How to Grow a Dustbin of Potatoes
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Even if you don't have a garden it is possible to grow a dustbin full of potatoes in a very small yard or garden. Not only will you get a really good crop, but you can harvest them bit by bit as you need them so they are always completely fresh.
All you need is an old plastic dustbin (or similar sized container, sack etc).
Gravel or broken clay plant pots.
5 x seed potatoes, (only buy from your local garden centre).
A good sized bag of multipurpose compost, (enough to ultimately fill the bin to the top.
Method
Firstly drill about six decent sized drainage holes in the bottom of your dustbin or container.
Cover the holes with either 15 cm of gravel, or chunks of clay pot to avoid them later becoming blocked with compost.
Add a further 15 cm of the compost to the bottom of the dustbin.
Arrange your potatoes on top of the compost with the shoots pointing upwards.
Just cover the potatoes with further compost.
After a few days when the potatoes start to produce green leaves above the compost, cover them over again with further compost, (don't worry, the leaves will reappear within about 24 hours).
Continue this process until the compost and the leaves reach the top of the dustbin, then allow the leaves to grow on as normal.
Keep the bin watered, but not waterlogged (otherwise you will get potatoes that are black in the middle).
Depending on the variety of potato (check on the instructions or the Internet), you can begin to harvest them either when they are in flower, or when the top growth begins to die off.
Harvest them as and when you need them, so they are always fresh on your plate. By using the above method you will get far more potatoes than if you simply filled the bin up with compost and planted the potatoes in it at the very start.
This method can also be used on a smaller scale in a bucket with holes drilled in the bottom. If you have a greenhouse you can even grow potatoes in time for harvesting on Christmas Day.
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Comments
Hey Spryte, you probably could do it in Arizona if you kept them out of too much of the sun and made sure they stayed watered. Love the idea of growing 'baked potatoes', a bit like fishing for smoked salmon :)
Wonder if we'd have to involve an exorcist for deviled eggs...
*looks at misty*
You know....we could have some fun with this idea.
Misty:):):)0:)
Since you moved into your Castle...your production has gone up...you sould start selling share`s
Great hub!!!! MR Potatoe Head :0)
How wonderfully creative! I must do this.
Spryte, what a thought, an exorcist for devilled eggs, what an inspiring idea. Yes we could have some fun with this. Does this mean 'poached' eggs are stolen from someone else's chickens then????
Hi Mike, thanks for this comment, doubt my shares would be worth much right now though :)
Hi Patty, do try it. I did it this year using a bin, an old plastic water tank and a large trug type bucket. We are still eating the potatoes now :)
Spryte and Misty, the two of you writing a hub together could be dangerous, But I'm up for some danger and would probably be your first reader. You guys crack me up, oh and by the way I did get it.
What an idea, and is it possible to do??? Thanks gwendymom.
*ears perk up*
Hmmm.....I suppose if the topic were right....we could.
But if two is good...wouldn't three be better? Perhaps the three of us could do something....
Let me do some thinking...
I like the poached eggs. :) If you ask a cheese sandwich lots of questions does it become a grilled cheese sandwich?
Misty, I don't know if it is possible. and Spryte, I believe it does.
I'm not sure I could do this. Everything I plant, dies. Last year, I tried to grow ice cubes, but they never took. I didn't have iced tea, all summer.
OMG Spryte, where will the puns end! I am struggling to top the cheese sandwich one.
BT, Hmmmm, ice cubes eh, why am I not surprised they didn't grow, perhaps if you planted the tea with the ice cubes the cubes would have watered the tea plants and you would have got iced tea :)
I guess that means my popsicle plant is doomed, too. Do I at least have hope for my shoe tree?
B.T. roflmao, that reminds me of a story about a lady that took her empty ice bag back to the store that she bought ice from the day before. She wanted to know if she could get her money back as she left the bag of ice in her car and for some reason it disappeared, she brought the bag as evidence that she had not opened the bag and used the ice. The owner of the store just gave her money instead of trying to explain what happened to the ice, she probably would not have understood anyway.
LOL Cindy, aren't you supposed to sleep now? :)
spryte I like the baked potatoes idea, but that's a lot of dry eyes!! ok poor joke, still it is a lot of baked taters....you need company, I'll bring the butter and sour cream
great hub misty, =)) My husband - the farmer in blue jeans - agrees with your hub, he says he's done it and it's a great method!
gwendymom, I'm dying here over the mystery of the ice, wise clerk, better to refund then get into that argument. MAN!!
Why? What do you suppose happened to the ice? I live in Hell, MI, so I don't really know about ice.
That had to be one of the funniest stories I had heard in a long time, the funny thing was that she was very serious about it. My sister was the cashier and had to tell me about it right away. It still makes me laugh ebery time I see the poor girl.
Okies...I'm still thinking...but I'm thinking a collaborative effort on what constitutes the perfect man. We break it up into three parts...somehow. We create a writer that's a combination of the three of us (we'll have to share the password) and then each of us can post our part before we publish it.
What kind of name...hmmm...Misty...Gwendy...spryte...sprendisty...gwistyte...MGS...GMS...some kinda name blob.
Any other ideas for a topic?
I like sprendisty, how about serendipity as it is kind of close to the sprendisty, and cute too.
Hmm...already a serendipity...whopping hubscore of 14.
We could go with The Three Amigas?
How about the Hawt Tamales? Seems appropriate.
Time for me to go to bed at last (it is 03.54 here in Guernsey and Hubby snoring like mad in the bedroom downstairs). Will check in again tomorrow.
BT, no sadly the shoe tree is never going to work, you will have to try something else.
gwendymom, love the ice story, my God, some people need to be taken away by the men in white coats as their foolishness is a danger to society.
Misha, yes off to bed now, too late for me as it is and I know I won't wake up until at least 1.30pm now.
Thanks marisue, glad your hubby agrees. This method works really well and is very satisfying,
BT (again), I guess the ice couldn't cope with the rampant heat your Jackalope personailty gives off.
gwendymom (also again), so loved that story, yet worrying about how truly stupid some people are!!!
sprendisty is good.
N'nite Misty!
Hawt Tamales huh? I guess we'll wait til Misty is conscious again. :) I'll go with whatever the two of you like.
sounds good. Night Misty! Sweet dreams.
I like sprendisty too, but not sure how we each put our input into the hub easily. I guess we will all need the same password and username, plus regular communication as we each add our writing. Then we have to agree when to publish it, but it is possible! All we need after the user-name and password is a good topic we all agree on :)
Yeppers...now go to bed and sleep on it!! :P Git...go on...shoo!!
What about 'The Witches of Eastwick'?
Night Night, yaaaawwwwnnnn !
Wonderful hub! You are absoultely right. Have been through a Master Gardeners Program, anyone can grow potatoes easily by this method, even apartment dwellers.
Hi, I agree, this is a great way to grow potatoes, enjoyed your hub.
Thanks for commenting crazylife, glad you enjoyed the hub :)
Hey Misty, sorry I didn't get back here yesterday to get our colobaration worked out. Crazy day yesterday. Did you and Spryte get anything done with that?
Hi gwendymom, not yet as I went to bed soon after our last collaboration, and no-one really seemed to be around when I went online last night. Perhaps we will all catch up later on if Spryte is around :)
yea, Hubpages was running really slow yesterday and my daughter came home from college and my husband is leaving today, so I wanted to spend some time with them. Looks like they got things up and running here though so we will probably see Spryte later. Any more name ideeas?
Not really, but I shall put my thinking cap on this afternoon and see if anything else springs to mind. Perhaps 'Charlie's Angels' or 'The Charmed Ones', just to throw a couple more ideas up in the air :)
Thanks Misty, I was looking forward to this hub. I love to grow potatoes. I have bookmarked it, will try it soon. Cheers :)
Thanks cgull8m, trust me, this works really well and the potatoes taste great :)
I put some tomatoe steaks in the ground once, got the Barby ready, cut the onions up but it was all a bit of a waste of time in the end because the steaks never arrived.
Next I wrapped some corn in spiders web. Corn on the cobb(web) wasn't as nice as I thought it would be.
Then of course was the can of plum pudding where the instructions said to stand in boiling water for fitheen minutes. That just hurt.
Bloody hell, I have missed you guys.
Great comment Brain, really made me laugh. So glad you have finally re-emerged, we were worried about you. Have you visited Shades hub yet as they were asking about you last night so I am sure they would love to hear you are okay? You can find his hub at : http://hubpages.com/hub/Plant-Racism-Hatred-in-the
Will check in later to see if you have posted.
Really good to have you back :)
yeah, Brainstormer is back!!!!!
This is a great idea. We grew potatoes in the garden for the first time this year and the crop was good but took up loads of space. Might try this next year.
Hope you do wampyrii, it is very successful. Thanks for commenting :)
spryte says:
14 months ago
My father grew a lot of potatoes in his garden...so I always believed it was something that needed a lot of space. Thanks for this great idea! I wonder if it would work in AZ or if it is too hot and I'd be growing baked potatoes. *slaps my knee...git it? git it?...damn I kill myself sometimes*