A potato bin, or grow bag fits on any hard surface or space that receives sufficient light e.g. a patio or balcony. Mine get an early start in the greenhouse. I'll bring them out before filling them up. They can produce a harvest to be proud of.

6" of compost & 1 handful of organic fertilizer mixed in. Potato shoots covered by ½ - 1" of compost. Then fill tub as potatoes grow. Potato Bag tried & tested in America 2-Tier Raised Beds - use for Potatoes & other Veg. Raised Beds & Stuff for Growing Potatoes * Top Soil, * Organic Potato Fertilizer more on this link...

The easiest method in the garden is to grow potatoes under paper or polythene sheet and by using raised beds. see below

POTATO BUCKETS
Containers work best on a small scale. Anyone with garden space to spare is better using that for big maincrop. However, even small 12inch containers will fill-up some gaps in your potato crop.

I first used this method with large tough black polythene bin liners. The idea was to roll up the sides gradually as the bag is filled.

I don't advise making potato containers from car tyres as the inside shape requires additional filling and they may add toxic compounds to the potato soil.

My first specialised potato bin folded out from flat pack for storage to make a container with slide up side doors for picking potatoes. This was followed by hard plastic potato tubs like these 3 Giant Potato Tubs U.K. an ideal and successful design - they can be stacked when empty.

American Gardeners check links in sidebar >>>

Then handy wrap-around potato containers (U.K.) where made to aid access to the crop. Now tough garden polythene potato planters are available for potatoes on the patio - Here you get 3 potato planters & 15 seed potatoes in 3 varieties - a nice deal U.K. on this link. Unlike bin liners these have convenient handles and are tough enough to be folded away for next year.

Potato bins and polythene are best used with early potatoes - although by no means restricted to 'Earlies'. 'Early' spuds take up less room, they usually miss the blight of summer and are less exposed to the general multiplication of pests. They can be harvested as and when needed so the smaller spuds then grow bigger.

POTATO COMPOST
HERE'S A READY-MADE plant Container Mix America to try with your potatoes. to try with grow bags and containers. I'm trying this recommended specialised Organic Potato Fertilizer - (U.K.) About 1 handful in the top 6" of compost; I will mix more into compost as I top up the potato bin. First in I water a little liquid seaweed over the seed potatoes.

Your can make your own compost by mixing well-rotted garden compost or manure, with loam. Add fertilizers such as: well-rotted seaweed - try Kelp Meal America - or/and fresh comfrey leaves later in season.

I recommend applying the fertilizer to the soil a few weeks before adding to the container - also include layers of untreated grass cuttings. It is important to have a moisture retentive growing medium. Humax is a proprietary Organic Potato Compost recommended by Medwyn Williams for grow bags and containers. Come April it appears to have sold out.

Potato Tubs are stackable & with alternative uses.

Below: Fold out from flat-pack Potato Bin with slide-up doors harvest as-and-when...

BETTER PEST CONTROL
A big advantage of potato bins is that the crop can be relatively isolated from pests. If your garden soil is contaminated with eel worm, or blight for example, you can use a proprietary organic potato compost in bins or by making potato grow bags instead.

SITING A POTATO BIN OR GROW BAG
Any yard or patio will do as long as it gets plenty of light. Try to avoid windy situations. Containers in a warm and light situation produce earlier potatoes.

Bear in mind that it may be necessary to stake up the plants for support. 4 stakes with perimeter string will do. Although large tubs and grow bags can be moved if necessary, they will be too heavy to lift off the ground once filled.

FILLING POTATO BINS

Potato tubers are formed underground on side stems. So if the plant can be coaxed to produce side stems throughout the soil depth there is potential for a big harvest. In practise this can't be relied upon. Even so it remains possible to obtain a bucket almost full of potatoes.

Be sure to keep filling the bin gradually leaving no more than 4" (12cm) green stems above ground. Also ensure the soil is moisture retentive and don't let it dry out. Don't add excess nitrogen fertilizer. Start growing as early as possible before the days get too long.

HARVESTING FROM BINS
One final advantage of the potato bin comes especially when using proprietary potato compost such as Humax with a late 'maincrop' - You can use the bin to store the potatoes. Simply cut down the foliage and cover the potato bin to keep it dry.

Note that potatoes can be harvested on a cut-and-cum basis by feeling beneath the soil surface for tubers that are ready. This method will encourage small tubers to grow to full size.

Alternatively the crop can be harvested together at the end of season and stored in the buckets. Find more pages on harvesting your potato bin and storing potatoes.

GROW MORE
Another plus – containers in a warm and light situation produce earlier potatoes. You may even have time to re-plant with a late crop – this is an ideal way to use them with 'earlies'. Put unplanted tubers in cold store, taking out in time to plant immediately after the first harvest.

If you want to grow more potatoes check out traditional ridge and furrow.

POTATOES UNDER SHEET
Potatoes will form underneath polythene sheet and are very easy to harvest. However, I think it is better to use a porous sheet such as Gardman Woven Weedstop. Use cut-and-cum harvesting. These next two methods with raised beds and round-top ridges are well-adapted to growing 'earlies'.

POTATOES ON RAISED BEDS UNDER SHEETING
A raised bed can be placed on soil or on a hard surface. Fill it with a suitable soil or compost and lay sheeting (see below).
You can get everything from raised beds & good top-soil, to potato fertilizer here - U.K. site

POTATOES ON RIDGES UNDER SHEET
This method is very easy. I recommend you make a low round-top ridge running north to south. Use moisture retentive organic potato fertilizer enriched soil. Loosen the soil below the ridge with a fork before laying it down.

Frequent advise is to lay sheet over the planted potatoes and cut cross slits where shoots push it up. I prefer to cover the surface with sheet first tucking sides well-down. Then I cut regular spaced crossed slits and plant through them. This works better with stiffer woven sheet.

Plant the seed potatoes in holes with shoots 3-4cm down. Then I can check the holes and guide the shoots through slits. For a weedy site you can always put a trowel full of soil over each hole.

The sheeting keeps fungal spores on blighted leaves from dripping down to infect the soil around the potatoes.

POTATOES ON WEEDS UNDER POLYTHENE
This method has been used by mainy gardeners to reclaim and break in new land. It is best used with a 'maincrop'.

First slash the weeds down to the ground. Then follow the outline given above without ridging, using polythene or weed control fabric to mulch the weeds out.

The potatoes grow under the fabric and are easily harvested.

GROWING POTATOES ON THE COMPOST HEAP OR COMPOST TRENCH
If your compost heap has cooled down and fully matured i.e. is not populated by woodlice, slugs, and millipedes; then you could plant seed potatoes straight into it. Equally a compost trench might be used given that it is not saturated. The slightly acid conditions favour potatoes.

Find Related web pages:
on sprouting chitting potatoes, traditional ridge and furrow (hilling), harvesting and storing, prepare the ground, potato fertilizers AND

more on organic fertilizer