Make your own potato grow bags very cheaply

stevie_boy

I recently purchased some from a gardening supply shop over the internet, with postage it came to £23. I immediately sent the parcel back once I viewed the contents.

All I got was a few seed potato's and 3 strong plastic bags with holes in, I sent it back because I realised I could make the same thing a heck of a lot cheaper, here's how.

In the poundland kind of stores are brightly coloured strong plasticky (large) shopping bags, horrid looking things but perfect for this.

If you do not have a soldering iron then heat a normal sized pozi screwdriver on a cooker ring and poke through about 9 holes to each of the 4 sides for drainage,
no need to do the bottoms as bottom holes encourage worms.

Fill bottom 4 inches with compost, place 5 or 6 spuds in, cover with compost and keep adding as plants grow.

You can also use the recycle baskets that some councils give out for bottles, cans etc.

For seed potato's buy a decent size bag of spuds and before you have used them all you will notice (after a week or so) they sprout shoots and can be used.

Hope it helps

conradmum

You can also use old compost bags turned inside out with some holes poked with a fork.

Some of those gardening websites are a criminal rip off. You can get reasonable quality, cheap hardware from Wilkinsons or Aldi.

roddycam

In this week's Amateur Gardening magazine, Peter Seabrook recommends using growbags, cut in half. This means that you get the container and the compost, which has always put me off before because of the cost.

valk_scot

Yes, I use growbags too. I empty them out, cut them to about 2/3rds depth, turn them inside out, poke a few holes in then roll the top down till I have a "pot" about 12-14" high. Half fill with compost, plant three spuds, fill to within 2" of top to allow for watering. As the plant grows you can unroll more of the bag lip and earth up with spare compost.

Of course you can also use last year's empty compost bags and make bigger pots.

stardrops42

valk_scot wrote: »

Yes, I use growbags too. I empty them out, cut them to about 2/3rds depth, turn them inside out, poke a few holes in then roll the top down till I have a "pot" about 12-14" high. Half fill with compost, plant three spuds, fill to within 2" of top to allow for watering. As the plant grows you can unroll more of the bag lip and earth up with spare compost.

Of course you can also use last year's empty compost bags and make bigger pots.

Thanks so much for that:T I've never grown my own before and this is a fantastic tip:beer: