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Last year, I planted a 100′ row of potatoes only to have all my plants attacked by the vicious Colorado potato beetle. It was hard to watch, and as much as I tried to get rid of the beetles, I realized very quickly that I stand no chance against them (read: The Sorry Story of my Potatoes).
So this year, I decided to try something a bit different. I am going to try to grow my potatoes in towers. I’ve listed this option a few weeks ago in my post How to Grow Potatoes (wich includes all the information you’ll need if you are new to growing potatoes), and since I had all the materials to build the towers, I thought it will be fun to give it a try.
I made four towers so far (one after I took this picture), and I have to say, they were pretty easy to make ( I plan on making 3 more).
How to Build Potato Towers:
I had this rolled fence wire laying around, I think they call it rabbit fence. I used it to fence a section of my garden a while back because rabbits kept coming to eat my lettuce, but I cleaned that area and don’t plant there anymore so it was just laying behind the shed.
The fence is 4′ tall.
I took the non-scientific way, as usual… And counted 13 squares (I then measured it so I can give you the measurements and it is 50 inches, so 4′ or so, in case you use a different kind of wire).
I used cutters to cut the wire in the center of the 14th square.
Next, I joined the two ends of the piece I cut and secured them together by bending the end of the wire.
Here is a view from the top…
And here is the whole cage. Pretty simple!
I used 18” rebars to secure the cage in place.
I hammered the rebar about half way into my husband’s precious front lawn…
Peeesh… What’s stupid grass compared to round, smooth, earthy smelling potatoes?
He’ll get over it.
Then I placed the cage right next to the rebar…
And secured it with a piece of wire. You can do this with a cable tie too, but cable ties magically disappear around here (blame the same husband and his kids), so I used wire. Anyway, I don’t think the cage is going anywhere.
Next, I filled the bottom of the tower with hay and kind of pushed it up the sides a little bit, creating what looks like a really comfortable nest.
Here is another view.
Then, I filled the center of the nest with garden soil and compost, about 15” or so.
And now it’s time to plant potatoes!
I have a few that I saved from last year, so I didn’t have to buy seed potatoes this year.
I did, however, ended up saving them in the refrigerator because I couldn’t find a cool place for them and they started germinating too early, hopefully, it didn’t ruin them and they’ll still grow. We’ll see.
I planted a couple of potatoes in each tower, about 6” deep. Then I covered them back with soil and watered well.
The only thing left to do is keep the soil moist and wait for them to germinate. Once they start growing, I will keep adding soil and compost and hay around them until the tower is full.
I am very curious to see the results. If this works and I get a good amount of potatoes I might keep growing them this way. The cages are super easy to make, and during the hot summer, when I don’t use them for potatoes I am going to use them to support peppers.
The towers also save a lot of room because this way, we are growing the potatoes up. And you don’t need to till any soil or anything, just stick them on your front lawn and watch steam coming out of your husband’s ears.
OK, maybe you shouldn’t put them on your front lawn… Anyway, even if you do, he’ll forget and forgive when he eats the creamy potato au gratin you’ll make him 😉
For no front lawn and more potatoes…
~Lady Lee~
P.S. – I’ll add more pictures to this post once the potatoes start growing.
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I’ve tried all kinds of ways of growing taters but the best so far is in ground. Soil prep is important and weevel removal is a necessity. I just clean them out when I’m preparing my soil for planting. They are nice and bright white so you can’t miss them. Just put them in a tossable container with water and salt. When your soil is ready treat it (generously) with DE (Diatomaceous Earth) by putting it in a jelly bag and spreading it. Lay your taters in and then again go over the taters with DE. Cover with soil, about 12 inches deep then toss all that compost you been making since last fall on top. Taters love growing up into compost! Then let them grow and don’t bug them till harvest. If any taters start trying to grow above ground just toss some soil on top of them. I tried the tower and pot growing but the taters like to be protected down a bit deep where it’s a bit cooler. My neighbor’s turn out for tater digging time and you should see their faces when I pull a 6.5 inch red tater out of the ground. You’d think I found gold! You get trouble with other bugs then you just cut the plant tops off and cover it all with soil. Shove the plants tops and bugs down into a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water and tee tree oil and cover. Tater’s will grow more greens.
So much good information! Thanks. Many other people told me about trying DE to get rid of the beetles. I never tried it, I should give it a try.
One thing you mentioned that I didn’t think about is temperature. It is much cooler down in the ground and I am sure it benefits the potatoes. The soil in the towers is going to be warmer. We’ll see how it works.
Another thing you can try is planting your taters in the fall. Same as above with the DE and a foot down. Put your compost bin over the planting and load up your compost with fall cuttings. The compost keeps the taters from freezing and they are good to go come spring. I’m almost 60 so I try to find “easy” when ever I can.
Interesting… So you plant them a foot deep and then load the compost on top? Isn’t it too deep?
I’ve gone deeper than 12 inches. Those taters send up runner growth. Once that growth reaches the surface the leaves develop to take in the energy of the sun back down to the mama. From that mama tater to just below the surface of the green leaves on those runner-stalks is where all the new taters grow, much like a peanut plant and try as hard as I can I still never harvest all of them and those I miss sprout up the following spring. I never buy starter spuds! You want to make sure you have plenty of soil protecting your mama spud so the compost is not drawing the “compost activity” to her.
Yeah, I bet if you go deeper than 12” it’s hard to find them all at harvest time. But I actually like the idea of having a few left in the soil, saves you the planting the next year. I’ll have to try this.
My husband and I have used Potato towers before. We used to live in Michigan where it was really sandy and the bugs were a big problem down in the ground. We did something similar to what you have done, except we made one big box. We filled the box with hay, compost, and soil. The potatoes grew fairly well. I do agree that they grow best in the ground, but when the bugs or soil isn’t right, sometimes you have to improvise.
Or when you don’t have much space. I planted a 100 ft of potatoes last year on our 20 acres. Plenty of room there, but here, in town I only have a few beds and I wanted to keep them for other veggies. I liked the fact that I can place the towers right on the lawn and when the potatoes are done growing I can clean it up and move it somewhere else.
for what it’s worth DE will not kill any critters once it gets wet and I don’t think there’s any potatoes that will grow in dry soil.
True, but you might be able to spread it on the leaves maybe? I will try this next year. The potato beetle eats the leaves so maybe this will keep them away. You will have to reapply it after each watering/rain. Lots of work really. I wish there was a simpler organic way.