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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

Can i grow spuds in a plastic bin ???????

27 replies

mooshy · 06/02/2007 22:19

Have small garden which is completely taken up now every summer with fruit and veg.Have no room def. for potatoes but am sure i have read somewhere that i can have a go in a large bin or some tyres ?
I have a spare black lidded bin.
IF i can please can someone tell me how-if you do please explain as if you were telling a 4 year old as VERY amateur

OP posts:
Whizzz · 06/02/2007 22:30

I'm not a gardener but I wouldn't have thought youd get many spuds - you'd only have room for 1 or 2 plants I would have thought ?

catsmother · 06/02/2007 22:31

Copied from today's issue of Amateur Gardening no less:

*Drill 2cm diameter drainage holes in bottom, 4inches apart
*Cover bottom with crocks
*Add 6 inches of 50:50 mixture of soil & well rotted compost or manure
*Plant 10 seed tubers in this 4inches deep
*When their stems are 6inches high, add another 4inches of compost around them, and so on, and so on, until you reach the top of the bin.

To quote "with luck you'll find that many tuber bearing stems will have formed and a wealth of tubers will be yours to unearth".

Whizzz · 06/02/2007 22:32

I stand corrected & bow to Amateur GArdener

VeniVidiVickiQV · 06/02/2007 22:36

I grew some in some large pop-up garden waste bins. Had to make some drainage holes. We did three bins.

One bin produced absolutely nothing.
One bin produced very small, not very plentiful potatoes.
One bin produced a huge bumper crop of potatoes.

I will be doing it again, but, with different potatoes this time.

Frizbe · 06/02/2007 22:37

which spuds are best vvv?

brimfull · 06/02/2007 22:53

my fil does this every yr,very successfully

VeniVidiVickiQV · 06/02/2007 23:14

Well, i grew Pink Fir Apple (a salad variety). I found them tough to scrub clean and taste not so great.

Grow something that you would buy normally in the shop - jersey royals are lovely.

Or king edwards.

allmytimeonmumsnet · 07/02/2007 12:47

Presumably a compost bin would also be great as there would be no need to drill holes. Although I suppose the slugs etc can get in more easily.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 07/02/2007 18:44

I wouldnt use a compost bin, personally. They are too narrow at the top - usually.

Its quite common to grow courgettes or pumpkins on top of a compost heap though.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 07/02/2007 18:44

I wouldnt use a compost bin, personally. They are too narrow at the top - usually.

Its quite common to grow courgettes or pumpkins on top of a compost heap though.

Original poster
mooshy · 10/02/2007 19:55

Thanks everyone.
Will give it a go this year i think.
My friend said her father bought a proper sort of collapsable bin for growing spuds in.
Any clues where from ect ?

OP posts:
Babyramone · 13/02/2007 23:53

I did this last year. Was brill, didn't get many tatties as had only 4 plants but the satisfaction was great. I did it to show my wee boy you get food from other places than the supermarket. Will be doing again.
Grew two kinds one worked better but can't remember which will find out and let you know.
Go for it.

colditz · 13/02/2007 23:56

I I wondered this! I want to grow potatoes for the first time ever, but my garden is so small and so soggy....

So, where do I get a collapsable thing from?

VeniVidiVickiQV · 14/02/2007 00:01

B & Q or Wyvale Garden Centres

JanH · 14/02/2007 01:00

Defo worth trying, with the kind of new spuds that cost a fortune in the shops - if Jersey Royals is a variety (???) grow those! (They are about £4 per kilo when they first appear!)

Original poster
mooshy · 14/02/2007 08:52

Colditz,
Just bought this weeks AG and you can buy 3 collapsable spud sacks with some spuds for just over £11.00 .

OP posts:
Fillyjonk · 14/02/2007 08:57

when can they be planted please?

have lots of spouty spuds, thanks to riverford

am in south wales

colditz · 14/02/2007 20:07

It says March on my bag of seed potatoes.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 14/02/2007 20:08

Depends what type of spud they are. Early, first early, second early, maincrop etc.

Fillyjonk · 14/02/2007 20:13

um

riverford

oh forgot there were different sorts

might as well bung them in the ground really, they're not going to get eaten here

colditz · 14/02/2007 20:24

Plant them when you don't thing there will be any more fronst. Give it a couple of weeks.

martini · 16/02/2007 02:23

Collapsable spud bins available from Thompson & Morgan seeds (they have website which is googleable). They are kind of roll up ones. Have also seen black potato "sacks" somewhere - either T&M or Suttons.

From SUttons you can get by little bags of seed pots especially for putting in tubs (5 per tub). They mainly seem to be earlies - Charlotte, Maris Peer, Red DUke of York.

Basically you shove 'em in, cover with a bit of compost, keep topping up with compost as shoots grow. Then in June you tip them all out again.

Original poster
mooshy · 18/02/2007 18:49

2.23 am !
martini you need some warm milk !

OP posts:
Original poster
mooshy · 20/02/2007 20:42

Ready to order my bags and pots but have to choose between maris piper waxy salad pot or potatoe swift ?
Any ideas which ones i should order x

OP posts:
assumpta · 08/03/2007 09:05

Do you leave the bin in the sunniest place possible? Presumably with lid off. Do slugs climb up and into the bin? If so what do you do then?