Growing Potatoes in Containers
Last time I had a potato plant growing like any other in a pot and me being the impatient kind, I dug it up little too soon and I ended up with 3 fairskinned potatoes ;). Then I looked up the web to know the way it should be done and I set out to do exactly the same way.
Potatoes belong to the same Family as that of Tomatoes. Interestingly they start from tubers and not seeds.
Chitting potatoes:
“Chitting” is the term that is used for the process of sprouting potatoes. There are several pages on the web showing how to chit a potato. I am not going to go into details on that since ‘I’ didnt chit the potatoes I planted. It was my friends mom. I went to their house kitchen and Voila! a bowl full of potatoes with sprouts eager to see the world and needless to say what happened next. Those fellas ended up in my garden and I skipped the chitting part.
Planting potatoes:
Growing Potatoes in Containers
I potted these potatoes with sprouts into 4.5 inch pots and with in 3 days the plants showed up. The mix was peat, perlite and sand mixed. They had such a vigor and strength that I never had to fertilizer even a bit. The root system was also well developed. I was amazed by the amount of food stored inside the tuber for plant growth.
Date: Nov 2nd 2008.
Roots:
I transplanted the plants at this stage to polythene sacks(mostly the ones that manure comes in). Pictures of the same are below.
Date : Nov 6th 2008
I started out with just 6 inches of soil mix and planted these plantlets. As they grew I added more soil. Now the bags are a little more than 2 feet. Boy! thats lots of mix.
Date: Nov 8, 2008
This is what they looked like once done. Date: Nov 8, 2008
Grown plants with flowering buds.
Date: Dec 7th 2008.
After it had flowered, I learnt from the web that there will be some early potatoes that would have formed. I did a test poke into the soil to a depth of 3-4 inches and Oops…. My fingers felt something that feels like potato… It better be one 😉
Harvest:
Its not time for harvest yet. The sign for maturity is yellowing of leaves and plants die back ( or my running out of my patience.. which is usually the case). Will update this blog once i harvest those tubers….
12 Responses
wow gg! Sounds exciting! I’ve always wanted to plant potatoes but looking up in the web, I see many warning sings screaming ‘disease-prone’ and I held myself back, but seeing your beautiful ones, I’m once again reminded of the seed potato lying abandoned in a corner in my refrigerator… Hmmm…. Something’s going on in my mind now
Hi Chandramouli,
Go right ahead with what goes on in your mind now!! :). I cannot right now comment on the harvest as I havent done any but I can definitely tell you how carefree it is to grow them ofcourse you need to keep filling (or hilling as it is popularly known) as the plant grows and other than that. I didnt do anything specifically for potatoes. So why waiting .. Go chitting….
gg
Hi, This is great potato growing tutorial. Idea with growing them in bags is excellent – I feel like doing same thing!
Do you mind if I add you to my blogroll?
Thanks for sharing!
Ewa
Hi Ewa,
Yeah growing in bags is a money saver too. I was a little impatient with mine and got a little less harvest. Please share the results of your growing..
you can add my blog by all means to your blogroll. Its a pleasure.
happy gardening
gg
Thanks for your udpate.Could you please let me know where do u get peat, perlite in Bangalore
Hi GG,
I am plant lover and always try to do some experiments in my balcony.
I tried two times to sow the potato my plants are grown over 2 feet but never got any potatoes.
The plant always gets yellow and dies after growing over 2 feet
i planted them in pot which is around 1 feet in height.
Can you tell me how to increase the soil quality or how to prepare good quality of soil?
Its difficult to get the coco peat at pune
I am very much inspired by your blog.
Thanks for posting so much helpful information.
Regards,
Vishal
Thanks for the tips. I’m starting a vegetable garden and I love potatoes, so they will definitely be in my garden.
Hi gg,
I planted potatoesin container. First time! Yes it grew really very fast. Faster than my expectations. But now I see leaves curling up. Internetsays that is due to virus. Pls help.
I saw lot and lot and lot of tiny black spot like insects on almost all leaves of POTATOES AND SPINACH.
I was in tears and removed both plants. Very sad. But saw two tiny potatoes. Don’t dare to replant but I will.
Same result in terras gardan
just wish to know, how many sprouts one can plant in this size sack? tia.
For sacks that are 10-15 liters big, 2 is good enough. for bigger ones you can use 3 or 4