Tater Totes: Potato grow bags

We've grown potatoes successfully in discarded tires with mulch, in lieu of hilling with dirt, but this year we tried growing them in homemade, specially designed, bags! The expensive commercial "Potato Bins" look to be made from simple landscape fabric (weed block film). So, that's what I used to design my Tater Totes. I've had good success so far and the taters are still growing.

Step 1: Why bother with a Tater Tote?

- Potatoes are traditionally "hilled up" with dirt to prevent sun scald (poisonous green skins) from forming on the spuds. The dirt is only used as cover and is not necessary for the spuds to form.

- Potatoes are produced along the stem of the plant and not on the roots. Supposedly the longer the stem, the more potatoes produced (theoretically).

- Digging the taters out can be damaging and some are missed altogether.

So, if the potatoes are contained, they can be harvested without missing any spuds, and the mulch gives sun protection and a nice clean medium, as opposed to dirt, at harvest time.

Comments

[juanangel]

On my first try I was able to harvest close to two pound from three plants. I plant them inside a washing machine inner drum. Great choice since it has plenty of openings for drainage. Plus it is wide for the three or more plants. I just planted them and forgot about it until harvesting. Next time I will not fill it to the top. I will plant from the bottom up to see the results. I used compost but this time I will try a mix of leaves and compost.

[WVSundown]

Great idea! Let us know how you do this year, too!

[maemae97]

I am going to try the reusable grocery bags to grow fingerlings. I have a lot of the recyled fabric bags and thought I would give them a try. Has anyone ever used these before?

[WVSundown]

Sorry to take so long to reply . . . your message got lost in some others. I've researched using the fabric grocery store bags and found the only concern may be the ink used to dye the bags, or silkscreen the bag logos, might contain lead in the paint/dye. I don't know how much of the possible amount of lead would be absorbed by the plants, but would think the same would be true of re-using the feed sacks with imprinted labels.

Regardless, if you're wanting to go organic, try to find out about the lead in the paint/dye. I personally feel the risk is minimal and compared to the chemicals used on commercially grown crops we buy at the supermarket, I'm willing to risk using the shopping bags myself. I'd go for it, they're the perfect size for planting!

Good luck with your gardening!

[suezq]

I love your tater totes and have tremendous leaf envy over what I see in the pictures. I have no trees yet that produce leaves and have to mow my neighbors lawn just to get grass clippings. I am too shy to knock on someone's door in the fall and beg their leaves off of them. It makes me so sad to see all those lovely leaves in bags at the curb for weeks on end knowing they are only going to our local dump. sigh... the reason I'm writing is to find out why you roll the sack down? (don't laugh, I'm a late bloomin' gardner). I love potatoes and last summer I stuffed a brown paper sack into an old mesh sack that my oranges came in. I added some dirt, stuck a sprouted tater in the bottom, filled the rest with dirt, and hung it on the fence. It looked real pretty growing there until the plant got so big it fell over. I just kept watering it not knowing when or what I'd get out of it. Come October I got sick of looking at it all withered and hanging there so I dumped it out in my compost box and low and behold I had about 12 medium sized red potatos! I didn't know about the green skin thing and thought that some of mine were just "green". You know, like not ripe. I took a bite out of one anyway and promptly spit it out. lol. Back on track..so the first potato seed is actually planted in the ground and then the rest grow in the straw and leaves with no dirt?

[kajons]

Get over your shyness. MOST people will be more than happy to let you take their bagged leaves or straw. Make sure you clean area and they will let you repeat or maybe even call you when they have a load. They got to be good people if they rake their yards. I used to rake a friends yard for the straw. (It would take 3 of us at least 1 FULL day making many trips) I also know a guy who gets paid to rake and he sells it.

[vtbeachldy]

There is a website called Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org/ Just post a request asking for folks to save their leaves for you. That way you get JUST leaves instead of mixed bags that you might pick up on the side of the road. Specify an area that you'd be willing to travel to pick up the bags. This way you don't have to worry about being shy-- everything is handled by email. You might also ask if anyone has "bunny berries" while you're at it -- good fertilizer makes good 'taters.

[WVSundown]

suezq, The reason to initially roll the Tote down is to create a shallow growing area for the potato to sprout. Once it sprouts and starts getting taller, fill in around the plants with mulch. As it grows taller, add more mulch, and roll up the sides of the Tote a little to contain the mulch.

The seed potato needs soil to grow the plant stems, the stems produce the new potatoes and just need protection from the sun while they're forming. You may have a potato or two form underneath the Tote in the dirt, so be sure to check!

I did notice that most all the new potatoes formed closer to the ground level, which RULES OUT "the taller the plant the more potatoes" theory!! But the Tater Tote process did seem to improve the plant growth in general.

Hope you can muster the courage to collect those leaf bags this fall!! Or maybe post a sign at your curb "Dump Bagged Leaves Here."

Good luck with your taters!!

[Lee-in-Iowa]

Thanks! I'm going to try this with leftover chicken and dog food bags (cutting some drainage holes, of course).

Two ideas: 1. Drop a piece of brick or a rock into the bottom to help counterbalance the bags as the potato plants get taller. (I am a dedicated scavenger and have a small pile of partial bricks left from a patio project of recycled pavers.)

and 2. Look out for SNAKES! I used the straw-as-hilling method in my potato patch and at harvest time, the straw was full of BABY SNAKES. Wear some VERY GOOD GLOVES when you go to harvest your bag of potatoes!

[WVSundown]

I've run into some nasty little critters mixed in the hay, but not a snake yet...eeew!! Thanks for the info!

[Lee-in-Iowa]

If it had been just one.... It was a whole nest of babies, brown with white pinstripes, and they were furious to be disturbed. Every one of the little devils was striking at me while I was frantically trying to get them out of there without hurting them...using a pitchfork.

[WVSundown]

Yeah I would have used a pitchfork, too, possibly in a different manner than you, hahaha. Seriously, snakes are good garden buddies, but a whole nest of babies are no fun at all. I got into a nest of baby copperheads once . . . I stayed indoors for a week afterward.

[Lee-in-Iowa]

Someone asked whether this would work for sweet potatoes, and the answer is actually "Yes", but you would want to fill the bag completely with your soil mix and put your "slips" or starts in at the top. For those of us who try to grow sweet potatoes in Northern climates and richer soils, growing them in a container helps two ways--we can start them indoors while our weather is still cold in the spring AND we can corral them in that container so they don't wander off and make spindly little 'taters instead of a nice cluster of fat ones.

[WVSundown]

Good idea with the sweet potatoes!
Thanks again.

[nanaki]

Neato! Thanks for this. My soil is horrible, and organic potatoes are so expensive . Being a "scrounger", I'm going to try this with a 4'-0" wide canvas tarp I don't need anymore. It only has a little latex paint on it. It seems like tougher stuff than weed-fabric, but I wonder how the lighter color of the tarp will work as opposed to the dark weed-fabric. Perhaps an experiment is in order.

[WVSundown]

I've known folks who took a new fresh bag of potting soil (on its side), jabbed a few holes on the side next to the ground and cut an 'X' on the side exposed to the sun, and planted veggies and flowers very successfully. I imagine a tarp would work quite well used in the same manner. You could place a few plants in a tarp roll of soil! Let us know how it works for you, and thanks for posting.

[grannyjones]

Add endive to the list.
mulch only,
Blanched endive is the best.

[WVSundown]

Aaaah yes, that's the one I couldn't remember!! Thanks you!!

[Jenn13]

Wow!  Nice Instructable!   I have read that potatoes will keep getting taller and continue to produce more on the stems.  Can you keep the tote at 36" tall instead of cutting it to 18" and keep growing up? 

[WVSundown]

Thanks, I guess you could make the Tote as tall as you want, but remember the potato plant will get top heavy and may pull the Tote over, possibly pulling up and/or exposing the plant roots. If you stake the Totes, or have them positioned in a "block" to help hold each other up, you might get by with taller Totes.

[zutcom]

If I used soil instead of mulch, which is considerably heavier, then that would fix the toppling issue, right? In my experience, soil piled up becomes really much like a blob of concrete as long as nobody fiddles with it, especially when it is contained. So, do you think raising the height of the bags by a foot or so and using soil instead of mulch would work out?

I know that soil is harder to dig around in looking for spuds, but I don't want to take the risk of partial harvest which could hurt the plant, so I would harvest all my taters at the same time. In this case, I would really be pulling plants up, thus, using mulch for me wouldn't have much of an advantage over using soil.

[WVSundown]

You could use the Totes with any medium you like with each having it's own specific pros and cons. Try a taller Tote with dirt to see how it works out, then report back here to share the experience. We all learn from each other's successes and mistakes! Good luck!
Bev

[Jenn13]

Thanks for the tips!

[Brightthing]

Hello, I am a novice, and this site is a wonderful find.  Your instructable is clear and concise.  Thank you.  Can you tell me if I can use the same concept to grow sweet potatoes.  If so, can I harvest the leaves (I understand they are edible) and the potato continue to grow?  I have enjoyed reading all the comments, and your responses.  They have been very informative and enlightening.  Again, thank you.

[WVSundown]

I don't believe you would gain anything by using the Tater Totes for sweet potatoes. They are not a "real" potato (belong to the morning glory family of plants) and do not have the same growth characteristics of a regular potatoes.

Thank you for your kind comments, and good luck with your sweet potatoes!

[Brightthing]

Thank you for your response.  So you don't think this concept would be viable for any other vegetable?

[WVSundown]

I think this technique could work for any vegetable one would customarily "hill up" to cover the tubers or part of the stem, or to encourage stem growth for whatever reason. And, for the life of me, I cannot think of another veggie at this moment, lol. I know that there are a couple more other than potatoes.

[zutcom]

There is leek and then there is celery. I don't think this would be good for growing leeks as they do need room and making a bag for two or three leeks could be a bit too expensive. My trick with leeks is to plant them just like any other vegetable, without digging a trench, and to put a tomato can with both ends removed around each plant. As the first leaf junction gets higher off the ground, I fill the can up to just under the first leaf junction with dirt (you could use mulch instead to avoid getting dirt between the leek leaves). This allows my leek to have another five inches of white flesh, without having to dig a trench.

For celery, however, I think this could work well. You could probably put three celery plants in each of these, or make them a bit smaller and only plan one celery per bag. You could most likely blanch celery this way.

[Brightthing]

Thank you so much.  If you think of the other veggies, I would appreciate a shout out.  You have been very helpful.  I will be experimenting with my potatoes in the tater totes this year.  In the meantime, I will continue to monitor your site for helpful information.  Take care!

[HomeTownLife]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this. I was SURE somebody, somewhere, had sewn potato-growing bags. Just needed confirmation of it, and you provided it. THANKS! I had a feeling landscaping fabric would work, but I hadn't thought as far as the nylon thread. Perfect. Thanks again!

[WVSundown]

Thanks for the kind words! If you get to make a few Tater Totes, let us know by posting a pic!

[WVSundown]

A friend allowed me to borrow several of her commercial "Potato Bins" to try last year (2010) and I had a good growing experience with them, too. I will say the fabric is much thicker and durable than my homemade Tater Totes, so their expense may be warranted if you plan to use them for many years.

Fabric bag-type grow pots are definitely the way to go with not only potatoes but other plants as well, especially if you do not have good soil, containers to grow in, or essentially want/need a portable garden!

[JustabitCurious]

so, you wait until the plant flowers before you harvest?or how long?

[WVSundown]

The tiny tater tubers just start to grow AFTER the flowers appear on the plant. So, about a month after the flower show, you can dig down to harvest a few small "new potatoes" (yum). But if you wait until the plant starts to die back (with the cooler fall weather), you will get the most and largest potatoes!

[dawgz031]

im really not a green thumb guy......

so can i still grow it?
i have bought some onion seeds from the market..
and some lettuce seeds to...

can some one give some advice?..
i live in Philippines...i guess it good to grow some thing in our backyard..


i still cant figure out how to grow real vegetables..
the only thing i have grown is a mung bean....which is really easy to plant even a baby can grow it..lol

[WVSundown]

dawgz031, My advice is to join an online gardening group for info and tips about growing the various veggies you want. I write articles for Dave's Garden
( www.davesgarden.com ) newsletter which has several helpful articles per weekly issue. They also have a beginner's forum, a plant database, a bug/pest database, and many other helpful sections of the site for new (and experienced) gardeners that I believe you could learn from. They also have a seed trading forum and one that offers free seeds just for new members. General membership is free.

Good luck with your gardening venture.

[dawgz031]

nice instructable.......

im just wondering if some on have made an instructable on how to plant onions..........and can i grow some onions out of the onions i bought from the market?....do they separate like potato's???

[SinAmos]

That isn't true at all. I cut store bought onions all the way down to the core if I see new growth and then wrap in a wet paper towel and they grow like the dickens. Then I just dig a hole and replant them in my garden. Same goes for potatoes. If they start growing, I just make my own starters. They always reproduce.;)

[WVSundown]

That's cool, I'll have to give it a try!!
Thanks for the info!

[WVSundown]

I'm not an onion expert, but I know that the onions you get from the grocery store are usually grown and don't work for planting (they will rot). You can get inexpensive "onion sets" which are small onions (marble-sized) for planting, from markets and garden supply stores in the early spring.

A couple veggies you CAN get from the grocery store to successfully plant are garlic cloves and horseradish roots. The horseradish will take over your yard if you're not careful. I'm sure there are other ones, too.

Good luck with your garden plans!