POTATO BOX

Are you actually trying this Pam?

There have been a few claims of large harvests in recent years, from very few plants since one man did it a few years back, And I also know a few people where testing the theory a couple of years back, then it all went quiet.

Steve...

 

Think it might depend on the variety, i've tried simliar with a couple, the Pink Fir Apple did well but the other still only produced at the base.

Trying to think of the other variety......

 

I grew some potatoes in a sack a few years ago, loads of water and compost for what I considered very little reward, I have a small back garden so always looking for space saving, I have loads of wood stored the side of the shed, so will consider it when the weather improved.

 

Looking at the dimensions of this box I would question that 100lbs of potatoes would actually fit in it, let alone with the soil to make them grow!

Steve...

 

Author used poetic licence

 

What type would you have a go at growing? Earlies or Mains? I might have a go myself. I've got a bit of pallet knocking around left over from building my log store.

 

I will try some earlies, I will get some as soon as possible, maincrop I find that there are so many delicious varieties available in stores etc, I don`t think the effort worthwhile

 

I can believe it. 4 sq ft is quite a significant area (2ft x 2ft) and if its say 3ft tall (I can't be bothered to do the sums at this moment) that would fit four sacks of spuds in, especially considering some of them will be in the ground below the box.

I can believe it because although I've never seen that kind of yield, I've seen crazy yields from more conventional methods. It all depends on the soil you use. Contrary to popular opinion, the best crops I've ever had were grown in almost nothing but the scrapings from the floor of the stables. The best crop I've ever seen, both in terms of yield and flavour, came was grown in manure so fresh it was still steaming. When I was a kid, my dad shared an allotment with a couple of other people. There was a block of four stables on the allotment, one of which was occupied by our horse. The other people that shared the allotment used it for nothing more than a place to keep their steeds, but my dad grew veg too. One time the muck stack was so large it was taking up too much space, so we dug the lot in, along with the fresh muck from that day, and planted it up with spuds. Every time we mucked out the stables we put it straight onto the spud plantation. Out of a fairly small area we got more spuds than we could ever use, and had to give loads away.

Fast forward a lot of years, to when I first bought my house. The soil was no good, so @Zigs advised me to use spent mushroom compost, which I did. I grew spuds in one small area, about 8ft x 6ft, and just got loads of spuds out of it. I was getting a full carrier bag per plant.

In intervening years, I've grown spuds many times, usually in just whatever soil happens to be there (ie not enriched in any way), and got everything from dire to pretty good yield, but mostly around the mediocre mark.

Soil is everything when it comes to spuds. The richer the better.

 

Best spuds i've had grew in the compost heap, they were lovely