Potatoes in containers?

[Stravaig]

I've seen a few adverts for growing potatoes in containers and am thinking about trying it. (We don't currently have a garden, just a large roof terrace.)

I don't expect it would save us money compared to just buying tatties, plus there's the time and effort of doing it. BUT. If there was a flavour difference it would be worth it.

I can't imagine anything from a shop would taste anything like as good as freshly lifted home-grown spuds. Would you agree or is it likely to be more bother than it's worth?

BTW, there's a farm shop near us and I felt very virtuous about buying local. Then I discovered that the tatties I'd bought had been grown in Spain.

[snooky]

This was my experiment for last year Stravaig.I bought ten tubers of the variety Gemson and planted them up five to a forty-five litre woven nylon bag and gave them,what I thought;optimum conditions and they turned out to be a disappointment.Good strong haulms;potatoes the size of pigeon eggs and only enough for one meal from each bag.
From the expense point of view it most certainly wasn't worth it,from the experience point of view I might try again in the future with a different variety.
I think that it might be a case of "you pay your money and take your chance".

[Stravaig]

Thanks, Snooky.

You've kinda put me off. It seems like it would be more bother than it's worth and some of the potatoes we can buy locally, even from the supermarket next door, are perfectly good.

I'd rather spend my time, effort and money growing difficult/expensive items, eg "exotic" herbs (legal ones!), edible flowers, etc.

[Colin2016]

Shop brought is cheaper than growing you own, farm home grown is better than supermarket and taste as good as home grown. I see the spuds growing in the fields and harvested before being sold but I still grow my own.

I would suggest have a go what is there to loose, to save cost use compost bags rather than buy buckets.

Found keeping compost wet was a challenge when growing in buckets.

[Stravaig]

Thanks for the info, Colin. Maybe I'll rethink. I'm more interested in better flavour than cheaper cost so it could be a difficult decision.

Interesting about keeping the compost wet. Thanks!

[Geoff]

I wrote a post last Spring:

I've never understood the growing of potatoes in containers as described on TV, they do it every year on Beechgrove. They seem very satisfied with what I consider ridiculously small yields in terms of quantity per number of seed tubers used. If you grow something like Charlotte in ground in the normal way RHS suggest 60 cms between the rows and 37 cms between the tubers, if you assume they go down 30 cms that is just over 66 litres per tuber and you would expect up to 2 kgs per plant. That would mean one in each growing bag would have less space than open ground but the normal advice seems to be 3 tubers in a 35/40 litre bag; they often seem to only yield 2 kgs in total, what a waste of seed potatoes!

I still stick by that. You say you are more interested in taste than the economics. If you can find somewhere selling seed tubers loose you can just buy a few, they will cost around 15p each. You will be buying in the growing compost which perhaps affects the economics if you try and give them plenty of space. Can you protect the containers at least at first? I'm going to plant my polytunnel potatoes on February 1st to start harvesting before the end of April when new potatoes are still a silly price in the shops, you could possibly do the same with protection (remember I'm well North of you). There are many views on flavour. For the quickest crop I've usually grown Rocket but they are not tops for flavour, this year I'm trying Swift. I've found in the tunnel second early Charlotte are pretty quick and can't be faulted for flavour. Tunnel planting will be 4 Swift and 8 Charlotte in a 10'x4' bed.

[Stravaig]

Fantastic. Thanks Geoff.

I'll see how things work out. After two evacs in as many years and seven house moves in ten months last year I'm still not feeling very settled or inclined to make life more difficult than it needs to be.

I was interested to see your mention of The Beechgrove Garden. A hundred years ago when I was a freelance journalist in Morayshire (a bizarre career blip), my stepfather (now deceased, sadly) managed to get me an interview with Dick Gardiner who lived a couple of miles away, - what a lovely man. And it turned out that Dick had been my stepfather's scout master. So there's a claim to fame.

[Westi]

If you want to grow for taste you won't beat Jazzy. A departed member of the forum recommended these & I had never seen not heard of that variety but it is now widely available. It is a 2nd early but I got a little bit over enthusiastic & grew too many but they stood well to main crop. They are elongated & slightly waxy as 2nd earlies but a bit more starchy for main crop & cooked & stored well.

With regards to growing in tubs you don't have to replace the compost for following years, just tip it out on a tarpaulin & fork it over with extra feed & refill the pots saving some in a plastic bin to top them up as they grow.

[Stravaig]

Thanks, Westi. These sound interesting. And, after all, it's not as though I'm obliged to plants acres of them. Just one or two containers as an experiment.

We'll get our own house back in August and have a decent-sized back garden which is currently just grass (I would hesitate to call it a lawn ) with some plants such as roses and gooseberries up the sides (borders?). At least that was there when we left. It's probably all ruined by now.

I'm inspired by the folks on this forum to turn that garden over to food production. I'm not fit to do it myself and husband wouldn't have the time and probably not the inclination. With the long queues and waits for allotments I wonder if I could come to some arrangement with someone who'd be keen to use the space. The biggest problem is that it's a terraced house with no side or rear access. The person would have to come in the front door, walk through the house, and go out the back door.

Do you think that's a bit unworkable?

[Geoff]

If you go ahead with potatoes in containers remember there is not enough food in bought in potting compost, either add FBB or slow release fertiliser or liquid feed. You've probably researched that you grow them by filling the containers gradually as they grow, like earthing up; you could feed as you add each layer.

[Stravaig]

Hi Geoff,

I've never grown potatoes before and hadn't yet done much research about how to, so thanks for the heads-up.

The jazzy variety looks good and wants planting towards the end of February. Good timing! I get frustrated being enthusiastic about growing something and having to wait months before I can start. That probably explains why I'm so keen on hydroponics. I currently have small indoor units with lights and I can plant my herbs any time I like, often from seed.

When we get our own house back we might be able to unearth a big outdoor hydroponic system (no lights). I did an experiment when we were last there and grew various plants in containers on the patio and also in the hydroponic system. The hydroponics won hands down in terms of speed and also yield.

I used a very simple system that just required the reservoir to be placed higher up than the plant pots.

[oldherbaceous]

This is turning into a very interesting thread, so thank you, Stravaig.

[robo]

I’ve grown potatoes in tubs in my tunnel ,25 litre tubs up to five at a time four sets in each tub the best I have done was 35 in one tub I was happy with that the next tub treated the same way 18 in it could not understand it

[Westi]

Stravaig,

Just a thought to help you out when you return to your home is to look at high raised beds not those feeble little 6" sided things. Woodblox (I think that is the right name) has slot together ones needing no screws. If you have the dimensions of your garden you could start looking & designing these (or others) into a working plan & if you put in membrane paths it would eliminate path mowing or weeding & the right height beds also no bending. With discussion with them they might even be able to provide a linked structure to support a hydroponics system. Might as well plan, research & buy now before the prices go up again, even if they go in storage for now.

Filling them might need a compost delivery to go by crane over your house & some fit lad to build & fill them, but it's a once only thing as you can improve the soil yourself after that.

[Stravaig]

Thanks, Westi.

I've just remembered how it was nigh on impossible to get a gardener before when we went abroad. The lettings agent used to hire someone to cut the grass for £100 a go. Ouch! I thought that was a rip-off but we didn't seem to have any choice.

It's on the cards that we'll be going overseas again, perhaps in a year or two, and anyway that house is definitely not our forever home. There are too many drawbacks to it, not least that it's on a steep hill (the garden slopes from north to south and from east to west!) and it doesn't have rear or side access. It does have a nice patio, though, so perhaps I will just stick to containers after all while we still have that particular house.

I think sometimes I get some grandiose plans and ambitions but, given further thought, they're not very realistic.

PS: A little self-store locker costs £90 per month! We're looking to buy plastic sheds to put on this flat's roof terrace. Reckon it'll be much cheaper.