Does anyone grow potatoes in here? what kind of container do you use?

[Guest]

I was thinking about growing on my back deck

[Phil]

We grow ours in a raised bed. We have heavy clay soil and tried for several years to amend the soil but were never successful on growing potatoes in it. We have good composted soil in our raised beds and the potatoes do very well there.

[Don]

I use 5 gallon buckets. If you look in the big box home stores like Lowe's or Depot they have a whole section of buckets near the paint. I used food grade ones. Probably not strictly necessary but it felt like a better choice.

[Liz]

There are two types of potatoes - determinate and indeterminate.

Determinate potatoes get put into soil about 3-4" deep, do not pile up soil or mulch around them as they grow (doing so can cause them to rot). Determinate potatoes don't yield as well as indeterminates. I use cat litter buckets or 5-10 gallon grow bags for these.

Indeterminate potatoes are the ones that you pile up soil/mulch as they grow because they will develop potatoes all along the stem over a longer season. These need a tall container (or a container that you can add height to as the plant grows). I've seen some clever wooden containers that you add slats to the frame as the potato plants get taller - they make harvest easy because you just remove the slats and pull the potatoes out.

[Ripe]

I used the potato bags. Worked well.