Growing potatoes

blushingbride_3

Hi everyone

I want to grow potatoes this year, my ones last year werent very succesful

What does everyone use?

I've seen the tubs on Thompson & Morgan, anyone used these?
Dad thought the flexi tubs currently £3 in asda might be good? if i put drainage holes in?

anyone used anything else succesfully?

Also where is the best place to buy potatoes & how do i 'chit' them:)

Farway

blushingbride wrote: »

Hi everyone

I want to grow potatoes this year, my ones last year werent very succesful

What does everyone use?

I've seen the tubs on Thompson & Morgan, anyone used these?
Dad thought the flexi tubs currently £3 in asda might be good? if i put drainage holes in?

anyone used anything else succesfully?

Also where is the best place to buy potatoes & how do i 'chit' them:)

Are you growing outside, in the ground? I guess not as you refer to tubs

If in tubs, then any stout container will do, as MSE then cheaper the better. I use large plastic pots

If you are growing in pots, then you can use bog standard spuds from supermarket, choose a variety you like. It is not really worthwhile growing maincrop, like King Edwards, in restricted space as they can be bought quite cheaply, stick to salad or new ones, like Charlotte

Chitting, just put them in egg boxes in a light position, window sill? and they will sprout, which is chitting. However it is not really necessary, the method was more for for serious show growers to achieve show spuds. You can just plant the spuds, farmers obviously do not chit 1,000,000 seed spuds to plant

If you want seed spuds, then Wilikinson's have them, as no doubt do many garden centres, & maybe B & Q, but not checked them

Megansmum

Never used the expensive tubs, i used flexi tubs last year for carrots (yes add holes in the bottom, i burnt them rather than drilling (worried about plastic splitting).

I got last years spuds from wilkos and they were okay so i have got them again this year from there.

You can get free tyres from any garage, you can start them off in one then as the folliage grows add another tyre on top!

Last year i used rubble sacks for mine (fancy name for strong binliners me thinks!!), again from wilkos.

I'm not gonna chit them this year, just to see if the yield i get is any different to last years (which i did chit).

Good luck

blushingbride_3

great thanks, so did the flexi tubs work well? was it easy to burn the holes?

oldsam

I bought large Black durable tubs 30lts , Normally these are used in tree nurseries, They are about knee high and have large drain holes,You can go on-line to LBS Garden warehouse they have a retail and wholesale set-up, I use these tubs for veg growing of salads , potatoes, carrots in the greenhouse, but can be moved later to make space in the greenhouse. Some people use black bags , The showmen use this method to produce spuds,.

Megansmum

blushingbride wrote: »

great thanks, so did the flexi tubs work well? was it easy to burn the holes?

Flexi tubs are great for growing potatoes, carrots, sweetcorn, whatever you want really as they are deep too!

I got plenty of carrots last year, they were small but that was because i couldn't bear to thin them!:o
I smoke , so i used a lit cigarette to burn lots of small holes, but one mse advised in another thread to heat up a knife and use that to burn holes.

You will put broken bricks or polystyrene or large stones, small rocks etc in the bottom before you add the compost so that should sort the drainage out.

I went to asda today and got 3 more of the tubs - they are so pretty, here are some with potatoes in:

katskorner

Good varieties are kestrel and rooster (both second earlies - plant good friday, harvest July) - kestrel have good slug resistance an rooster yield really well and are really versatile. I grow them in an allotment but if I didn't have that option I would use tubs - those trug buckets are good cause they are flexible and easy to move around. Just remember to put holes in them for drainage!

TravellingAbuela

Last year I grew potatoes successfully in Poundland collapsible garden waste containers (as recommended on here, so thanks again to OP!)