Looking for some advice on growing some purple potatoes this summer. I have a small garden area we haven’t planted anything in, in about 5 years, also some really big flower pots. Leaning to using the flower pots. But anyway I’m looking to grow alot of purple potatoes, I mean like 6 months worth. How would you go about this? Not really sure how potatoes grow, how many at a time. TIA

I would normally just buy them, but they are nowhere to be found around me, been looking for over a year now. Sure every now and then I’ll get a few in a bag with some small whites and reds, but never enough.

If the ground has a lot of clay (like where I live), I think pots or building a raised bed would be the best route to go. How big are the pots? And how many pots do you have?

We never grew potatoes, but I think you need a pretty good sized plot. Seed potato every 12", eyes upward; rows are 3 ft apart. A 4x4 raised bed will hold 8 potato plants with a yield of 2 lbs per planting. Less yield in pots.

https://greenupside.com/how-much-depth-and-space-do-potatoes-need-to-grow/

2 really big ones, and about 5 smaller ones, all have dirt and ready to go

I remember a time seeing the plow pull up a row of dirt with potatoes, and how it was instinct that kicked in to get those potatoes.

A seed has to die before it can sprout.
The Bible says a man has to die for his lifes' commitment to be fully carried out.

This style of growing caught my eye a couple years ago. I built two boxes, my son saw them while visiting when I wasn't home. He asked my wife if we were actually going to use them, or if he could have them for his farm. I came back to no potato boxes, and was just a little pissed. And busting pallets is not much fun, so I never even tried to start again. And that's the end of my potato story. There are several videos on these and bag or bucket growing on YouTube.

I would find an Amish farmer, somewhere in Ohio, and convince him to grow at least 4 acres of potatoes on his farm, for his use and you to purchase, with the intent to split 1/2 of the potatoes with you and him to keep 1/2 of them for his horses or whatever they are used for.
And if you think he would grow all of the potatoes just to sell to you, I don't think you could find one. I may be way off on the space total, maybe it's closer to at least 0.4 acres.

There are easy to assemble garden boxes at Home Depot in all kinds of sizes and prices.

Link

My technique is a little more involved.
1)Send Matt Damon to Mars
2)Strand him there alone
3)Leave him minimal food stores. More importantly leave him many bags of feces and cuttings of your desired potatoes.
5)Wait… roughly 549 Martian days.
6)Rescue him
7)Collect your potatoes
8)Return to earth
9)Enjoy!

I'd check with your local OSU extension office:
https://franklin.osu.edu

They should be able to point you in the right direction with some local insight.

I am buying one of these to plant veggies in.

https://www.amazon.com/Outsunny-Planter-Capacity-Non-Woven-Breathability/dp/B09KR5HLLF

I have 2 other above ground planters, and they work well. This one will be the biggest, by far.

16lbs of potatoes per 4x4 plot doesn't sound like much. How many would be needed for a 6mo supply? Storage seems like it would be an issue also.

It would take more yard than I have, but I don't eat that many taters. An occasional baked potato with a steak, and some B-sized redskins or yukon golds for soups or stews. I like the reds and golds because they don't need peeling. Potato peelers are evil utensils, and I have the scars to prove it.

sounds like a plan-
Frenchy should get right ondat.

I've actually been looking into this recently for myself as I'm looking to grow red and sweet potatoes, and from everything I've read, do not bother with potato "towers". The vertical methods you see in videos don't really work because potatoes won't produce tubers more than a certain height above the seed potato. They'll keep growing green leafy stuff as high as you want to keep mounding dirt, but there won't be any/many tubers in there when you knock it all down. In the reading I've done, it actually wasn't uncommon for people to end up yielding FEWER potatoes than they seeded with.

I would look at the classic methods, or perhaps the container methods. In fact, there are some fancy 10-gallon containers with flap doors that let you reach into it on the side and apparently harvest a few here and there while they're growing..... I'm not sure how well that would work, but it is an interesting idea.

Unless you're eating these every single day, you would need what.... maybe one or two containers per month you want a supply for? That's pretty easy to find space for, I'd think.

Thanks everyone, I airfry two small potatos every night for lunch at work the next day, better than potato chips. I’m going to go with two large pots and about five smaller ones. See how that goes and plan accordingly for next year.

I think this is the unwritten secret to successful gardening. Start with something manageable, and see how it goes and how - or even if - you need to scale it for the following year.


That said, merely three days ago, I just tilled under an area that is 45' x 70' for my new veggie garden

I just planted an herb garden in pots on my porch and deck. It will inspire me to cook some new recipes.

Grown my potatoes for years here, and at home before for my family growing up. We planted in a trough in the soil, usually using the whole seed potato. Covered it until it came up. Side dressed it; pulled soil up over the plants as they grew, usually two, preferably three times. They grow in these hills. Start taking them about three weeks after blooms die. They can "keep" well underground. This process can be duplicated using tires. Stack a tire and add dirt as it grows up for about three tires. Reverse to harvest. Keep them out of direct sun when harvested.
I have grown multiple types. Had very little luck with blues. I really favored Yukon Golds, then Pontiac Reds, and really liked Kennebecs for years. Watch out for flea beetles and also blight. Leave room between rows to create tilled dirt to pull up over the plants to make their hills. This older method is why they had potato forks for years to pull through the hills instead of digging them; that is a lot of dirt to move.
Adding sand can help. My soil here has clay and really gets packed in. I did not manage huge potatoes. But they were solid, kept not quite a year, and stored well. Keep some notes about what you plant, when, weather issues for next year. Working in increments, like ten pounds of seed at a time can be a handy gauge. I wish you luck. But it is always something new and puzzling.
Wife and I really liked eating what we raised in the garden. We were almost organic.

Wow Bard. That was a really cool post.

Me too. basil, rosemary and thyme. I may go get some tarragon tomorrow.

As for potato's, they all taste pretty much the same to me. What's up with purple over a yukon or redskin?

I get the satisfaction one might get, but as cheap as they are, by the time you buy and build the beds, you could buy 50lbs or more of the things.

Good idea, putting herbs in pots because it keeps them confined. Some of them go rampant and take over an entire bed if you let them. Spearmint, for one, is very aggressive, and chives is another. My wife planted some chives about 6-7 years ago and I have them popping up everywhere now.

The purple potatoes are supposed to be the healthiest potato for you, trying to eat a little healthier, and you almost never see them for sale at Kroger's, Giant Eagle, or Meijer. And when they do have them it's only like a 1lb bag.

I was actually going to plant some on the edge of my woods and just let them grow wild. I would rather have herbs than weeds.

The wife just spent about $60 on plants, and more on soil and pots to set me up a fresh nice spice planter garden. Cold took them out the second night. Now I have approximately a half pound of shriveled dead flavorless leaves, dirt, and pots. I could have bought fresh herbs for half the year for what was spent. We are done attempting that.

My son, on the other had, can toss a few seeds into some composted soil, and nothing ever kills the plant. Even his annuals tend to regrow every year.

Remember to make sure they aren't poisonous for your pups.

Thats a great point. I hadnt event thought of that.

Its too cold in Ohio right now. Try again in a month. Your post prompted me to bring mine inside tonight. Its in the 50s here.

I brought my pots in....they would probably be good, going down to maybe 38 tonight, but it isn't hard to move them 5 feet to a indoor location.

What do you guys do when it snows in mid April?

I planted my whole garden in early March. I also can grow stuff outside basically the whole year. I have worry about heat more than anything.

I stare at the snow and keep waiting.
The rule of thumb around here, other than cold crops, is you're not putting anything in the ground until May. My dad always says May 15th, but *usually* the first week of May is ok.

I'm in S. Carolina and heat is a huge issue. I keep our outdoor flowers and plants alive even in the winter. There are times when it will frost, but I simply cover them. Our house faces the south and that means both the front and back yards receive sun all day long from April into November. The North side gets some shade in the winter months. The heat here is intense. You can't use plastic pots at all. They overheat and your plants go to hell. Ceramic pots are the best, but clay will do w/some varieties. We have tons of flowers and several raised planters for edible plants. It sucks that they have to be watered in the early morning every single day of summer and we don't get a ton of rainfall in the summer. The winter is another story.

I do like the change of seasons, but man, the Ohio winters were so long. I don't miss that at all! I remember my kids playing high school baseball [son] and fast pitch softball [daughter] and enduring a wintry mix in May. No thanks.

You learn by growing season. Just look up the freeze free data for where you live. Here, the last freeze is the first week of April, so I don't plant until the 2nd week of April.

I could probably plant in mid March as in most years we won't get a freeze, but I just wait another few weeks. If we get that once in 125 year freeze in mid April, oh well.

Here in northern OH we are in Zone 5, and the first frost free date was traditionally May 10. The maps are all over the place now.....anywhere from April 10 to May 15. It's 4/20 and we had frost on the ground this morning here in NW Ohio.

Well, it IS 4/20... are you sure that was frost and not trichomes??

Up there I'd stick to the May timeframe. I might push it a bit if I wasn't planting a lot and didn't have much money tied up in the project. There is a difference between losing 3-4 pots worth of plants and beds worth of plants. With pots you can usually move them or easily cover them up for a night or two.