Has anyone grown potatoes in a smart pot or

I've never grown potatoes before; but, think I might next year so am looking for those who have planted potatoes and used either the smart pot or the gardeners supply potato bag. I will probably use Burpees or Gardener's Supply to get my potatoes from and was thinking of planting a variety of potatoes, since, I love them and they are getting quite expensive in the grocery store as of late. Here are some questions I would like to see if someone can answer for me.
1. Do you plant potato tubers in the bag and how many in each bag do you plant?

2. Is there any special fertilizer you use with the smart pot and potatoes and/or gardener's supply bag and potatoes?

3. How many pounds have you gotten from this method and were you happy with the results? How long from planting to harvest?

joy

This is my first year with our new garden. I planted 2 - 15gal smart pots with potatoes. I finally checked on the yesterday and they are growing 2 weeks after planting. I hadn't see any stems yet, so I poked around just a little (impatience got the best of me). Gardeners Supply Potato Bags are 15gal Smart Pots (http://www.smartpots.com/products-2)

1. I planted 5 small potatoes in each bag according to the directions. I think 4-5 is the max in a 15 gal smart pot.

2. I'm using coconut coir with perlite. I mixed in some Espoma Organic Fertilizer and I've sprayed once with Miracle Grow water soluble fertilizer. I think I'll continue to fill the bag with either coir or straw to make harvesting easy.

3. We have 2 pots currently and I have no idea if we're happy yet as we haven't harvested any to date.


If you buy 2 at Gardeners.com you'll get a better price and if you use code: MNA7085B you can get free shipping on your order!


This message was edited May 12, 2009 8:19 AM

Qinx: Thanks for that help there. I have been looking at the tubers on the Burpees site and the gardener's supply site; that seems like a lot of tubers they sell, I was thinking on a few of the smart pots or gardener's supply ones myself; but for next season. So; please keep me informed on how your crop goes ok?
Thanks
Joy

i have grown fingerlings in smart pots and they work!

they even have instructions on their site how to grow potatoes.

I'm trying 2 smart pots this year. I put in 4 small seed potatoes in each, think I should have only put 3. Here's what they look like once full after adding a little bit of soil and leaves weekly. Hope there's some potatoes in there when it's all said and done.

Thanks ya'll.

Ray: They look great so far, keep us posted on how they do ok? As I want to let everyone else try first and if they are successful then I might give it a try also. Your seed potatoes, are those what Burpees calls tubers? Or is there a difference?

Moonglow: What is the difference between fingerlings and regular tubers?

joy

Qinx,
Tractor Supply did have Seed potatoes (Rte3) and I am thinking that SOuthern States on Lafayette Blvd used to have them as well as onion sets. Roxbury Mills on Lafayette may have them too as well as Earls on Butler Rd.

I bought 2 Smart Pots and haven't strated anyting in them yet. I may try tomatoes, melons, or potatoes.

Is it absolutely necessary that I use the Espoma in the Earth Box? I have SCOTTS reinfrced Graden Soil and Gardeners GRanular Fertilizer. I usually use TOMATOES ALIVE Fertilizer. THat stuff islike GOLD. I LOVE it.
Deb
Mommacat

I just received 4 more Smart-Pots. Going to do another variety of potato and some sweet potatoes if I can find slips this late in the season!

As for the fertilizer, I just used the slow release organic that I had which happened to be the Espoma. So far my 9 of my 10 potatoes have sprouted and are about 1-2 inches each. I've also been supplementing with Miracle Grow Organics liquid (water soluble) fertilizer in my weekend watering. The sprouts are as green as can be and ended up with powdery mildew on them. Took care of that last night with an organic fungicide. Checked on them this morning and they are all clean.

I'm not using any Earth Boxes, so I'm not an expert on what to use in them at all.

QINX,
Call the places I listed and see if they still have any left.

Mommacat

Hi Joy, just saw this thread. I'm also growing potatoes in two 15-gal. SmartPots, with four cut-up potatoes to each. Planted them about three weeks ago. One is Yukon gold, and one is a blue variety (can't remember the name.) I bought my seed potatoes at Agway; they were planted in a mixture of 3/4 Fafard's planting mix and 1/4 coco coir. I added some timed-release fertilizer. Today I "earthed them up" when the seedlings reached 6 inches. So far, so good.

CapeCodGardener: Please keep us posted, potatoes in smart pots it is for next season then; just need to keep an eye on what ya'll do and how ya'll do it, thanks so much for sharing what and where with us there, that will be so helpful for any of us wanting to do the same thing.
joy

Here's my initial planting.

I rolled down the edge of the bag and added Coir, Perlite and Espoma Organic Fertilizer. I covered the potato seeds with approximately 1/2" of coir mix.



This message was edited May 20, 2009 10:41 AM

Growth emerged shortly after 1 week...

Joy, here's one of my smart pot potato plantings, taken a few days ago. I had just added a few inches of potting medium to "earth them up."
So far, this seems to be a very easy method of growing potatoes in a limited garden space.

CapeCod Gardner: Those look nice, so, how do you know when they are ready to pluck from the bag?
joy

I have 2 Smart Pots but haven't planted anything in them yet. How much garden soil do they take 1 cu. ft or 2? or more?

MOmmacat

Joy, regarding when to pluck your potatoes from the SmartPot--this is what Qinx said on another forum about when to harvest potatoes. I might try digging up some little ones when the vines start to flower.

CapeCodGardener: Thanks, sounds like the same deal with onions, I planted the candy apple onions this season and was told when the tops brown they are done, pull them up. They started poking their heads up and I buried them with some coconut coir that was left, I had put them in totes (HEBs), but only put potting mix up three fourth's the way, apparently, that wasn't enough, so when they started rearing their heads, I buried them with coconut coir, so now that should be enough they should be ready pretty soon though.

On the potatoes, if, for instance, you get tubers to plant, what do you do cut the tubers up and then plant them and put about 4 per pot?
joy
joy

If you cut up your potatoes be sure to leave 2-3 eyes per chunk. Or else just plant small seed potatoes instead.

I'm trying 4 in one 15 gal pot and 5 in another to see how they grow.

I'll post a couple pictures shortly after I offload them from my camera.

I did the same as Qinx this year: four pieces of potato (with eyes) in one Smart Pot and five in another. So far, they're doing well.

Great, thanks for sharing and I am looking forward to seeing those pics. I want to plant potatoes next year.
joy

How much soil does a SMART POT use?
Mommacat
deb

I planted mine in dumb pots and they did pretty well.

Dumb pots hey? LOL They look good.
joy

Mammacat
Smart pots come in different sizes (1 gal 2gal 5, 10 etc.) Go
to www.smartpots.com . I am using the 15 gal size for
my potatoes.

Annie

I'll look on the tag tomorrow.

thanks.
mommacat.

Here's an update on my smart-pots.

Out of the original 10 seeds I put in my two smart pots five are growing well. One rotted and never grew. The other four didn't keep up with the taller ones as i hilled them with straw. I'm not sure if they will grow out the top still or not, but at the moment they are not visible.

I've used straw to cover my pots and I've mounded it well above the smart-pot top edge.

I think there was a direct relationship to how well the plants grew in the beginning. The large cuts of seed seem to grow better than the smaller cuts. This probably occurred because they had more energy stored in the bigger chunk of potato.

I've since started 4 more smart-pots. 2 more with baking potatoes. Those are sprouting now. Haven't started mounding them yet.

The next 2 smart pots have sweet potato slips in them. I filled the smart-pots and planted the slips. Not quite sure how well that is going to do but we're hoping they do great.

I'll post some pics this week if I have time.

Qinx: Great, I hope you will show pics. I'm still tied between the smart pots and the potato bags as the potato bags are on sale; but, if you buy the potatoes too, you need to buy quite a few bags for the potatoes. LOL I think it's probably too late for me to plant potatoes here isn't it?
joy

Potato-bags from Gardeners.com? They are they same thing if this is what you are referring to. Gardeners.com potato bags are 15 gallon Smart Pots. The smart pot label comes on them.

We used store bought potatoes that had sprouted.

Hmm.. Too late for FL? I'm not sure. I'd think with your longer growing season you could probably start some now.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 10:57 AM

Still waiting on my plants to either flower or die back. Hopefully one starts to happen soon.

Ya Joy, it's much to late for potatoes in Florida. They don't like the heat that much at all. Here's a link to potatoes in Florida....

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS183

Ray: I beleive in my part of FL it is really too late for cabbage, onions, carrots, celery, beets, cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce also. My onions aren't experiencing a lot of growth due to the heat I think and my cabbage is done, so are my strawberries, to keep them any later would only encourage the bugs I'm sure. I put a tarp under the melons as the weed cloth is very worn, next time, ply wood, then weed cloth and ply wood on the floor of the greenhouse also. I'm learning as I go this time. LOL The self watering containers are drinking up a lot of water due to the heat, my corn are gluttonus with it, so are the cukes. This is one time I'm glad I planted most my melons in the coir filled lay flat bags, it will help keep the moisture where their roots are.

Do you water more than just once a day? I've thought about it.
joy

Joy,
I grew potatoes in a 30 gal garbage can. :-) I've been harvesting mine and eating with my Kentucky Wonder pole beans I'm growing. The only down side to growing potatoes is ... the article I read says not to use the same growing medium 2 years in a row for potatoes. That's a downer for me. You can use it in your flower garden but not in your veggie garden. I don't really have a flower garden, plus buying more every year gets expensive. :) Also, I read not to fertilize. Potatoes don't need much fertilizer. You will get pretty vines but you don't want to encourage pretty vines. You want root growth. Anyone is welcome to jump in and correct me if I'm wrong on this info. :-)
~Susan

Hi Joy

I too would like to grow potatoes in a container. I researched and like this system. I guess I'll try next year myself. Your kids might like this. :)
/www.almanac.com/garden/video/trash-can-potatoes
Sherri

Try this link ... :-) This is exactly what I did. :-)

http://www.almanac.com/garden/video/trash-can-potatoes

I'm trying smart pots for potatoes for the first time this year--we're still a way from harvesting. Last year, I took some double hoop plant stakes, and wrapped some plastic poultry netting aroud them. I used leaves and straw to mound them. My results were pretty good--I think a few of them needed more sun. So far this year, I have 2 smart pots and 4 of my homemade cages. So far, the plants in the homemade cages are taller, but that's not necessarily an indication of yield. Will let you know my results later. I have a different variety in each of my planters, so that may make a difference also. I love the smart pots for their portability--once the cages are set, they are in the same spot foe the duration of the season. Also trying leeks in the smart pots this year.

With the prices of potatoes going up, I'm definately planting them when it gets time to plant them and then I will refer to this thread to mak sure I do it right. My daughter and I just got off a trip where I bought steak, ribs and chops and while buying all that I noticed watermelons on sale for $1 each at Penn Dutch, when I saw them,could only fit four in my trunk (groan), they are selling for almost $6 each here; and, potatoes are outrageous, no more is it the poor mans' veggie.
joy

Here are some updates on our smart-pot potatoes.

We now have 6 smart-pots:
2 with Yukon Golds (3 plants each appear to have survived)
2 with Idaho Baking potatoes (4 plants each)
1 with Sweet Potatoes (4 plants

Another view

Yukon golds blooming...

Idaho Baking potatoes... Still small...