The fun of trash can potatoes!
Experience the fun of trash can gardening with Janice Stillman, Editor of The Old Farmer’s 蜜桃恋人. Potatoes can take up too much room in small gardens, so planting in a large container is a great way to go! See steps to growing potatoes in a trash can.
If you’d like to grow potatoes but don’t want to devote an entire garden bed to them, try growing in containers! Trash cans are deep enough containers for potatoes so they’re the perfect solution.
When to Plant Potatoes
Tradition holds that potatoes should be planted near St. Patrick’s Day for a successful harvest.There’s some truth to the old wives鈥 tale about planting potatoes on St. Patrick’s. It’s not necessarily about the exact date of March 17, but in the fact that planting in March will result in higher yields.
How to Plant Potatoes in a Trash Can
- Order or buy 鈥渟eed potatoes鈥 which are not seeds but tiny potatoes. For beginners, we recommend starting out by growing the smaller new potatoes. The mid or late-season varieties are better choices than early-season types.
- Drill holes in the bottom of the trash can for drainage.
- Set your trash can in a place that gets 4 to 6 hours of sunlight every day.
- Fill the can with half compost and half 鈥渟oilless鈥 potting mix to the trash can. Do NOT use real soil in container growing. If you want to cut back on how much soil you add, you could put recycled water jugs in the bottom. Just make sure you have at least 2 to 3 feet of soil with a 10 to 15 gallon capacity.
- About 24 hours in advance, prepare the seed potatoes. This is called 鈥渃hitting.鈥 Plant small potatoes can be planted whole, but larger ones should be cut into smaller pieces with at least 3 鈥渆yes鈥 (or dimples) per piece. Then allow the cut edges to air dry before planting.
- Bury the seed potatoes about 4 inches under the potting mix/compost about a foot apart. We plant four seed potatoes in each 32-gallon trash can.
- Water the plants and keep the soil moist but not soggy.
- As the plants grow, you have to keep their stems covered, and have extra potting mix to cover or 鈥渕ound鈥 over the stems so they are not exposed to sunlight. (Leave leaves exposed!)
- When the potatoes are ready to harvest, you dig into the trash can and pull out a sample. Then you can simply turn over the can onto a tarp and harvest your goodies!
To learn how to plant and grow potatoes, see our free Potato Guide.
Catherine Boeckmann
ADVERTISEMENT
Wondering if this method of planting in peat moss worked out well for Bernice?
You need to progress grow. PLANT VEGGIES IN WEEKS.
kNOW THE DIFFERENCE
Can you plant a second bucket of potatoes, I have just harvested mine in late July, there seems to be plenty of mild sunny weather left here in the Pacific Northwest and was wondering if a second planting would be viable?
It's later now then when you wrote (it's Aug 8); sorry for the delay in responding. The thought then and now is try it. The Pacific Northwest is a huge area and your exact location is not known, but if you typically have a long summer, you might just get a few more spuds鈥攅ven small ones. The only thing that you should do is change the soil. This is a form of crop rotation, when growing in containers. Use a similar mix to what brought you success. Good luck!
I have just recently learned about this method of growing potatoes. I have watched several videos. Some say the barrel needs to be in a greenhouse; some say outdoors. Is the greenhouse necessary just for winter months - making all year growing possible? My MAIN question is this, however: It's June. Can I start a barrel now? I'm inspired and fired up. Thanks for your response.
Hi, Julie! Great to hear your enthusiasm. You don't say where you are, so we can't be certain of your season. But get it going鈥攅ven a harvest small, "new" potatoes (any picked small) would be a delicious treat. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
As for being indoors or a greenhouse...we aren't familiar with that method. (We shot our video in a studio, which is why it appears indoors.)
I have heard about trash can potatoes, tower potatoes, barrel potatoes, box potatoes, etc. I have seen many people try these methods, but I have NEVER seen a great harvest. It all seems great in theory, but reality is very different. I would love to see a video of someone actually harvesting many potatoes from a trash can method. Thanks
Some of the tubers that are growing up are shorter than the ones that have reached the required height to add the next level of soil. Will it harm the plant if I completely bury some of the shorter tubers since they have leaves on them?
If you bury the plants that have leaves you might lose them (that is, they might not thrive). Are they so close in the container that you can't find a happy medium; that is, pile soil on some but not others??
Without knowing more, we can only suggest that potatoes usually need a good amount of space betw plants (some sources say 36 inches); growing in a trash can lead to more crowding than usual. If that's what you face, do what you can to keep the hardiest of the lot thriving and consider this experience if you try it again.
Last year was my first year to grow potatoes, and did in my garden. I made a couple rookie mistakes, one of which is I hilled too high and buried a couple of shoots, thinking they would just continue to grow. They didn't. Like the OP, I wanted even hilling. Another was that I wasn't gentle enough when hilling, and broke a shoot. It died.
This year I've started early in FIVE trash cans...way before last frost which is early June (cover when below 41')..and they are growing nicely. It's been 3 weeks. I live in the high desert of central Oregon.
