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Monday, May 9, 2011

Growing Our Potatoes In 5 Gallon Buckets

As some of you may know I have a teeny weeny itsy bitsy back yard, so we are definitely limited on our garden space.  My beloved began researching different ways to garden with limited space and came up with a great way to grow our potatoes. From what we have read potatoes deplete your soil quickly so if we plant our potatoes in buckets, after harvest we can then either throw that soil out, or use it for flower pots etc.  Plus planting in buckets helps save our garden space for other yummy veggies:)

How To Grow Potatoes In Buckets

We are using 5 gallon buckets, that we had given to us by a friend that came from a restaurant.  The buckets where food grade.  You want to make sure the buckets you use never had any chemicals in them previously. 
~Drill holes in bottom of bucket
~Throw in about 1-2 inches of stones for drainage
~Cover the stones with some sort of screen so that you don't plug up your drainage
~Add about 1-2 inches of soil/compost material
~Then add your potato with about 2-3 eyes
~Use just enough soil to cover your potato
~Make sure your soil is moist, but not too wet
~It will take about 1-2 weeks for it to pop through the surface
~Once it pops through just cover it with about 1 inch of soil until it gets close to the top of the bucket
 I have heard that some people have got up to 15lbs of tomatoes from 1 - 5 gallon bucket, but our expectations are not that high:) 


We planted Yukon Golds, and Russet potatoes. And we have 10 - 5 gallon buckets and they seem to be doing great so far.. I'm really excited to see how they turn out. 


     This is the potatoes poking through:)

And now I'm going to leave you with a picture of Gracie from last summer with one of our huge cucumbers.

These cucumbers didn't taste very good until they got huge, I'm guessing we did some thing wrong:)

"That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-this is the gift of God."
Ecclesiastes 3:13


10 comments:

  1. We're growing potatoes in buckets, too, which I've been posting about on my blog on Tuesdays. I chose to go with blue totes that I found at my local Home Depot. I did think about the chemical issue, and I may try something else next year. I wanted to try the bucket method because I've found potatoes take up a lot of room that could hold more crops. I did grow the potatoes with corn last year, but I wasn't happy with the number of potatoes we got. Maybe the corn sucked away too many nutrients?

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  2. YAY! I am doing mine in Potato bags (same difference) and can't wait to see the yield. I just got some sweet potato slips this week and will be putting them in also. Not sure how to plant those yet. Good luck!

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  3. Barb~ I actually have not grown potatoes before, so this will definately be exciting to see how well it works. In regards to the potatoes and corn being planted together, from what I have read corn and potatoes both suck up nutrients quickly, so they might not do real well planted close together, but I'm no professional gardener:)
    Dollwood Farms~ I have heard potatoes do really good in bags, good thinkin:) I would love to plant sweet potatoes, I don't know why but I never even thought to plant sweet potatoes.

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  4. What a great idea! I have been hesitating on growing potatoes because of the space they take up. I will be trying this! Thank you!
    Visiting from the Barn Hop!

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  5. here is a link to make those buckets selfwatering. they work great for tomatoes and peppers too.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE8OrdUZQKk

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  6. I hope that goes wonderfully for you! I have heard of it before but never tried it. We are very blessed to be able to glean thousands of lbs of potatos from fields in our area.

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  7. Oh my goodness! Huge cuke! I love it! :-)

    Great blog post!

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  8. Now following you from the hop and would love a follow back at
    http://mizzreviewlady-mommyreviews.blogspot.com/
    Thanks!:)

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  9. Hi, I am a new follower from Friday Blog Hop. We are doing potatoes in old tires... So many fun ways to garden:)

    http://lifeasalake.blogspot.com/

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  10. I didn't know that about potatoes sucking up the nutrients...good to know! My Mom plants tomatoes every year and last year they did TERRIBLE. The only difference was that she also planted potatoes. I'll have to pass this on.

    PS: I LOVE the verse in your header...just beautiful. I'm your newest follower. ;)

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