Potatoes in a bucket?

I've grown them once in a big brute type bucket, lot of holes drilled for drainage. Cut the potatoes buried them, and just kept buying them as the green stocks grew up until the bucket was at the top, then just left them. Dumped them out and had the kids find all the potatoes. Not much with one bucket maybe 3lbs but was easy to do and fun for the kids.

If you have the space and a way to handle the weight without hurting yourselves the barrels are often available cheap and for this purpose you could cut it in half. You need to know you have the space and move/empty it I would say. I have one I cut half the top off for a rain barrel then put a tap at the bottom, it is elevated enough on a brick foundation I can put a pail down and fill it, it works good, not moving again until emptied in the fall. There will be alot of weight in it so don't hurt your backs!

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-fishing-camp...aps/1564841579

I tried the bucket thing a few years ago and came up empty. I found it took a lot of baby sitting the plants with little yield. I ended up with more mud than potatoes. However, a friend of mine from New Brunswick talked about how they always did the straw system and once you got on to it, the yield was good and the harvesting simple.

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Originally Posted by mosquito

If you have the space and a way to handle the weight without hurting yourselves the barrels are often available cheap and for this purpose you could cut it in half. You need to know you have the space and move/empty it I would say. I have one I cut half the top off for a rain barrel then put a tap at the bottom, it is elevated enough on a brick foundation I can put a pail down and fill it, it works good, not moving again until emptied in the fall. There will be alot of weight in it so don't hurt your backs!

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I've got lots of buxkets and a few barrels already. But ya, the weight might be an issue? That's what they make dolly carts for.

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Originally Posted by sawbill

I tried the bucket thing a few years ago and came up empty. I found it took a lot of baby sitting the plants with little yield. I ended up with more mud than potatoes. However, a friend of mine from New Brunswick talked about how they always did the straw system and once you got on to it, the yield was good and the harvesting simple.

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So I guess Bud the Spud doesnt apply to you?

I’ve grown them in 5 gallon pails in my grow room/tent over the winter. Still have 1 to harvest. Is the yield worth it? Not really but it’s fun and nice to have.

we grew potatoes in tires for a couple of years take offs from my ford 8N, started on ground, they sprout - add another tire- more garden soil- repeat ended up 4 high. easy to harvest just remove tires. we actually had more (and cleaner) spuds than 10 years of growing them in garden in nice rows. If I want to grow potatoes again I'm going back to this, I am too old to get down in ground and do the heavy stuff any more. Jaycee used to do the heavy stuff. I might add in the fall we always added all the tree leaves to the garden and rototilled them in so the soil never compacted.

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Originally Posted by callie

we grew potatoes in tires for a couple of years take offs from my ford 8N, started on ground, they sprout - add another tire- more garden soil- repeat ended up 4 high. easy to harvest just remove tires. we actually had more (and cleaner) spuds than 10 years of growing them in garden in nice rows. If I want to grow potatoes again I'm going back to this, I am too old to get down in ground and do the heavy stuff any more. Jaycee used to do the heavy stuff. I might add in the fall we always added all the tree leaves to the garden and rototilled them in so the soil never compacted.

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A local business man would have cars and pick up tires line up side by side along his fence line.
He planted potatoes and hid loonies and toonies in the dirt inside the tires. Come fall he made a big employee BBQ and had the kids dig up the potatoes while looking for the money.
I thought it was a cool thing to do.

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Originally Posted by JBen

Is the yield worth it? Not really but it’s fun and nice to have.

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That's the only reason I'm going to give it a try, for fun. I don't expect to, nor am I going to try, to get enough for the year.

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Originally Posted by callie

we grew potatoes in tires for a couple of years take offs from my ford 8N, started on ground, they sprout - add another tire- more garden soil- repeat ended up 4 high. easy to harvest just remove tires. we actually had more (and cleaner) spuds than 10 years of growing them in garden in nice rows. If I want to grow potatoes again I'm going back to this, I am too old to get down in ground and do the heavy stuff any more. Jaycee used to do the heavy stuff. I might add in the fall we always added all the tree leaves to the garden and rototilled them in so the soil never compacted.

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I've seen some pretty crazy idea's on the internet that all seem to work? I'll just stick with the bucket method for now.

Those spuds grown in the Ford tires must have rusted. I had a '71 ford.........well, thats another story.

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Originally Posted by greatwhite

something like this.

I'm going to grow some vegetables in straw this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlratwBT5OI

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If I was to try growing taters that's the way I would consider. I'm all Lanark rocky here so all my vegetable beds are 16" 4x8 raised beds. It's called the Ruth Stout method. An amazing woman who started gardening later in life and ended up developing this permaculture style of growing to the point she wrote a few books and did traveling seminars.