Growing potatoes in bags is a fascinating activity. People write that from one container the harvest can be up to 20 kg. The main thing is to buy the right container. I will try to clarify the question of what kind of potato crop can really be harvested from one bag or pot.
A story has been going around on the Internet for more than a year: a pensioner bought a dozen super bags for growing potatoes and planting material.
The pensioner started growing potatoes in bags in the kitchen. And the harvest from one was collected more than 10 kg. She began to sell potatoes to her neighbors, and happiness came to her.
To begin with, I got acquainted with the experience of growing potatoes in plastic buckets with a volume of 30 liters.
The success of the English farmer surprised me. He planted potatoes of the ‘Sarpo Mira’ variety in buckets and managed to get an average of 13 pounds (about 5 kg) of potatoes from one bucket.
We plant potatoes in reinforced bags
But the most objective experience seemed to me to be the experience of a gardener who has been conducting experiments on growing vegetables in bags for several years and shared his best practices.
Preparation of containers and soil
The leaves are blooming: the long-awaited warmth has come. For three years I have been conducting experiments on growing potatoes in bags, and now I want to share my experience on how to do it correctly. In the fall, I cover the remaining ground in the bags with grass.
I will not mix it with the ground — I will put it in compost, because there may be a lot of snail larvae and wireworm in the grass.
My potato bed is small: there is no task to make global stocks for the winter. But we eat fresh potatoes from August to November. Unripe compost is laid on the bottom of the bags, this is a good drainage layer, a source of heat, trace elements and nitrogen. Worms will come here, they will process everything into a magical humus. I do not recommend planting in this layer (I tried it), but as a basis it is ideally similar. I will take the soil for planting potatoes from the tomato greenhouse. This land will still need to be taken out before the start of the new season, and it will come in handy.
Potato “seedlings”
I germinate potatoes at home, in an egg package. Very convenient: the tubers are securely fixed in one position. During transportation, the young shoots do not break off, the sprouts remain intact. The cardboard of the packaging takes away excess moisture.
I tried to plant different varieties, but for a couple of years I have been bringing potatoes from Finland. It is delicious and grows well.
Fertilizer
To get a good harvest, the land must be prepared. For fertilizer, I use the following components: bone meal, fish meal (it has the necessary phosphorus, which increases the number of tubers from the bush). I’ll add a little fertilizer.
So that there is no wireworm, I will put a little mustard cake. I will also sow white mustard on top, so that it slightly improves the top layer of the soil. I’ll add a little more rotted horse manure. The first layer of earth is put small-2-3 buckets of earth are enough for a bag with a diameter of 600 mm. 2-3 handfuls of horse manure and a handful of bone meal, a handful of fish meal and a little mustard cake-now all this must be thoroughly mixed.
Landing scheme
Now the most important thing. There are many pictures on the Internet where potatoes are planted at the bottom of the bag, and then the earth is poured as the bush grows. And then they say that a full bag of potatoes will grow. Don’t believe it! Potatoes grow only at the mother tuber. Therefore, if you want to get a bigger harvest, plant potatoes in 2 tiers.
Therefore, I first planted the first tier, which I will fill with a very small amount of earth so that it will germinate faster. And when these tubers germinate, I will plant the second tier.
Potatoes of the second tier will rise a little later and will be smaller in the fall. But this way you will get a better harvest from the bag, tested by me in practice.
At the end of the first planting, we add fertilizer and sow mustard as a siderate. While the lower tier is germinating, the mustard will rise, the fertilizer will dissolve, and the upper layer will be ready for planting the second tier of tubers.
In bags, moisture evaporates faster than in the open ground, so constant watering is necessary. To make the moisture evaporate less intensively, the potatoes should be mulched. The grown-up mustard will be mulch: at a height of 20 cm, it is better to pull it out and put it under the bushes. In principle, you can not bother — and take any land, and fertilizers.
But I have a goal — this year I want to break my record: 3.5 kg of potatoes from a bag in which 6 tubers were planted.
I recommend germinating tubers for planting on the lower tier in advance. I checked this option last year — the result was normal.
Growing potatoes in construction bags
Now a few words about planting potatoes in ordinary construction bags. They are very unstable compared to bags with a frame made of galvanized mesh.
In simple bags, it is better to plant 3-4 potatoes at the same level.
These bags have two more disadvantages — they quickly decompose in the sun and quickly give off moisture. To avoid this, they should be wrapped with black film or put in a black garbage bag.
To test the option of growing potatoes in non-reinforced bags, I sewed two bags with flaps from an awning fabric.
So the experiments on growing potatoes continue…
My experience of growing potatoes in bags
Last year, I conducted a similar experiment myself at the dacha. I tried to grow a super crop of potatoes in super bags.
The soil was mixed according to a proven recipe: 2 buckets of peat, 1 bucket of sand and 1 bucket of humus. I added ash, fertilizers (potassium sulfate and superphosphate). I planted the potatoes in one level and strongly hoped that it would start growing from the stem. I put 4 tubers in bags with AliExpress, 3 tubers in a Leroy bag.
As the bush grew, he filled the earth into the bag. Watered infrequently, 1 time a week (on weekends).
The first bag was “dug up-gutted” after 75 days. Harvest-1690
After 90 days, I dug up potatoes from the “Leroy” bag. The weight of the crop is 1645 g. Guess: how many potatoes were in the last bag? Please note that from one level I got about 1.7 kg of potatoes. If I planted potatoes in two levels, I would collect a little less than 3.5 kg of potatoes from a bag. The weight is very close to the desired weight of the crop.
This year I want to plant potatoes in bags after April 15. And I have already planted seedlings. Now I have more pots on the windowsill.
I really hope that in the middle of June I will already eat new potatoes.