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Vegetable Gardening

Is a 4' x 8' potato bin feasible?

14 years ago

I've got a 4'x8' area allocated to potatoes, where I plan to plant ~20 Russian banana tubers. That's all the area I have available, and I'm willing to put in a lot of effort to maximize yield. I've been reading about potato bins, and wonder if anybody's tried one this large. I have about 4 cubic yds of compost available along with all the eelgrass I'd need. My plan is to gradually screw 2x6's along the sides of the plot, and fill between the plants with compost, eelgrass and peat just as one would for a 30"x30" potato bin.

On the surface it makes sense, but I wonder if anyone's tried binning on this scale, and would greatly appreciate any practical insight.

Ideally, what type of soil should I use to fill the potato bin?

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Comments (3)

jimster
14 years ago
From one Cape Codder to another: I can't say about bins because I haven't done it. That is a reasonable sized area though. I think you will get a very satisfactory crop of taters in a 4'x8' areas. If your Cape Cod soil is like mine, basically amended beach sand, you are on the right track using a lot of additional amendments. Potatoes don't do well in droughty soil. They like steady moisture.

Good luck. Potatoes are fun to grow.

Jim
deep___roots
14 years ago
I used a 6 x 6 raised bed last season that had sides about 18 inches high. Planted in trenches and filled in the trenches as the plants grew. Your incremental building-up sounds easier and I guess you could make the sides as high as you want to to maximize the yield.
That same bed is filled with onions now. And 2 potato plants that returned (oops, missed some on the harvest!).
I am employing other smaller raised beds and various other containers this season for my potatoes.
Your soil sounds good. All I would say is that I had my cousin's 7 year old daughter do my harvest last year and the soil was so nice and loose and fluffy she just stuck her hands in there and was able to find the potatoes that way. Compost, peat moss, good potting soil, sandy top soil...all that stuff sounds good.
If you have any burrowing animals in Cape Cod (gophers, moles, voles) putting some kind of a wire screen under your bed to keep them out is a good idea.
I'm growing russian bananas too! Love roasted fingerlings.
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josko021
Original Author
14 years ago
Jim,
I'm in Woods Hole, and he soil's a bit better than on most of the Cape. My big problem is shade from all the nearby trees I don't dare take down.
Anyway, I'll give it a shot, and see what happens. I plan to use as much eelgrass as seems reasonable, just because it's there for the taking. Kind of thinking of mixing it with compost as I fill the bin.

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