Last year I built a few potato towers and had minimal success. But in hindsight, I think the lack of watering {and pretty much neglect on my part was to blame}. So I decided to give the potato towers another try.
First let me say, I personally believe the best way to grow potatoes is in the ground in a traditional trench method.
But, what fun would having a garden be if we all didn’t experiment from time to time and try new techniques. Right?
After reading everyone’s comments, I decided to try growing this years potato towers 3 different ways.
I used a 4′ x 4′ piece of coated fence wire and bent the edges of the wire inward to secure the two ends together. I then pressed straw into the sides of each wire cage and added about 6 inches of dirt to the floor of the potato tower.
I then placed 5 seed potatoes on top of the dirt.
Potato Tower #1 – I covered the potatoes with 6 inches of dirt. My plan with tower #1 is to add additional dirt {but no more potatoes} as the potato leaves begin to pop through the soil.
Potato Tower #2 – I covered the potatoes with 6 inches of dirt, then added 5 more potatoes. I ended up doing this 3 times. Someone had suggested I try this method to see if it would grow more potatoes. I have no idea if it will or not, but I think it will be interesting to see what happens.
Potato Tower #3 – This tower was planted with alternating layers of potatoes, dirt, potatoes, straw, potatoes, dirt. Again, someone suggested this growing method because it had worked for them.
I guess we’ll all find out in about 80 days or so which method works better.
What do you think?
Have you ever tried growing potatoes in towers before? Did it work out for you? What method did you use?
~Mavis
Follow the progress of the potato towers below.
- Potato Tower Update May 13th
- Potato Tower Update May 28th
- Potato Towers June 16th
- Potato Tower Update July 1st
- Potato Tower Update July 25th
- Potato Tower Update August 29th
- Potato Tower and Harvest
Zoe Dawn says
Here’s a little tip to save you some money…when planting potatoes, cut the potatoes up into pieces making sure there is one or two “eyes” on each piece. I usually cut my potatoes into 4 – 6 pieces so you probably could have gotten away with only buying 20 pounds of seed potatoes instead of 90 🙂
Also, Lucy is the best. She makes me miss our little pug! He was such a nut.
Farmington Farmski says
Cutting potatoes up and planting each eye is great advice! In wet climates, it is important to dust them with sulfur powder (put some powder and potatoes in paper bag, shake) and then transfer them to a clean paper bag, then let them sit for at least two days so they can scar off before planting. This will keep the cut up pieces of potato from rotting in the wet ground. I personally like to let them sit in the paper bag until the eyes have sprout growing out of them, and then plant them.
Zoe Dawn says
Interesting! I’ve never heard of dusting them with sulfur. My family has been cutting potatoes for years and we never had any trouble. we aren’t in a super wet climate so maybe that has protected them enough. I’ll have to keep this in mind tho for if I ever do notice rotting!
Misty says
I noticed you didn’t put a watering tube in any of your towers. How are they going to get more water then last year?
Ann says
What variety of potato are you using? I heard that early varieties don’t do so well in with the tower method as they set fruit once and that’s it.
Hege says
Yes, there are some potato varieties that will only grow potatoes at the very bottom of the initial roots, no matter how many times you re-hill the potatoes up in a potato tower….this bit of info is not shared much in all the articles out there on this method. Love the method though!! Wish you good luck Mavis!!
Sandra says
Can you tell me what variety only grows potatoes at the bottom? Or which ones grow more when you hill them? I grow potatoes every year and because they grow so long I find them hard to look after. I get huge potatoes and some very small ones. I have trouble watering them because the plants flop over and it’s impossible to weed.
diana says
I read somewhere that early varieties will only make tubers at the bottom, while late varieties will produce as high as you hill them.
Lisa says
I grew my potatoes in a bag two years ago. It worked alright but I didn’t do straw, just dirt. This year I’m doing potatoes in dirt, then straw and as they pop through I’ll put more dirt then straw. I’m curious to see what happens.
Cecily says
I use 3 x 7 raised beds. I start with an 8 in. high bed with 2 in. of dirt in the bottom. I put the potatoes on the dirt and cover with 4 in. dirt. As they grow I hill more dirt around the plants. When the dirt reaches the top of the box I build another 8 in. high box on top. I keep doing this until the plants flower. When the plants die back all I have to do is lift off each box, sift through the layers and gather the potatoes. I’ve been able to grow 20 lbs for every 1 lb planted with this method.
GC says
I have a friend that does this method, but by stacking up old tires. He lays a tire on the ground and fills it with dirt and potatoes. When the plants sprout he adds a tire to the stack, when they’re tall enough to peek over the top he fills it up with dirt, lets them grow a bit, then adds another tire. He’ll keep stacking this way until they are at least 4 feet high. Then lays down a tarp, pushes over the stack of tires onto the tarp, picks up the potatoes and drags the tarp filled with dirt back to his compost pile for next year. It takes up very little space. It’s soooo cool, my kids want to help him knock over the tires and find potatoes again.
Karen K says
I would never use old tires, there are too many pollutants that can enter into the soil and the food this way. Great for flowers, not great for edibles 🙁
Judy says
I tried growing potatoes in towers early last year and it wasn’t very successful. This summer I grew them in garden beds in deep trenches, which kinda worked. But for the amount of back-breaking digging I had to do, the yield was disappointing. So I’m going to try growing them in bags, or direct in straw bales …. like this:
http://strawbalegardens.com/blog/2013/02/youll-never-grow-potatoes-any-other-way-again/
Good luck with your towers, Mavis, I’ll be interested to read about their progress.
Dena says
I started out a few years ago w/ plastic garbage cans (idea from Cisco Morris) from Ace (on sale); drilled holes & wrapped the inside w/ mesh screen (mice exclusion). Did somewhat well, but you’re right, you do have to watch the watering. Then last year since I had a 3/4 ton truck bed liner not being used, planted it w/ seed potatoes in Tagro. Filled the entire liner w/ potatoes by the end of the season. Has some nice quantity! Used the soil for topping off the raised beds that were not going to hold solanaceous crops next year, as the soil can transfer disease.
segelkatt says
When I lived in Tacoma, WA I also saw Cisco Morris on TV and thought it would be nice to grow the spuds in a can. It worked alright but the results wre disappointing. Throughout the whole can there were only about 15 potatoes from 5 seed potatoes. A nice project for the 8-year-old next door who wrote a report for extra credit every week but not worth it if you expect to get 20 lbs or so, heck, even 10 lbs would have been nice.
Beth says
I’m going to do this as well. I’m going to use a hog panel that I cut into sections to make the tubes. Hog panels are 48in tall so I figure that will give me 3 good layers. My husband is going to make me a PVC pipe with holes drilled randomly thru-out and capped on the bottom that I can put in the center of each wire bin for watering. Each layer will be 12in of dirt with the spuds placed around the edges, eyes facing out so they can grow thru the straw around the edges. From what I’ve researched, I should get about 25# of potatoes minimum from each tower. We’ll see!!
Anne-Marie Bilella says
I bought my seed potatoes over a week ago and plan on doing the tower method. We have Georgia red clay here and I don’t want to dig potatoes!!!
Diana says
I’m thinking you may have just given my son his next Science Fair Project idea! He is 7 and loves to garden. Thanks!
Mavis says
Hey, I bet it would be a good one. He could try growing them traditionally and in a tower and see which yield better results. Pretty cool for a 7 year old if you ask me. 🙂
Amanda says
I’ve used old tires for my towers. You start off with one tire on the ground put about 8 inches of soil in the bottom, lay out your eyes (I cut my eyes out saves money instead of one potatoe hill per potatoe you get about 4 to 6) cover with a few inches of soil, when the potatoe plant gets about 4 to 6 inches tall, I cover with more soil leaving about an inch of the plant showing. I repeat this process until I feel like my tower is getting too tall or my potatoe plants stop growing. Then I just simply knock over the tires and pick up the potatoes.
DWC says
Quick question – With the potato towers in the wire cages, do you have a problem with mice getting into the straw? I am a little worried about this, but don’t have the garden space to plant traditional potato hills. Am considering wrapping the bottom with chicken wire, although I doubt this would deter the little buggers if they were intent on nesting.
Linda D says
During the depression my grandparents didn’t bother with seed potatoes. They actually used their potato peelings. As long as there is an eye, it will grow.
Mavis says
Really? That is very interesting Linda, I think I’m going to try that. Thank you! 🙂
Carolyn Thomas says
I just found your website through Northwest Edible Life. My family always composted (from the mid 60’s anyway). The potato peelings were always sprouting and putting out volunteer potato plants in the garden. We didn’t really have a “compost” pile. We trench composted or used the kitchen scrap bucket as mulch around the flower plants until we actually started a vegetable garden.
Judy Ryster says
I’ll be trying this too!
Wanda says
My mother-in-law said she did the same thing!
linda says
We did potato tower one yr. The mice ate most of our potatoes.
Deb says
Any more info on the potatoe peel method would be appreciated….like do I peel off a sprouting eye and plant it right away? Or do I have to wait for it to scab over first, can I get an eye on a potatoe peel to sprout, or will it just mold? I had no luck with sprouting sweet potatoes last year, and I’d like to avoid coming home to rotting potatoes in water again.
Dirt Girl says
Most of my growing experience comes from accidental seedlings from using immature compost in my garden. It’s all been experimental stuff in rental properties and thank God we don’t rely on it for our dinner! My husband, when peeling potatoes, cuts the ends off the potato. I do not know why he does it, but I do know that about 100% of them sprouted in the compost bin without any special treatment. Two plants came up in the garden, died back, and I shrugged it off as nothing lost. When it came time to dismantle our garden before moving house, what did we find? Potatoes! If I had known you were supposed to mound-up soil/growing medium we would have gotten more than two, I bet.
Mary says
Sweet potatoes are done differently. They are started in the winter, about the first of February in a hot bed or cold frame. That is a raised bed about 8 inches tall. The ground is dug and the whole potatoes planted in the soil. The frame is covered with plastic to keep the sprouts from freezing. Sweet potatoes are not cold hardy like other potatoes. When all danger of frost is past sweet potatoes sprouts are dug and snapped from the potato. Then planted in sandy or sandy loam soil for best results. They take a lot of water. Keep the soil slightly moist but never standing in water. If you have clay soil lots and lots of compost must be added and worked in to have nice sized potatoes. They need a soft soil that allows them to expand.
Julie says
I have been doing the tower method for a few years now and LOVE it! I use hay in the bottom, put my potatoes in, and cover generously with hay. Then…every time we mowed the lawn I threw that on top. I got, on average, a bushel from each tower!! I had a LITTLE trouble with mice the first year, but put rocks around the bottom after that and have had no trouble since!!
gwenn says
We did four 30 gallon plastic trash cans last year and had much better than expected results (in 2 of the cans anyway). We drilled holes in the bottom and up the sides of each can. Lined the very bottom with a layer rocks, 6 inches(ish) of dirt/compost/pine needles, whole seed potatoes (a few inches apart), another layer of dirt/compost/pine needles then a dusting of bat poo. (Somewhere in my researching I found more than a couple suggestions to throw pine needles in the mix. Couldn’t tell you if it helped, hindered or made no difference as last year was my first attempt). The most important thing I learned last year was to be diligent in adding filler as soon as the plants are a few inches tall but leave the tippy top leaves uncovered. I had 2 cans in the main garden area & 2 in the backyard. I was all over the cans in the main garden as that’s where I was every day looking over the rest of my crops & the harvest was awesome!! I watered but completely neglected to add dirt to the backyard cans for a few weeks & the overall yield was most definitely stunted because of it. The backyard plants got to be about a foot or so tall before I finally added dirt. The plants continued to grow after my lazy tail added my dirt mix but when I knocked the cans over at the end of the season, I could actually see where they stopped producing potatoes. There were a couple dozen in the bottom of the can then nothing but vines coming up through the rest. Bummer & lesson learned. The cans in the main garden had potatoes from the bottom to within the top 6 inches or so of dirt. Aside from the backyard bummer, it was fun to watch them go & definitely worth trying if you’re thinking about it! This year we’ve got fingerlings, purple, reds & yukons started.
Paula says
Last year I had a Red Potato forgotten in the pantry that sprouted. I decided to cut it into 3rds, each part had 2-3 sprouts on it, and I put it into a tall planter. I covered it with 2-3 inches of dirt and then when it shot up green, I added more potting soil. I added soil just one more time and then it was too cumbersome to try to get dirt around under the leaves. I kept it watered and it got plenty of sun, sitting on my driveway. I ended up with 2 pounds of potatoes!
I have decided to try these potato towers this year. I can’t wait to see what I get!
Ilse Werdermann says
I read about the potato towers elsewhere. They use straw on the outside ONLY, if your mesh is too large to hold the growing medium inside. They use compost ONLY, no dirt. They put in a bottom layer of compost and the potatoes or potato pieces around the perimeter with eyes facing OUT. The greenery is supposed to grow out of the tower, the potatoes stay on the inside. They follow with a foot of compost, another layer of potatoes, etc. They water WELL They say use a hose and water at a rate that water disappears about as fast as it flows. Use a moat on top to keep water from running out. Water WELL once a week. When all greenery is brown, just push tower over and harvest potatoes.
Jessica says
I am thinking of doing this next year and would love to km own which method works best.
Mavis says
I’ll keep taking pictures. 🙂
Azriel says
The problem with towers is that being more exposed to the air, they fry out faster. And as they also get dried out faster, less nutrients go to the potatoes. So, you end up using more water and have less nutrition with your potatoes. If you want higher nutrition and greater yields and easier harvesting, create a raised bed and use composted wood mulch with composted horse or cow manure and powdered lime or powdered gypsum as they, just like their cousin tomatoes, love calcium. Less watering and more potatoes with higher level of nutrition.
diana waldrop says
Can you grow sweet potatoes this way?
Maureen Leavitt says
Can you tell us which method of potato towers worked the best?
Mavis Butterfield says
Here is the link to the results –> http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/potato-tower-update-and-harvest/
Donna Bentkowski says
Mavis,
I NEED SOME CLARIFICATION , I HAVE A FEW ?ES,It sounds like u pressed straw into the sides of each of the 3 wire cages,
1) SO THE STRAW WENT UP THE ENTIRE SIDES OF THE CAGES,with the 3rd TOWER HAVING THE TALLEST AMT. OF STRAW ADDED TO IT’S SIDE ,correct? YES,NO?
2) Then according to what u write and the pictures of the 3 potato towers it looks like u put dirt and potatoes in tower one and two, but u USED NOT ONLY DIRT AND POTATOES IN TOWER 3 BUT ALSO ADDED ADDITIONAL STRAW TO TOWER #3 AS WELL,correct,YES,NO?
3).Did u layer your tower #3 with ONLY ONE LAYER OF STRAW because that is ALL U COULD FIT IN HAVING 6 LAYERS WITH 3 LAYERS BEING MADE OF POTATOES? YES,NO?
I ask this because at first I thought it would be better to have your potatoes between two layers of dirt then add your straw in order for the potatoes to grow better .To get 3 layers of potatoes with straw after and before your dirt you would need to make 10 layers and if you want your dirt to be 6 in. deep (3 in.is recommended) , your tower would probably be too short to accommodate this needed space.
4)Just wondering if their was a reason you layered your material the way u did?
I saw on the internet people talking about jut using straw to grow their potatoes ,so i guess it would be fine.
5) Another important ? WHAT VARIETY OF POTATOES DID YOU USE ?
6) I did read your site on your harvest and it appears u did really well,a higher yield in tower #3, correct,YES,NO?
I ask about variety because Sclindah (9/27/13) and Kristina (9/27/13) make comments on your update on your potato harvest : (http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/potato-tower-update-and-harvest/#comment-402836, ) and say,”YOU NEED LATE SEASON VARIETY FOR TOWERS OR BAGS TO DO MUCH GOOD.All early varieties set fruit once and do not do well in towers. You only get potatoes in the bottom 6 inches”. I AM THINKING ABOUT USING A MID SEASON VARIETY SO WONDER WHAT KIND YOU USED WHEN GETTING SUCH GOOD RESULTS? Thereby trying to decide if I should attempt doing a full tower like u did?
7).Also have u tried to plant more potato towers ?
IN YOUR LAST POST ON 9/27/15 and U SAID ”
” Now the question is, SHOULD I TRY THIS AGAIN NEXT YEAR,AND IF I DO ,HOW AM I GOING TO CHANGE THINGS UP SO I GET A BIGGER YIELD?”
8) I could not find any additional post after Sept. date HAVE YOU MADE ANY?
IN CLOSING ,
I AM LATE IN PLANTING MY POTATOES SO WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF U COULD ANSWER MY ?QUICKLY.Thank u.
P.S. if anyone else has had good results/high yields growing your potatoes as Mavis did ,please let me know the variety that u used and details.
Mavis says
Donna,
I’m excited you are trying potato towers. I did see great success with mine. Here are some answers to your questions: 1. Yes. 2. Yes. 3. Yes, just one layer of the straw. You could do more, you would just need a taller tower. 4. I researched it a little and used some readers suggestions. 5. I used a few different varieties, all of which were late season varieties. I think that is the most important piece of advice I can give you! 6. Yes, tower 3 yielded the highest results. And I would probably stick with a late season instead of a mid season variety. 7. We ended up moving and therefore, I have not tried the potato towers again. 8. No. I didn’t redo them or harvest any more potatoes, so I didn’t post about them again.
Hope that help!
LMS says
While living in the NC mountains, my husband and I grew Kennebec white potatoes for several years in 55 gallon plastic food barrels (a medium blue colour). The barrels had holes drilled into the bottom for drainage. The barrels were raised up on some old bricks so the water would drain. Put about 4 inches of garden soil into the barrel. Cut up a sprouted Kennebec potato left over from the previous years crop and let the cut sides dry. Once dry, put about 4-5 pieces in the soil, eyes-up, pressing down slightly until the top of the potato chunk was even with the top of the soil. Tossed a bit of straw over it all until covered. Watered a bit. When the tops were about 6 ” tall, we added another layer of dirt to cover the green tops except for about 2 inches and a light layer of straw topped that. When it came time for the potato beetles to find the potato barrels, we covered the top of the barrels with a window screen. We would water the potatoes when the soil indicated it was getting dry. Just watered with the hose until the water came out the drainage holes. Normal rainfall was normally plenty of water. When the tops started dying back, we tipped the barrel out onto a large tarp, picked out the taters and put the soil back into one of the barrels for use elsewhere. A 55 gallon barrel yielded about 50 pounds of taters. And that was with fishing out some of the new taters every so often for a meal. Kennebecs grow extremely well in SW NC. One year, when there was a lot of rain, we lost the bottom layer of taters to rot. After that, we would cover the top of the barrel when the rain was excessive. But normally the multitude of drainage holes in the bottm was enough drainage (and there was a lot of holes… 1/2″ drilled holes)