gardener