Grow Potatoes in a 5 Gallon Bucket

So the purpose of this instructable is to grow potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket so that you can start them indoors and be able to transport them back and forth inside and out depending on the weather

Step 1: Get Your Supplies

The things that you are going to need is first off a 5 gallon bucket or similar, get a bunch of rocks or aquarium pebbles, some dirt or potting soil, next a black trash bag, then scissors and potatoes either from your local home and garden center or from your pantry if they start growing roots

Step 2: Add Rocks or Pebbles

First you add rocks or pebbles to the bottom of a bucket to allow for drainage. Add about 1-2 inches for proper drainage

Step 3: Fit Trash Bag to Bucket

Open your trash bag and put it in the bucket and figure out how much you will need to cut to Leave a 1" overhang, then with your scissors make a cut to mark it. Now lay the trash bag on the floor and cut a straight line out of the bag next put it back in the bucket and poke out maybe 20 drainage holes

Step 4: Add Soil

Take your potting soil or other soil and add about 4 to 5 inches of dirt to the bottom of your bucket with the trash bag in it

Step 5: Potatoes

Now take out your potatoes and place 3 in the bucket on top of the soil, Then add 2 inches of dirt on top

Step 6: Water Them

Now water them and hopefully by the fall you will have a crop of potatoes. Add more dirt as the potatoes start growing to increase yields I will update my photos as my potatoes begin to grow

Step 7: 4/9/13

I've since added dirt enough to cover the entire sprouts twice and then have grown 6" in a covered but not sealed bucket

Step 8: 4/16/13

So it's been a another week and the potatoes have grown taller than the bucket and I've added more soil so there will be a bigger root system, I've also planted a single potato to a second bucket and we will see how well it does alone in the bucket though so far it's grown bigger faster and stronger so maybe I will only plant one seed potato per bucket in the future

Comments

[kristiestokley]

Fertilizer use ?

[Schmidty16]

try this if u cut potatoes in half or in fourths they grow better

[JanicaS]

Cut a single sprouted potatoe in half or fourths to plant in soil?

[popa27272]

ill have to try that next season i ended up moving them outside but the white tail deer in my area have grown in numbers and a small herd ravaged all my veggies, ate my corn stalks, all the leaves off my beans, left half eaten cucumbers, cut my tomato plants in half and gnawed off the top of my apple tree sapling i planted this spring. the only things they left me were onions, garlic and my hot peppers. next year ill do an instructable about deer proofing your veggies lol

[philip gibson]

I love this idea will try it myself, do you transplant or they can stay in the bucket until harvest?

[nanaverm]

A great way to get a head start on Spring planting, thanks! I like how the 3 plants are "looking out the window, longing to be transplanted outside".

[kretzlord]

cool, i've been looking for some 'no-space' ways to grow some real food. Thanks for posting

[popa27272]

Ya that would have been great, and no I haven't tried holes in the bucket itself, but I used the same container I had my pebbles in to water it so the water level would be at close to the same height of the pebbles in the bucket

[joen]

Are there drainage holes in the bucket itself?

[Johenix]

This would have been a great one for SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!
Go for it. Grow for it.