Growing Potatoes in Fabric Bags?

Hi Friends

Just another question from a newbie gardener that i am sure one of you with experience in growing potatoes in fabric bags can help me with.

Planted 2 types of potato seedling on June 17th. 1 - Yukon Gold -2- Red skinned white fleshed. The sprouts have cleared the top of the bag and continued to grow densly, healthy and green. They have now reached a height of approximately 2 to 2.5 feet.
Should I now be doing something to assist them in blooming? Are they too tall or tall enough?
I have been diligent in watering them. Covered the young shoots until they became strong enough to deal with the terrible spring/summer weather we have been having.

Would it be a good idea to pinch the top of the plants now so they stop growing taller and focus on growing potatoes or should I just leave well enough alone, and be patient.
Don't want to do something incorrectly and destroy a potentially healthy crop of potatoes.

Am loading a few pictures of my square foot garden as of today's date. I believe that it is doing very well since it was planted so late - June 17-21st. Have actually eaten my first little radish, and a couple handfulls of the wonderful sweet lettuce, growing happily. I am so pleased. Now if we get some sunshine I am sure it will grow fantastically.

Thanks a bunch for your anticipated advice.

Mag

i would just go ahead and allow them to grow, pretty much for potatoes, its a "bury the stems as they get longer" game, because the more of the stem that is buried, those leaf nodes convert themselves over to root nodes, and more roots means more 'taters ;)

I have always heard to just let the plant do its own thing, and then harvest once the plant dies.

Of course, i am a novice also, so someone else is sure to have tons more helpful info

I've grown potatoes in SmartPots before, and in old washing machine tubs (with the perforated holes) Worked like a charm.

Two things:

#1 Go buy some of the green plastic fence mat'l at HD or Lowes and wrap it around the pot. Anchor it closed with some zip ties. This'll extend your height and keep the vines from toppling over.

#2 Depending on which variety of potatoes you planted and whether they are long-season varieties or not, you will only get potatoes at the same level as where you set the seeds in the dirt. Only long-season varieties will make potatoes as high up as you hill the soil.

We kept wondering here in the south (an experiment with several southern gardeners) why the only potatoes we got grew at the same level as where we set our seeds, and why we didn't get potatoes all the way up in our potting mix (NEVER put potting soil in a container...). And some folks hilled up pretty high!

I called the Potato Farm and spoke with a rep who told me that only long-season potatoes, grown usually in the north and in colder climates, with a very long growing window, would produce potatoes similar to a "tree" underground.

It's too hot down here for a very long season, so we all grow short day varieties...

I grew Yukon Golds, Kinnebecs and another variety I can't recall. You'll get a very nice harvest of potatoes, since you have a long, cold growing season.

If you're into containers, next time try growing them in a plastic trash can or deep RubberMaid tubs (drill some drainage holes), which will give you more depth. Situate the containers so the sun hits the greenery most of the day...

Linda

Purple Vikings was the other variety I grew. The great part about growing in a container is the harvesting. Just spread a tarp out and dump the whole container!

And, your spuds are cleaner!

Hugs!

i never thought about using those big plastic storage tubs for growing them in, lol. I have one that i use as a compost bin, but somehow never hit me to use one to actually grow something in.

Yep!

The beautiful part of Dave's Garden is the information we share!

Hugs!

Linda ^^_^^

Hi Friends
Thanks so much for your great advice. I feel much better about my potato bags now.
The bags I purchased were from Veseys, made of a special fabric that allows water to drain without having to puncture holes. I planted them according to their instructions, in layers. I planted 5 seed potato sections at the base of the bag after filling it with 4" of soil mix, then another 5" of soil on top, planted 3 more potato sections, covered these with a further 4" of soil mix and planted 2 more potato chits at the top, covering them with a further 4" of soil. Then as the seed potatoes sent up shoots, I again placed a further 4" of soil to cover them. This continued for a couple of weeks until I reached the top of the potato bag. I assume that to some extent, this would be similar to hilling them in a regular garden? It is pretty exciting actually.

Linda I love your idea of the green plastic screen, and today I will run out and buy enough to surround my 2 potato bags' foliage. Then other than insuring they are watered adequately every day, and fertilized every couple of weeks, I will just leave them alone until they bloom.

Sure do appreciate how you gardening pros are kind enough to take the time to help out newbies like me! It really means a lot and knowing that you are out there and will give us helpful advice, the challenge of growing a veggie garden is not nearly so over whelming to us newbies. Thanks again.

Mag

Hi, Mag!

Not so long ago, I was an UBERnewbie. Which means I knew Nothing!!!

Everything I know, I learned from someone here at Dave's!

Much obliged to "pass it forward". Soon enough, YOU'LL be mentoring a newbie!

Hugs!

Linda

This message was edited Jul 15, 2013 11:19 PM

How do I find out which potatoes are short day, and which are long day?

I would suggest going to the Potato Garden website. They list their varieties by category. You can view them all and decide.

Also, their customer service line is GREAT! If you wanna have a conversation with someone about what you should grow, just give them a call. They gave me a very thorough explanation when I called.

http://www.potatogarden.com/

Ronniger Potato Farm LLC
12101 2135 Rd
Austin, CO 81410

Phone: (877) 204-8704
E-mail: craig@ronnigers.com

Gymgirl - thanks for the potato garden link. Great info!