Anyone ever make a Potato Tower?

[captain belly]

I built a potato tower last year. I did everything right. I even recorded video footage of each perfectly planned step and was going to post it on my YouTube channel. It was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread! I grew it in stacked boxes 4 feet high. Came time to harvest and found the bulk of my potatoes in the base where I planted them, and the rest of the layers up showed FAILURE! Anyone actually have success with this??? I have yet to find someone that actually had a good yield from this technique. The theory of it sounds good, but the actual outcome just doesn't show up.

 

[robin416]

I've never even heard of a potato tower. Guess that's something I'll have to go check out.

I am having trouble figuring out how that would work considering the way potatoes grow.

 

[NannyPatty]

I built a potato tower last year. I did everything right. I even recorded video footage of each perfectly planned step and was going to post it on my YouTube channel. It was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread! I grew it in stacked boxes 4 feet high. Came time to harvest and found the bulk of my potatoes in the base where I planted them, and the rest of the layers up showed FAILURE! Anyone actually have success with this??? I have yet to find someone that actually had a good yield from this technique. The theory of it sounds good, but the actual outcome just doesn't show up.

That sounds like it could be same order as the upside down tomato growing containers! Those were a total failure for me. Ive seen the potato towers made with wood frames, old ties, trash bags, but I've never tried it.

 

[*Andi]

Been there and done that and you are correct... The theory of it sounds good, but the actual outcome just doesn't show up.

 

[Weedygarden]

I saw someone who tried to grow potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket and had a failure there.

My question is: why not plant potatoes in the ground? If the soil is not good, amend, amend, amend, and maybe use a raised bed with rich soil.

 

[captain belly]

I saw someone who tried to grow potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket and had a failure there.

My question is: why not plant potatoes in the ground? If the soil is not good, amend, amend, amend, and maybe use a raised bed with rich soil.

The tower idea was mainly for people in the city who didn't have the space. (I think the magazine "The New Yorker" is where it got it's popularity. I tried it, because I thought it would be super easy to harvest from this contraption. I made doors on my boxes..... the thought was.: need a potato, open the door, grab one through the soil, close the door. If you harvest all at once, then there would be no digging too. Just open the doors and push the whole thing over and pick up potatoes. Neat idea.......... if it worked.

 

[NannyPatty]

I'd come closer to thinking sweet potatoes might grow because they vine and the potatoes grow along the vine rather than below the plant.

 

[robin416]

I'd come closer to thinking sweet potatoes might grow because they vine and the potatoes grow along the vine rather than below the plant.

Sweet potatoes grow in the dirt just like potatoes. Grew some last year. Not sure I want to do that again.

 

[NannyPatty]

I've only been successful with sweet potatoes once a long time ago. My soil is so dense and heavy. I'm hoping to try one more time, but not sure where to put them. Mine made huge vines but little hard roots that looked like skinny set potatoes. The only time I had any success, I thought they didn't make until I started digging. I got a bushel. However, my garage is sitting on that spot.

 

[goshengirl]

It may be whether you grew determinate or indeterminate potatoes. My understanding is the there are some potatoes (determinate) that have a relatively set number of tubers that grow just above where the seed potato was planted. So no matter how much you keep mounding dirt up around them, they're not going to produce any more tubers. Indeterminate varieties are good for a tower, as they grow tubers all the way up - keep mounding dirt, and they'll keep growing taller and setting more tubers as they go.

It's unclear to me if all short season varieties are determinate and all long season varieties are indeterminate, but I think that's the case (or close to it). I have no clue about mid-season varieties.