Potatoe barrels

[Mygrandmeresgarden]

Has anyone ever grown potatoes in a barrel? I'd sure like the ins and outs of how to do it properly from a garden expert.

[Heidi S]

Diane, I did it for the last 5 years, to allow my beds to recover from potato scab. I didn't get the same amount of crop as I got in the ground, but it was a solution for certain. This year I am back to trying potatoes in my newly renovated raised beds, and hoping I have eliminated the scab finally.

My basic procedure was a technique I call reverse hilling. I dug down into the centre of the barrel, moving the excess soil to the sides, to put in the seed. As the plant grew, I moved the soil from the sides to the centre to 'hill' the stem and encourage more production.

I have heard of using old tires too, but haven't tried it.

[Mygrandmeresgarden]

Totally makes sense. I've heard that it works well if one uses long growing season potatoes.

As for the scab, I make sure that I never use well rotted manure anywhere near my potato patch as this causes scab. As long as I rotate and add manure to half the garden at a time, and seed the potatoes on the half that did not have manure worked in, my potatoes are relatively scab free.

[jaimeg]

I made bags out of landscape fabric and grew my potatoes in those. it was easy and landscape fabric makes cheap "barrels"!

Here's a link: http://www.redroofbluedoor.com/2011/09/05/potatoes/

[Mygrandmeresgarden]

Thanks, I had a peek and they are finally coming up through the soil!