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How to Grow Potatoes in Containers

Potatoes don’t need to be grown in the vegetable garden. If you are short of garden space, they can easily be grown in large containers or potato bags.

Whatever you choose, it needs to be able to hold a generous amount of compost to allow the potato tubers to develop and good drainage is essential.

The Grow-It Potato Bag is specifically designed for growing and harvesting potatoes from your garden or patio area. The simple and effective design means you can easily harvest potatoes from the front flap, which consequently means there is no digging out required.. This will generate a substantial crop of potatoes. It’s ideal if you are new to vegetable growing and want to have a go and is also great for kids. Buy them one each and challenge them to grow the heaviest crop!

Growing potatoes in containers or bags is perfect if you only have a small garden, terrace or even a balcony. You can grow your own crop of delicious potatoes with even the smallest of spaces.

 

potato planter bag in use

 

Step 1

Place a generous layer of Westland Bio-Life Planting Soil for Vegetables into the bottom of the potato bag or container.

Position 3 chitted seed potatoes on top of the compost and cover over with 10-15cm (4-6 inches) of compost.

Add some Growmore Fertiliser as a base dressing to give the plants a boost when growing.

Step 2

Water the tubers and keep the compost moist but not saturated.

The plants will start to root and shoot and leaves will push through the compost layer.

When this happens, cover over the shoots with a new layer of 10cm (4 inches) of fresh Westland Bio-Life Planting Soil for Vegetables.

Repeat this process until the potato bag or container is almost full.

When the leaves are 20cm above the bag, start feeding, add another dose of Growmore Fertiliser.

Another feed can be added a couple of weeks later to make sure your potatoes have adequate nutrients available.

Step 3

When the flowers on the potato plant start to drop it is usually a sign that your potatoes are about ready for harvesting. The longer you leave your potatoes, the larger they will be and the bigger the yield.  A good guide is 12 weeks for salads and 22 weeks for maincrops – but this will vary depending on the season.

Carefully remove the potato plant and wash the potatoes ready for use.

Store potatoes in a cool, dark, frost-free place.

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