Grow Potatoes in Trash Cans

I am always on the watch for efficient and effective ways to grow food. I want to tell you about one of those methods in this post.

Potatoes are always good, but potatoes grown organically in nutritious soil are GREAT! If you are hesitant to dig up your yard to plant potatoes, or you have only a small yard and not much space, you can grow potatoes in a trash can, barrel or other type of bin.

This works particularly well for potatoes because the potato plant grows vertically and then puts out spuds every foot or so. In a large field, farmers will periodically "hill" the potato plants by raking soil to cover all but the very tops. After the plant grows a little taller, they will "hill" the potatoes again, thereby increasing the growing space vertically.

However, using a trash can to grow potatoes keeps the "hilling" in a tidy, confined space so that you could grow them on a balcony or walkway.

Here is what you need to get the job done.

You will need to purchase soil and fertilizer (or prefertilized soil) for the trash cans. Depending on how big the bins are, you can figure about two bags per trash can (2 cu. ft. bags). And here is the chief downside to trash can potatoes: you have to buy bagged dirt every year. Good soil costs about $8-12 per bag, so that can add up quickly. You do not want to reuse the same dirt for growing potatoes year after year because potato plants are highly susceptible to pests, which will become entrenched in the soil if you don't rotate the dirt out. However, if like me you have many different pots going, you can simply rotate the dirt from those other pots into the trash cans and move the dirt in the trash cans into the pots. You would just need to keep track of where your dirt has been.

Once you have the soil, you need the trash cans, bins or barrells. I had some unused 30 gallon trash cans about, so they were a natural choice. Any old trash can will do, just don't use one that had handled toxic materials. In the past I've used a galvanized trash can, this time I used plastic. Either type worked equally well. I cleaned and sanitized the trash cans well, and let them sit in direct sun for a couple days just to be sure they were safe to use for planting. 

The next step is to add drainage points to the trash cans. Potatoes hate wet feet and will quickly rot if the soil does not have good drainage. I made drainage points by drilling 1/2 inch holes in the bottom of the can every few inches. Then I drilled 1/4 inch holes up the sides every 6 inches or so, four holes to each level.

After the holes were drilled, I added about six inches of soil. This would serve as my base layer and the seed potatoes will be set on this soil bed.

As you can see from the picture below, I planted four seed potatoes on the soil base. I like to use smaller potatoes like fingerlings and red potatoes, just so I know the plants will have room to branch out (and they will!).

By the time I purchased my seed potatoes from the local garden center, there were hardly any left. I purchased and planted my potatoes in early May and the best looking seed potatoes were long gone. Mid-April would have been a better time to plant, but everything worked out regardless.

At this point, I covered the seed potatoes with another 6 inches of soil by pouring the soil from the bag on top of the seed potatoes.

Then you water and wait. Potato plants like thorough waterings, so I was sure to do so a couple times a week in hot weather. After a few weeks you will start to see the potato plants poke through the soil. That plant will get bigger and bigger! When the plant is about 6-12 inches above the soil level, pour in more dirt. Be careful to pour gently so that you do not harm the plant or break the branches. Re-cover about 3/4 of the emerged plant and gently make sure the soil is evenly distributed around it. So if you wait until the plant has poked out 12 inches from the soil level, re-cover the plant to within a few inches top of the plant. You will be covering branches and leaves. That's ok. 

The plant will keep on growing and all you need to do is keep on pouring more dirt into the trash can to cover the the bottom 3/4 of the plant. Repeat this process until there is no more room for dirt in the trash can. Soon after you reach the point of the trash can being completely full, the plant will start to bloom. I had pretty pink flowers.

But.... as the summer progresses those nice looking potato plants begin to shrivel and die. In late August the plants looked like this:

At first sight one might think something had gone terrible wrong, but this is actually a good sign. When the plant is dead looking, it is a good time to reach your hand into the soil to see if the potatoes are making progress. When I did, I felt healthy sized and firm spuds just barely under the soil level.

So, in early September I started harvesting potatoes. At first I just reached into the soil with my hand and groped around until I had grabbed enough potatoes for the night's dinner. But you don't want to leave mature potatoes in the soil too long for fear of rot. So in mid-September I toppled the trash cans and sorted through the dirt until I had picked out the potatoes (very therapeutic!).

All told, I harvested about 20 pounds of potatoes from the two cans. Now I will take the used soil, mix it with compost, cover it in black plastic to help with composting over the winter, and reuse the soil for other vegetable in the spring.