Growing Potatoes in Towers - Small Space Potato Planters
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2019
- We eat a lot of potatoes. Possibly more than the average household. We make overloaded poutine at least once a week, so it’s safe to say that we go through our fair share of spuds over the course of a year. Traditional methods of growing potatoes are both labour intensive and space consuming. Long rows which must be tilled, fertilized and raked into hills. It’s a lot of work. This year we decided to try our luck with using potato towers to grow our spuds.
Potato towers are an excellent choice if you have limited space in your yard to grow food. While we have plenty of space here, we wanted to minimize the area we use to grow our potatoes. They’re relatively simple to build with the right materials.
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You will need:
Straw - any old straw will do
Compost
Soil
Peat Moss
Manure
Rigid Wire Mesh
Some strong wire or zip ties
Large Garden Stakes
The first thing you’ll need to do is cut your rigid wire mesh to size and roll them into cylinders. Pound a large garden stake into the ground. You’ll use this stake to hold up the tower, and using some strong pieces of wire or zip ties, secure the wire mesh cylinder to.
Mix your growing medium together. Combine equal amounts of soil, compost, manure and peat moss. Use a garden hose to moisten the medium as you mix it together.
Once your mesh tower is secured to the garden stake and your growing medium is mixed together, you can start filling it. Start by adding a layer of straw to the bottom of the tower. 4 - 6 inches or so is a good amount to start with. Create a nest by patting down the straw in the middle with a garden hoe, pulling some towards the sides of the tower.
Your potatoes can be chopped in half or quartered. Just make sure each piece of seed potato has an eye or two sprouting out of it. This ensures each piece will begin growing into a new plant.
Into your straw ‘nest’, pour some of your growing medium. A few inches to start with. Arrange your seed potatoes around the outer edge of the ‘nest’ you’ve created. Leave just enough space between the wire mesh and the potatoes and cover them completely on all sides and on top with growing medium.
Once you have arranged a layer of seed potatoes in the tower, cover them with more growing medium so they are completely surrounded.
Next, grab some more straw and begin building another ‘nest’. Continue with all of the previous steps until you’ve either reached the top of the tower or you’ve run out of potatoes.
Within a week or so, possibly less depending on the weather, you should see your potatoes beginning to grow, emerging from the sides of the tower.
After a couple of weeks of growth they’ll really start to sprout out the sides and top of the tower.
And after a couple of months, your towers should be really filling out. Potatoes require quite a bit of water to grow well, so be sure to keep an eye on the moisture in the towers and water as needed. Our three towers needed daily watering in august after a couple months of growth.
To harvest, simply remove the wires or zip ties holding the mesh cylinders to the garden stake and knock the entire tower over. Gently break apart the soil and straw and remove the potatoes. We use milk crates for gathering our potato harvest. The holes in the bottom and sides of the milk crates allow the dirt to fall freely from the potatoes onto the ground.
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COMPARING POTATO GROWING METHODS: ua-cam.com/video/UjQXRsQ5NOs/v-deo.html
POTATO TOWER HARVEST: ua-cam.com/video/vakhkCI-e04/v-deo.html
POTATO BUCKET HARVEST: ua-cam.com/video/94w-QZsJTTw/v-deo.html
THANK YOU FOR NOT TAKING 30 minutes to convey 2:00 worth of info!!!!!! Subscribed, and I hit the top bell to receive all notifications from this channel
My exact response today. I wasn't distracted by a story line lol.
AMEN to that kiddo.
Tir3d of lengthy babble describing describing the simple
Same
I know exactly how you feel. I manually chose the under four minute video option when searching for potato growing videos, which led me to this video right away.
I know!...where's the annoying background music????😂😂
My dad grew potatoes, turnips, and rutabaga's in the wintertime in loose bound bales of hay, in the barn. He had grow lights that were turned on for 8-10 hours a day. Then in long potato mound rows in the summer months. Where there's a will,, there's a way!
Hello from the Iron Range again, I'm north of the Divide, I think that places me about your same latitude ...wanted to return and update my experience with the tower this last year.
I like the space saving and "container" aspect of Towers as they can be placed where the garden might not be :) (outside of the fence as deer will eat everything you had but not potatoes)
Short n sweet ! that's the way to do it.
I remember you and every other person I follow here on YT had small potatoes this year.
IDK, the ones I grew were magnificent ! And the biggest came from the two towers I had.
My squat towers were only 4 feet high and I did not do much layering of hay and soil.
I made hay barrier round the exterior of each tower as I filled it up with heavy black dirt from an old fallow farm up the road. Had to wrestle the grass out of the soil but it was free ! and left just dirt on top of the tower as I intended to "top it off" (no hay layer on top).
It took a LONG time for anything to show. I thought I messed it up. I placed the spuds right up next to the exterior hay ring or wall of the tower and did two planting "layers" of potatoes.
When they did come up they thrived and every one all around grew and produced!
Water was the key I guess as I would toss buckets of water on top of them.
Hopes this helps someone and Happy Planting!
That is GREAT to hear! I'm not sure what the potato crisis was all about because as you mentioned, quite a few folks had pretty dismal harvests this season. And it seemed to be everywhere, geographically. I'm glad the towers worked out for you. And thanks for sharing your tips on successful potato towers!
@@Wilderstead same here my family planted q whole acre of potatoes and it was pretty much a bust crop the fact that we were in a bad drought here in western iowa and we didn't have irrigation was probably the main problems
I lived in Colorado mts (short growing season) and would stand a bale of alfalfa hay on end, pour a gallon of plant food on top & water it regularly. The bales stood upright just fine & harvesting was a joy - just clip the wires & push it over to pick up all the potatoes.The bonus was a pile of semi-composted hay for mulch.
How did you get the potatoes into the hay bales??
@@ADONAIsays-so I used a piece of broomstick to poke a hole big enough to push about 1/4 of potato into the hay a couple of inches ( that had a couple of eyes that were starting to sprout) I only used green hay bales, not straw.
Coolest thing I have read for days. Top job!
Brilliant!
Sorry if these are dumb questions, Rookie homesteader here😆 So no soil? Did you still wrap it with the wire mesh?
Its been a while since I’ve been really impressed with an innovative way to grow food, but this is a very clever way to go vertical! Thanks for the well made tutorial!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Agree
MORE people will need this in the phycho future years.
yep doesn't matter we can make it into a narrow spud tower with gaps in it to cover the people after Lucy 😭
Yeah. Go please the sun to light earth vertically.
Just a suggestion...how about taking a 2” white pvc pipe with lots of holes drilled into it put down the center of the tower...easy way to get water all through it.
Plastic isn't good for human consumption.
Good improvement too
PVC leeches chemicals into the water. easy material to use but I personally wouldn't.
Great idea😍👍will try that👏👏
@Za za Zoom copper kills plants
Simple and straight to the point! Love your style!
I appreciate your effort to document this and will definitely give it a try. Thanks.
Very cool concept, I don't think I realized how many seed potatoes you could fit in a tower :)
Fantastic method! Appreciated the concise dialogue and the images.
Thank you for putting this up. Great timing. Trying potatoes again and hope to be successful this season. Your towers will be key
Cannot wait to try this this season! Thanks for the info 😁
Such a space saving great idea! I was tired of using all my room up in my garden to dig furrows for them and yes I’m going to try it today!
I thank God for our farmers! This is BRILLIANT!
This is a genius way to grow potatoes, thanks for sharing. I am going to give this a try in my garden this summer.
Solid video, no fluff, good information.
Thanks for the idea. Winter is coming big time. Tower spuds
Brilliant!
I'm doing this for sure! I have most of the material needed, including a Bale of old straw in the shed. Awsome! Thanks 👍😊
The potato towers are a great idea. Vertical growing is where it's at. 👍
You gonna grow some taters, Jim?
Green Dream Project I like your last three words- where it’s at- now I got that Beck song stuck in my head-Where It’s At- got two turntables and a microphone 🎤
I started my vertical container potato’s a week ago and they are already popping up! Can’t wait to see the end result!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing it with the world.
Thanks for sharing this method. We will be utilizing this technique now!
It should show the harvest for sure.
You will have to wait for the sequel - Potato Towers II - The Harvest!
@@Wilderstead the harvest? this was last year .. surely you have a harvest video from last year.. whether it works or not you should make a follow up showing the results.
We don’t have a harvest video from last year unfortunately. But - based on the popularity of this video, we will definitely make one this year. Life gets in the way and we can’t film everything we do here.
@@Wilderstead Would love to see a video of the harvest please. I can't wait.
Great job! But I wonder about the building on hight..do you put straw in the bottom of the next nest as well.. or just around the walls?
It’s beautiful to look at even! What a great idea.
Short, informative and to the point. Well done.
Right? I wish all instructional videos would just cut to the blinking chase!
Really a good video on how to grow potatoes in a small area. I may have to try this method out. Looks fairly easy too.
Very simple and yet so informative . Thank you, building mine as I’m done typing this!
Invaluable information!! Thank you so much for this idea.
This is such a wonderful idea!!! I'm thrilled!!! Thank you so much!
Great video. I'll be having a crack at that this winter. Thanks for posting.
Great idea! But could you do a video on the actual harvesting of the potatoes as well?
At the end, "remove stake, knock away hay etc., collect in milk crates."
...just see it in your head.
@@duckvenom Not good enough.
We need to see the actual yield in real time.
After all, he is taking up a lot of horizontal space anyway with having the towers so far apart.
What is the yield per square metre compared with traditional growing methods?
The extra watering required with vertical growing is a huge consideration in very dry climates. How does this affect them?
Doctor sez that Eye "got potatoes Growing In My Ears." Doctor Eitel sure wuz funny!
@@rubygray7749 I am pretty sure that the answer you are looking for already exists on the internet. All you have to do is look it up.
I really like your method for this I think i will try this this year....Thank you for sharing
Thank you for this wonderful tip. I will definitely be trying this out.
i like see you harvest this in fall.
What a great idea! Thank you for sharing. Worth a go.
When I saw that Allis Chalmers hat I new immediately there would be good and useful information shared. Thank you, for the great instructional video!
Excellent video, short and concise, great information. Think I'll be doing this cone springtime once the back garden is sorted levelled and weeds got rid of! Raised beds and sine of these towers should save some money for sure!!
.. Thanks from London England 👍❤️💪😎🏴🙏
Great idea!!! So easy and clean :)
Thanks for the great concern sharing with us is a great idea
Awesome!!! I’m doing this today.
Great quick and to the point video, thank you.
This is a vertical/tower modified version of the Ruth stout method. Great idea!
Economic space use, should have a good size harvest with that method.
Thank you. Enjoyed your video.
Awesome idea!
WOW BEST IDEA YET!
All I need now is a homestead! Thanks Uploader... & YT.
great video tutorial Dave ideal for space saving
And very low maintenance aside from keeping them wet!
Great video. Straight to the point and without the annoying self promotion.
Best idea I’ve seen in awhile
I will be trying this year
What a great idea! I've been looking for a way to grow potatoes above ground level that would keep critters out! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
This is brilliantly simple and smart. This method also can save us from porcupines and wild boars and can be tried on other tuber crops as well.
What a awesome Idea!
amazing gonna give this a try, thankyou for sharing
Doing this, this year! Quick to the point. Nice vid.
Have fun!
This is the best method I have seen.
Genius! Thanks for sharing!
That's an awesome idea, gunna try ....thanks and cheers to you 🤘🎵
Great idea!
Very informative video my friend! Thank you VERY kindly!
What a really cool idea. I love these kind of videos
What a great idea. Thank you.
I would love to see the harvest!
I left that comment 7 months ago....
@@jenniferlaramee2471 it would have to be a lot as i have seen small containers grow 3 to 5 lbs in 5 gallons.
One tower i would guess is 50 lbs or more maybe even up to 100 so if a person did say 5 towers they could have between 250 to 500 lbs in very little space. One can always sell what they do not need.
Awesome video
Looking forward to trying this thanks
I grew potatoes in used tires with straw,and also used the straw method in my garden.Tire method harvest was ok,but the garden method produced lots of potatoes.I am a wheelchair user and now plant everything in containers.The straw "tower" method is something I may try.Thanks for video.
Most practical. Thank you.
Awesome job done showing how to make some really great tater towers!
What a great idea.!!!!! Thank you for this info. Wow👍
Thank you for sharing!
My pleasure!
Wow!! Super cool thanks!
Interesting concept. I'll give it a try
Gonna try this!
Brilliant!
GREAT garden channel!
This is awesome.
What a great idea!
Love your video. Thank-you.
Looks great 👍. Thanks for the great video .
Thanks for watching!
This is brilliant!!
Interesting! maybe I can do the same method for sweet potatoes. Thanks for this idea👍
Thanks, I just found your channel today, subscribed and following.
This is new to me.. Cool idea !
Pulling the tower down would seem a bunch easier than digging through several times to ensure you get them all... less marking on them as well i bet. Great method ! Thank you for sharing !
wow nice idea sir
What a great little video!
Thank you!
Very, very helpful. Happily liked and subscribed.
I LOVE this idea! It's great for those of us who live in the city with limited growing area!
Thank you for info. I'm going to try to build a tower on top of a 20gal smart pot. Hopefully it works. Thanks again
Love it !!!!!
Very cool idea!
Love it ❤️🥔🍠
Great idea!!
I just made one yesterday, didn't have straw, so I used leaves.
This is awesome!
Very informative video, thanks.
Excellent!
Nice video, very informative, thanks for sharing👍
I was just thinking about this. Thank you UA-cam.
I love this TY
Amazing idea! 👍