Container gardening isn’t only for savvy urban gardeners and folks with limited space to grow, it can also be for folks who want to maximize their yields in a controlled environment. Not only does growing potatoes in a barrel reduce the amount of weeding and exposure to pests and fungi, you don’t even have to risk shovel-damage to the tender potatoes by digging them out of the ground when they’re done, just tip the container over!
After extensive research to plan his own potatoes-in-a-barrel, Tim from Greenupgrader.com boiled all of the recommendations down to 4 simple steps to a winning potato harvest.
1. Select and prepare a container
You’ll need to pick out a container such as a 50-gallon trash barrel or one of those half whiskey barrel planters. Alternatively, you can buy used food-grade barrels or commercially-available potato planters. Just about any 2 to 3-foot tall container will work, but be sure to select a container that either already has holes in it, or is okay to cut holes in. Next you’ll want to clean your container with a mild bleach solution to get out any of the nasties that have been lingering in there.
Good drainage is critical for the cultivation of healthy potatoes so you’ll want to cut or drill a series of large drainage holes in the bottom and bottom sides of your container. Alternatively, you can cut out the bottom altogether and place it on a well-drained surface like your garden bed.
2. Choose a variety and plant potatoes
Seed potatoes can usually be found at nurseries early in the growing season, but you should only have to buy them once. If you can, “chit” or sprout your potatoes before planting them by setting them out in an egg carton, the side with the most buds facing up, and putting them in a cool light room out of direct sunlight to sprout. Putting the tubers in an open paper bag can have this same effect.
Fill in the bottom of your container with about 6 inches of loose planting mix and compost. You’ll want to use a planting mix with a peat moss-like soil amendment like this product made from repurposed coconut husks, doing so will keep the soil from becoming too compacted and help it to store moisture for the roots. Next, add some seed potatoes on the layer of soil, making certain to leave plenty of space between each cube. You can use the whole potato but I like to cut the potatoes into 1 to 2-inch cubes for planting. Loosely backfill the potatoes with another 6 inches of your soil and compost mix and water to dampen soil. Keep the soil damp at all times but be careful not to overwater.
3. Add more soil
When they have about 6 to 8 inches of foliage, add another layer of your soil-compost mix covering about one-half to three-quarters of the visible stems and foliage. Repeat this process of allowing the sprouts to grow and then covering the sprouts and moistening the soil as the plants grow up toward the top of the barrel.
4. Harvest the potatoes
After about 10 weeks or until the plants flower and start to yellow, the potatoes should be ready to harvest. Carefully dig down with your hands to inspect the top-most layer. After you’ve confirmed your suspicions, dump the barrel out on a tarp and inspect your bounty.
Other tips to grow bushels of barrel potatoes
- After the first harvest, keep a few potatoes to use as seed potatoes next year.
- Bush beans are a great companion plant for potatoes.
- Instead of using soil, try growing potatoes in sawdust.
- Experiment with different containers, seed potatoes and watering regimes.
- If the above steps aren’t sufficient, do some more research. Try here.
Have any photos or useful tips for growing potatoes in a barrel? Please share!
Photos: CC licensed via flickr users: Forestry Images; Crinklecrackle.com;Graibeard; Daves Cupboard; Sunfell; EnjoyGardening; vyuseem
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71 Responses
Why don’t you make it possible to print the article
THX’s
Not sure how to do that
Right click and choose “Print” it may or may not work.
Hey, thanks for this article! I’m eager to give it a try.
sweet!
great idea! WILL THIS WORK FOR SWEET POTATOES??
Probably. What would it hurt to try?
yes it will. sweet potatoes are tubers as well. the time of year will differ between the two
so by slowly layering the soil over time, are you forcing the potatoes to grow extensive roots so you get a bigger harvest? Is that the purpose?
I have seen this done using old tyres aswell. A great way to up cycle. Thanks for the article!!
I have seen this done using old tyres as well. A great way to up cycle!! Thanks for the article!!!
I use 40 lb dog food bags to plant potatoes. I place rocks in the bottom for stability, slit the top sides of the bag so that it will fold down easily to the widest part of the bag, fill with dirt, and poke holes in the sides of the bag for drainage. It works great! you can wrap the bags in burlap if you don’t like how they look!
Very good idea!! Today I am going to start grow potatoes in my garden by this way.
“Select” “Copy” and save in your Word program. Then you can print it
How much sunlight does this need when you plant the seed potatoes?
I think I understand the “Add Soil” step … I assume this is to allow the stem of the sprout to root in the new soil mixture added? Correct?
I love to try new ways to plant and qrow thx .
If you click on file on your browser’s menu/add on bar then click on print preview in the drop down box you can select the pages & settings you want to print
Please don’t use old tyres! They are made using toxic metals & chemicals that leach into your potatoes. The theory is great but it’s not healthy.
We tried this…and we would have had more potatoes to eat if we would have just eaten the seed potatoes we planted! the plants looked great…but when it came time to harvest…we couldn’t even find the seed potatoes we planted. sure wish we knew what we did wrong.
Same here, Loretta!
Hi there, where can I find the barrel with the door on the bottom? Thanks!
I’m a new gardener. How do you store the potatoes for using as seed potatoes for the next year so that they don’t rot??
Thanks!
Thanks for this great idea! I’d like to do this with some sweet potatoes, I have some sprouting already. Will this take about 10 weeks to havest time too like the regular potatoes?
Thanks again!
Another great idea growing a purple sweet potatoes. I have a hard time where to buy this. And, thanks for sharing this…
@Mike, yes. Add soil up around the stem as the plant grows. This is called “Mounding” and it works because potato, as well as tomatoes, stems will become roots. Leave the top 4-6 inches exposed to light, as the plant grows in height, add soil (I have heard that hay works as well).
@Amy, Brilliant! Dog food bags and bags for mounding potatoes, awesome.
TRIED WITH USING TIRES AND HAD NO LUCK. EVERTHING ELSE IN MY GARDEN FLURISHED BUT THEM.
Thank you, Matt, my question also. The sweet potatoes are so much more nutritious and flavorful than white.
Camelia,
If you have the time, you could cut one out yourself. Draw the size of diameter hole you wish with a ruler and permanent marker. Take a power drill to drill holes into each corner. If you have a jig saw, cut your along your outline to cut your door out. If not, you can use a small triangular shaped saw to start cutting in one of the drilled holes with, and cut your opening. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and purchase some galvanized hinges (so they don’t rust) and a knob. Install them and voila, a door with a little handle!
I wish one of the share options for the Oasis Wellness articles was Pinterest! Would really be nice for future reference to be able to easily post articles of interest onto ones boards.
And to Camelia’s post, yes I agree with her, it would be nice if a link to the barrel with the door already installed in it, was posted! Why Matthew Weintrub would leave this piece of information out of his article is perplexing!
coll, thanks. i was told 1c i could do ths n old tires jst by stack’n them up. havn’t tryd yet;
thx
sorry, thts COOL, not coll, cc-;
well i jst took a lrg flower pot & made a hinged door on its side, now jst got 2 get the stuff 2 start fill’n it & wait 2 c wht grows, thnx,,
I was thinking the same thing. Pinterest is such a great site to share items.
Thank you god dea!!
I was told the tires could leech nasty stuff, not good with root veggies…..better for something you don’t eat, like flowers. Any statistics on what the tires would leech?
I was told the tires could leech nasty stuff, not good with root veggies…..better for something you don’t eat, like flowers. Any statistics on what the tires would leech? I don’t want nasty stuff in my potatoes…..
technically, no, it won’t work with sweet potatoes. however, you can grow a sweet potato plant in just about anything with around an 18 inch diameter and at least a foot depth. I suggest cutting 55 gallon barrels in half for up to 3 plants per half, but that’s pushing it a bit. Sweet potatoes are related to the morning glory and do not grow the same way that irish potatoes grow.
Share to your page and it will be there for later reference
Hi Matt, I was wondering if you had the instructions on how to build the slat potato farm itself. I know you can use barrels, buckets and drums etc but I think this idea is both attractive and practical.
thts because the additives that they use to vulcanize the soft rubber leach out into your soil , poisining your plants. which could be a good thing you didnt get to poison your self.!
i use to grow potatoes like that 15 years ago on my boat. fantastic way to do it
So, what is the cost involved? I have to buy a barrel of some kind, soil, compost, and the seed potatoes to start with. I like the “dog food bag” option, since I have those very large bags anyway. And I can compost like my Dad did in the 50′s by just digging a hole and throwing in organic waste (things that some might throw away after dinner). But it still seems like there will be a large upfront cost to get this started. Any feedback on that? thx
For sweet potatoes, plant your vine and keep adding dirt basically the same way. It will work. I’ve done it a couple of times, using tires as my planter and stacking them up 3 or 4 high. I had sweet potatoes literally the size of footballs. In inner city St Louis! Sweet potatoes will like sawdust or wood shavings better than dirt.
First time I’ve seen such a novel way of potato cultivation. This is amazing and a boon to urban household who don’t have much open space for kitchen garden.
Kindly share more information about cultivation of other vegetables in similar fashion.
I would like to have more information about container potato cultivation.
I grow my potatoes on the farm with this vertical grow method, but I use old used wire fencing and cattle/hog panels bent into a circle instead of a barrel with lots and lots of straw (no seed heads like hay has, so you won’t sprout hay in your “mulch”) along with our farm’s composted manure. Incredible bounty. All used and recycled material from the farm so zero cost involved.
hi to you all.. first of all sorry my english is not so , but i want to tell you that i once planted potatos in my garden as a test ( just one seed potato ) in a heavy muddy soil , at the end i harvested only 7 potatos from that one potato head …….thank you to all of you
I have also used dog food bags as “grow bags” but I haven’t had any luck with potatoes. I turn the cat chow and dog chow bags inside out and fold the top edge inside, then turn it back out to make a cuff so they are perfect white grow bags for free.
me, too! but it was worth doing with the kids just for the experience. And we got pretty foliage and flowers!
i live in a tropical country..can i plant potato in a barrel then in my garden…i have a green thumb but i guess and afraid i might not be successful..when it comes to potatoes especially during summer.,.
I Love this could you grouw strawberries Like this also? and I did print mine. I just right clicked on mouse went to print and bob’s your uncle lol.
Robin, the start up cost for just about anything is always gonna be higher. However, the barrel/container will last you five or six years, depending on its construction, and you can re-use the soil every year with just a little bit of added compost to replace nutrients lost. You have to decide if the potatoes you want to grow 1) will taste better than store-bought (hint: they will) and 2) if the amount of potatoes you use while they’re in season is more expensive over time than growing them yourself.
Sorry, missed the Reply button. See comment below!
Has anyone tried growing several varieties of potato in a single bucket? This sounds like a great idea, but I would want to grow at least 3 varieties and am very space limited.
so complicated. my grandma grew huge amounts of great potatoes in good, old dirt, that she threw the kitchen scraps on.
What an awesome idea, I have all flower beds outside, am not the vegie gardner my mother was ( unfortunately ) and I have a very bad back, so this would be awesome for someone like me, no bending over and having to shovel them
This is great. I did try the sweet potatoes last year in a large, tall bucket and got only strings… and they were trying to get out the bottom drain holes, as I had them on my patio. I kept adding soil … will try again this year… I would love to have them football size sweet potatoes. Thank you for sharing… both pro and con as I am convinced there must be way.
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You can share anything on Pinterest by getting the “pin it” button added to your favourites. Find it under the “about” section on Pinterest.
I agree copy and put into word that’s how I do it and it works well
Your English is perfect! Tell me what do you mean by muddy soil . You mean no fertilizers?
Do they sell the barrels with the door that is shown in this advertisement?
this looks easier than growing them in the ground,at least this way I wont be stabbing my spuds with a fork, (lmao,.. thanks for putting this up, take care, Alf…
You need to check the signs of the moon you planted them in. People think there iz nothing to it but there is. If signs are in the heart they have a hole in the middle if signs in the feet will have toes on them. Check the farmers almanac . It could give you Lot of insight.
I saved the drum from my busted dryer. I wonder if it will work. Going to get the seed potatoes this weekend. Maybe I’ll cut the door with my sawzall
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After harvest how should one store a few for next year?
Couple of comments; 1 be very careful using straw or hay you may introduce unwanted weeds!
2 don’t keep your potatoes for seed, diseases in potatoes spread that way. Ie potatoe blight. Seed potatoes are cheap start fresh every spring
3 gardening is fun and a grand experiment try everything anything you want! That’s what makes it fun what’s the worse that can happen?
cold dark dry place spread out I spread lime on them also to help keep them too. Don’t wash them just spread out.
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