Growing Potatoes In Towers

This looks like an interesting idea. I think I'll try it if spring ever comes to Maine.

 

I can't speak for you but my yard is built on a bed of coal ash so when you dig down a few inches, the rest is rock. So, I suppose you can imagine why that might cause a problem with growing potatoes. I grew carrots once and they all had a bend on the end where they hit the rock and moved sideways. Chokecherry trees keep trying to grow here but they fall over once they get top-heavy because they can't root in the coal ash. So anyhow, I usually grow potatoes in leaf bags and that works well, but I could get a whole lot more of them into one of these things.

I don't know. I do need a sidewalk. Mine fell apart a few years ago, turning to dust one winter, and I haven't put in a new one. I have some slate lining the ground but no actual sidewalk.

 

I did that a few years ago. Not potatoes, though. I grew them in leaf bags. I would suggest straw bales rather than hay bales, though because hay contains a whole lot of seeds that will compete with the potatoes. As it was, the straw that I used had seeds too. It worked as far as being an above-ground planter, but it didn't increase the yield per foot of land available, as the towers would.

 

Since we didn’t have the fencing that it shows in the video, and my potatoes are starting to sprout, I decided to try growing them in an old laundry basket.
I didn’t have regular straw, either; so am using pine straw (pine needles for those who do not live in the South) instead of oat straw.
I started the layer of pine straw, then added the dirt and a little bit of the Miracle Grow potting soil for nutrients, and then put potato starts spaced around the edges, and just kept repeating that until I got to the top, ending with dirt and straw on top of the last layer of potato starts.
I planted a tomato in the very top, just to see if it will also grow this way.
If this way of growing things works out, I am definitely going to try it with more kinds of plants. The picture of when the potatoes are almost ready to pick, looks like a beautiful green pillar of plants !

 

Here is the update on the potato tower ........ the potatoes have started to sprout and are growing out the sides in a bunch of different areas ! I am really pleased and looking forward to watching them grow this summer. If this works, it should be a very easy way to grow potatoes, and probably other plants that can come out through the sides like the spuds are doing.

 

Today has been a good day ! I worked on getting the little backyard garden area ready, and Bobby and I got the fencing up around it, to keep the dogs out of the garden.
I am SO pleased with how the potatoes are growing in the laundry basket, that we went to the Dollar Tree and I got several more baskets to start some of the tomatoes and cucumbers in.
Here is how the potato tower is coming along. It needed more sprouts, because some of the potatoes didn’t sprout; but the concept works great !

 

I have a friend who owns a greenhouse.

He hooked me up a few years ago with a big tub, potting soil and some potatoes.

They grew well. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

The potatoes have been really growing like crazy in the laundry basket ! They were hanging over the top, and some were falling down; so I staked them to the side of the basket , and then pruned back the tops.
We won’t know for sure how well this is working until we actually get to the point of harvesting the potatoes; but at this point, it seems like an easy method, and is fun to watch, and working well.

It is hard to see it with the potatoes growing all over; but the tomato plant in the top is growing good, too, and you can see my tomato cage and the tomato plant inside of it if you look hard enough.

 

For those of you who grow potatoes...how do you store them?