Back in March I put together 3 potato towers {How to Build a Potato Tower}. Now that the towers have begun to sprout, I thought I would post a few pictures so you can see how they are doing.
This is my second year growing potatoes in towers. Last year I tried and it was pretty much a disaster. I think it may have been my fault though, I had placed the potato towers in a spot that was to hard for me to reach with the hose. As a result they were only watered handful of times or when it rained.
So this year I built my towers behind our greenhouse where I know they’ll get watered on more of a regular basis.
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. So far this tower is coming along nicely. The potatoes are sprouting as they should and I will add about 6 inches of dirt tonight to bring the soil line about 2 inches below the greens.
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.
Tower #2 looks the best so far. Potato foliage is coming out of the sides of the tower in two places and as well as on top. I’ll add a little more dirt to the top once the foliage gets a little higher. I’m surprised that with the amount of soil that is in the tower, I see any foliage on the top at all.
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. Nada. Zilch. Nothing going on with this tower so far.
If you are growing your potatoes in towers this year I’d love to hear how they are doing so far. Or, if you’ve tried growing potatoes in towers previously, how they worked out and if you were happy with the results.
Have a great night,
Mavis
Alexis says
I am also trying potato towers this year. I couldn’t find one person that gave a follow up on how much potato was harvested. I’m trying only dirt once and then topping with only straw as they grow. Has anyone tried this method and failed?!?
Desi from Idaho zone 5 says
I grew two towers last year. One got little potatoes and the other had none. That may have more to do with a gopher eating them though.
Tanya says
I would think in your wet climate that the potatoes with a lot of straw would rot from moisture. We live on the desert side of WA and have just the opposite problem.
Erika says
I planted our seed potatoes about 5″ deep in a 6′ kiddie pool container garden (it’s got about 12″ of dirt in it) about 3 weeks ago and it seems like all of them have sprouted. We just topped the whole thing with a nice layer of compost on top this weekend. I’ve grown potatoes for the last 3 years and they do like regular watering (at least here in the AZ desert). Once you have a whole lot of foliage on top, you can start to dig them up pretty much any time you want potatoes with dinner. You can dig them up early for new potatoes, or let them go longer for bigger ones. The weather is so hot for so long here that the plants don’t really die back in the fall until we get the occasional freeze overnight in winter. This is my first time actually using seed potatoes. Previously, I’ve just planted little red potatoes that got sprouty in my pantry (which also worked for growing sweet potatoes, too).
Mavis says
Erika did you cut holes in the bottom of the kiddie pool? Maybe I should try this.
Becca says
Second year growing potatoes in a tower here. Last year I did the layering straw along the sides to keep the soil in and then soil and rings of potatoes every foot or so for about 3 rings…got about 5-6 pounds from 3 pounds seed potatoes.
This year, using left over potatoes from last years’ harvest I planted one ring of potatoes – about 5 potatoes and covering them as they grow. So far it’s 2-1/2 feet high and is ready for more soil, which I’m debating if I am going to cover it more.
Crystal says
My tower is showing nothing so far. It is planted with two types of potatoes and four types of oca. I’m hoping something starts showing soon…
Mavis says
Hi Crystal, when did you plant your potatoes?
Crystal says
I planted them about a month ago. I added the oca to the tower about a week and a half ago. So I am hoping I will still see plenty of growth soon.
Adam L. says
Would it matter if you used different types of potatoes for subsequent seeding in the same tower? I wouldn’t guess so, but any thoughts on mixing & matching?
Cecily says
Potatoes come in early, mid and late season varieties. Theoretically if you started with a late variety and then added mid and early ones they should all be ready to harvest at the same time. I don’t think wire towers are the best method regardless of the varieties.
gardenpat says
I used a link on Mother Earth News to make one potato tower out of a garbage can- just about time to add more dirt since they’ve been growing well. The other potato tower is one that has 2 x 2 corner uprights that you add sides to as the potato plants grow. Then at the end of the season, you unscrew the front side pieces and dump the dirt & potatoes on to a tarp that you place in front just before harvesting and voila! Your potatoes and dirt are all on the tarp- easy to harvest without damaging potatoes and easy to reuse the soil without making a mess on the lawn! So far, so good with that tower also- it’s ready to add the next vertical row of side pieces! I’m excited!!!
Cecily says
I come from a long line of potato farmers and in my experience wire potato towers almost always have very low yields. The main problem arises from the potatoes growing out the sides of the towers making it impossible to hill dirt around the vines (as well as not enough water). You’ll be lucky to get a 3/1 yield using this method. I use 4×8 raised beds made with 2×10’s. Plant seed potatoes 5 inches deep adding more soil as they grow. When the bed is full add another 4×8 box made of 2×6’s to the top. I repeat the process, adding soil and boxes, until the plants bloom. Once they bloom they won’t develope more potatoes. I gotten up to 22/1 (lowest was 12/1 because I was sick that year and no one bothered to water them) yield with this method. Your in ground potatoes will give you much higher yields than the towers.
lydia selk says
my potatoes are coming up a little too. We have a big bin that husband made and we rotate it around the yard. I heard last year was a bad year for potatoes in the pacific northwest. We are in Puyallup and our potatoes did not do well. We are hoping for a better result this year.
Cecily says
Really! I live in Summit/Waller area just up the hill from the Puyallup valley. My potatoes produced at 18/1 ratio last year!
lydia selk says
No Way!!! I am super jealous! We are down in the valley near the high school. One spot did okay, but the main potato bed did barely anything, we think maybe we had it in a bad spot. This year will be better! (I hope) 🙂 I am just getting the hang of this gardening thing, I figure I can’t go wrong, my soil down here is kind of the bestest and it would be a shame to just keep it covered in grass. 🙂 Are you going to the mother earth news fair?
Cecily says
I’m the jealous one! I dream of having Puyallup valley soil. I had to bring in 25 yards of good soil since I have icky gravely clay. Grass is a waste of perfectly good gardening space if you ask me, ha ha! No MENF for me. I have prior plans that weekend. You’ll get the hang of gardening in time, although, I have been vegetable gardening for over 20 years now and I still read seed packets and kill the occasional veggie start. BTW potato growing in my blood so if my potatoes didn’t grow well I would be shunned by the family, LOL!
lydia selk says
Haha! Maybe I should have you over to show me what I may be doing wrong in my potato beds 🙂 and pick your brain about other gardeny things. This is year 3 we are growing food instead of grass. The only reason we have had success is because of my soil. 🙂
Ursula says
I repurposed a compost bin into a potato tower. It is the green plastic kind that has small holes in the side of the plastic sheet. You roll theplastic in a circle and hold the ends together with wing nuts. The bottom is a large black disk with holes for drainage. Im not using the cover. I planted organic cherry red seed potatoes from Irish Eyes in Ellensburg together with some organic russets from Trader Joes that sprouted in my bin. This tower is Huge so Im hoping to get a high yeild. I planted them in 6 inches of soil & have been covering the greens as they appear, so far the soil is about 3 feet high with the greens still pushing through. There’s still plenty of heigth to the tower. Im wondering when to quite hilling! ? I also planted Ozettes, a fingerling that is a Pacific NW heirloom in a 23 in glazed pot on the deck. I added the last layer of soil last week since there isnt any more room to hill. It will be interesting to see the end results!
Cecily says
Quit hilling when they bloom.
Ursula Haigh says
Thanks!
Kristy says
This is my first year growing potatoes. I planted 3 fingerlings in an 18 gallon container. They are sprouting like crazy! Should I thin them out so I only have 3 or so plants per container? Each fingerling seed potato sprouted about 6 plants
Mavis says
Eeek! I’ve never thinned potatoes before. I’m not sure.
Cecily says
Don’t thin. The sprouts are like branches on a fruit tree. Each “branch” will produce potatoes and removing them could cause stress to the rest of the plant.
Kristy says
Thanks! I will leave them alone and see what happens
Gardner in the makings says
I tried the tower method along time ago I believe it is a good concept keep it in mind straw placement earth depth type of seed and moisture wicked in through the straw therefore the only stress on the plant stem and leaves would be gravity trying to grow up towards the sun and being pulled down by gravity I’m going to try it again knowing a little bit more about the process and see if it’ll work