Tater Totes: Potato grow bags

Step 3 Tater Tote construction:

The landscape fabric I had on hand was a partial roll 36" wide. I cut the remaining fabric on the roll down the middle, making each half 18" wide strips. I cut the strips into 48" long pieces.

Fold the fabric in half and sew the short ends together with nylon sewing thread at least 1/2" from the edge. For more stability, I folded the finished seam to one side and sewed it down, too (see display photo).

Sew darts about 3" long at each corner along the bottom. Pull opening apart between darts to fold fabric in opposite direction to sew two more darts at the bottom, being careful to leave an opening (see diagrams below).

When you are finished with the sewing portion, you should have a square hole in the bottom of your Tater Tote ready for planting (see last photo below)!

These Totes finished out at around 14-15" in diameter and about 16-18" tall, but you can make them any size you want or your materials allow.

Comments

[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.

[shiggles]

could you use empty dog food bgs the woven type?

[shiggles]

there growing! just don't know how there doing in there!

[WVSundown]

 I'm sure they're fine, but push aside some of the mulch to see if you want. Be sure to put the mulch back. Keep us posted!

[batstab]

My thoughts exactly.
I've been saving the doggy food bags.  I made a smaller one into a "basket"
and now I know what the larger ones have been waiting for.
I reckon that they'll function much like landscaping fabric (drainage, etc)
and my only concern is possible toxicity of the inks or material.

Any one have any info on that?

[robinrdpro]

If the bag was originally used to hold dog food then it should not be toxic. Plastic will degrade in the sun however, so long term use might be limited.

[WVSundown]

I don't know, but it sounds like a possibility! if you give it a try, let us know how it worked out, please!!