How to Grow Potatoes in a Bag in Ten steps
Ten easy steps to growing new potatoes in an old compost bag!
1. In February or March find an old compost bag.
2. Roll the empty compost bag down to half way.
3. Mix enough soil to fill half the bag with two handfuls of well-rotted manure.
4. Half fill the bag with the soil mixture.
5. Bury two seed potatoes just below the surface of the soil.
6. Place the bag in a light, frost-free place.
7. Roll up the plastic bag a few inches as the potatoes start to grow.
8. Just cover the growing potato shoots with soil.
9. Keep rolling the bag up, and adding soil, as the potato tops grow.
10. In May, harvest the potatoes by either:
- cutting a hole halfway down the side of the bag, and pulling out as many new potatoes as you can eat………………… or
- tipping the bag upside down and collecting all the new potatoes from the soil.
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These are ten easy steps that anyone can follow to grow early new potatoes in a bag!
Very interesting article.
Comment by Crafty Gardener - March 9, 2008 10:37 am
Hi Crafty Gardener
Hope you will soon get rid of all that snow in your Canadian garden! Thanks for visiting
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - March 9, 2008 11:31 am
I did this last year and had good crop, goy my potatoes the other day and shall do the same soon.
Cheers mark
Comment by Mark - March 9, 2008 12:25 pm
Hi Mark
Good to hear the system is tried and tested! Good luck with this years crop
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - March 9, 2008 12:31 pm
This is the best article I have read on how to plant in an old compost bag and I am off to the greenhouse to try for myself. Many thanks.
Gillian
Comment by Gillian Sutherland - March 21, 2008 8:54 am
Good luck Gillian!
Comment by TopVeg - March 21, 2008 1:08 pm
[…] growing potatoes in a bag […]
Pingback by Top Veg » Blog Archive » No-dig potatoes for the urban gardener - March 24, 2008 8:58 am
Great! I’m going to try it. Two questions:
Do I need to cut holes in the bag, so excess water (from rain) can get out?
How much water should I give the bag?
Thank you,
Comment by Els - April 18, 2008 6:06 am
Els
Thanks for your comment. YES- the bag should have holes in the bottom - it is vital that the water can drain away. Thanks for pointing that out.
The soil should be damp when you fill the bag. No more water will be necessary untilthe shoots appear, unless the soil gets dry, because of the wind or hot sun.
Good luck with the growing!
Comment by TopVeg - April 18, 2008 6:01 pm
What types of potatoes does this method work for? Will it work for sweet potatoes?
Quigz
Comment by Quigz - April 29, 2008 10:03 pm
Hi Quigz
The bag system is ideal for the potato (Solanum tuberosum). The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), is distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum) & grows in a different way with runners under the soil surface and does not benefit from ridging up.
Thanks for the question.
Comment by TopVeg - May 1, 2008 12:20 pm
have you had any problems with any small rodents ripping opening the bag and eatting your crop, because no matter what i do to get rid of them they keep comming back. do you have any sudgestions?
Comment by labella - May 14, 2008 2:59 pm
Hi labella
That is not what you want when you have produced a crop! Have you tried setting traps? Or, you could lift the bag onto a high stone- that rodents were not able to climb, so that your bag is safe.
Hope you find a way to out-wit the pests!
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - May 14, 2008 6:45 pm
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Pingback by how to grow potatoes crops - May 19, 2008 7:02 pm
Writing from Canada. What months are suitable for planting, and do the potatoes need direct sunlight.
Thanks.
Comment by Sharon - May 24, 2008 10:51 pm
Hi Sharon
Potatoes are planted in the spring, as soon as the soil conditions are good (warm and dry.)
Potatoes like a sunny position - they do not like shade.
Hope your Canadian spring is on its way! Best wishes
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - May 25, 2008 5:09 am
I didn’t realize potatoes needed so much vertical dirt and planted some in my garden. They are about 12 inches high now. Do you think I could “transfer” the plants successfully with a shovel to a system like the bag or cans I have read about?
Comment by Annette - May 29, 2008 8:19 pm
Hi Annette
You do not have to give potatoes vertical dirt! Growing potatoes in a bucket is a different system.
Do not transfer your potatoes - they will be fine where they are. They will not like being moved.
One reason for piling the earth on top of the potatoes is to keep the light off the new potatoes. If the little white potatoes push out into the light they will turn green & green potatoes are poisonous.
If you do not have any spare soil beside your potatoes (to use to make a ridge)- you can carefully lay black plastic under the potato leaves on top of the soil. This will block the light out.
Hope that helps - & good luck with your crop!
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - May 30, 2008 10:11 am
I keep hearing about the potatos in the bag and they must grow pretty good. I keep hearing two different answers about covering up the new growth of potato plant and others that say only 1 or 2 inches and again others say several feet high. Any real answer?
Comment by jerry holmes - June 25, 2008 1:37 am
Jerry
Our compost bags are about 30inches tall. The idea is to roll them down to half way and fill them with compost. The seed is planted on top of the compost. There will be just under 15″ of the bag to roll up, adding a few inches of compost every few days as the shoots grow.
You will have to leave a few inches of the bag unfilled, to be able to water. So, realistically, there is only about 12″ of the bag to roll up at the most, so it is only possible to cover the seed potatoes with 12″ of soil.
The average depth of soil above the seed is about 9 inches.
Hope that helps!
Comment by TopVeg - June 25, 2008 7:18 am
I have Bildstar potatoes in bags they are 2nd earlies when should they be ready to lift? when will i know they are ready?
No flowers but small hard tomatoey things growing on greenery.
Please help.
Comment by Brenda Moore - August 20, 2008 4:46 pm
Hi Brenda
Second early potatoes are should be ready to lift 16 weeks after planting.
Have a sneak preview to check if they are big enough for you. You can cut a small hole in the bag, & whittle a potato out with your fingers, to see how big it is. It is up to you what size you take them - leave them for another week or two if they are not big enough yet.
The small hard tomatoey things growing on greenery are the fruits of the potatoes. The flowers develop into fruits after they have been pollinated. These fruits must not be eaten.
Hope that helps!
Enjoy!
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - August 20, 2008 7:18 pm
Is it only during feb-march you could grow potatoes? Can I repeat the process in Sep-Oct or later?
Please help
Thank you
Comment by Maris - August 25, 2008 11:38 am
Hi Maris
It all depends where you are in the world. Are you in the UK?
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - August 25, 2008 11:47 am
Maris
Thanks for letting us know that you are in Holland. I was just checking that you were not on the other side of the world!
In nature a potato will start to grow in the spring and have decent sized tubers in the autumn. But gardeners in the UK are trying to stretch the boundaries & some are now trying to produce new potatoes for Christmas day - but it is not easy.
This year we have grown 2 crops of early potatoes on one patch. The first are planted in a polytunnel in February. As soon as these are harvested, they are replaced with more early potato seed. These yielded well in July.
Next year we are planning to grow 3 crops of potatoes in the same patch. The third crop will be new potatoes planted in July, but they will need to be covered with plastic.
The problems & difficulties in growing potatoes ‘out of season’ are:
seed maturity,(the seed potato must have been produced in the previous calendar year - and to keep it from sprouting and growing, it has to be kept very cool) If potato seed is left in the light during the summer, it will age, and become too mature to grow when planted (even if it has not grown long shoots.) It is important to stop the potato seed from ageing, if it is going to be planted late (Sept-Oct). Keep the seed in the bottom of the fridge (cold & dark) to stop it ageing.
warmth, (to allow the potato plant to grow well),
daylength (which we are running out of) but needed for hours of growth
frost (which is no good at all!)
HTH
Comment by TopVeg - August 26, 2008 10:54 pm
10 step is very interesting. At home I found a couple of potatoes which had chitted. I know you said Feb or March but I have just done step 1-6 and will carry on to 10 just to see what happens. I do value your expertise and possibly I will not be able to get to No.10 because of the timeing but. hey ho. it is worth a try!
Diana
Comment by Diana - September 13, 2008 6:10 pm
Hi Diana
One advantage of growing potatoes in a bag is that you can move the bag about. If you have a sack barrow, or some other wheels, you could move the bag into a warm spot when it starts to get colder outside. Then you may have potatoes at Christmas!
Comment by TopVeg - September 15, 2008 10:29 pm
I have just lifted my bildstar potatoes from 3 potato bags. I got 4 pound from each bag, but they only appeared at the bottom of the bags. Is it necessary to keep filling the bags with compost as the chitted potatoes grow or should they have grown up the bag more?
Comment by Brenda Moore - September 16, 2008 7:10 pm
Hi Brenda
Pleased your Bildstar have done well.
The idea is to half fill a bag with compost and plant the seed potato just below the surface - so it is about halfway up the bag. So I am surprised all your potatoes were at the bottom.
Compost is placed over the growing tips a couple of times. This is to prevent the new tubers being exposed to light. If the new tubers are not covered they will go green.
The addition of compost will not lead to more potatoes. The number of potatoes produced depends on the genetic make-up of the seed (Bildstar is not a particularly heavy cropper), the fertility & water provided, & the amount of space.
If several seed potatoes are planted in a bag, they will compete for nutrients, water and light, & each seed will be less productive.
The only reason for adding compost to the bags as the potatoes grow is to keep the light off the developing tubers to prevent greening.
Hope that helps!
Comment by TopVeg - September 17, 2008 7:47 am