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Vegetable Gardening

Potatoes in a 55 gallon drum

11 years ago

I do a lot of container gardening, but have never grown potatoes. I obtained several blue 55 gallon drums last year, which I used for rain barrels. I've since converted to the 275 gallon IBC totes. I'm thinking of cutting the 55 gallon drums down to use for growing potatoes. I plan to partially bury the drum segments in the ground to allow the roots to grow out of the container through the drain holes. Does this sound like a "doable" project.

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Comments (6)

jonfrum
11 years ago
If you cut those in half, 25 gallons is more than enough without needing the roots to grow into the ground, although it won't hurt if they do. I'm cutting up some 35 gallon barrels myself this year, and that's plenty of volume for just about anything you want to grow.
Bob_Mc
Original Author
11 years ago
On mine there are a couple of raised rings that go around the circumference of the barrel and sort of divide it into thirds. I was thinking of using those as cutting guides. That would give me around 18 gallon capacity. Not that 18 gallon container would be much easier to tip over than a 25 gallon container, but it would be a bit lighter. I could also add a couple of handles on them using the middle section.
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Hi Vittorious, Anything we can do to reduce fossil fuel usage is ok in my book. If the space isn`t being used and the barrel are free.. then you may as well put it to good use. Here are some of the limitations so you don`t expect too much from them :) The effectiveness will depend on how much of the barrel surface area gets direct sun. If the six barrels are in a straight line you`ll have around 56ft2 to work with. The heat transfer from the barrels to the greenhouse is governed by their surface area and temperature difference. So assuming you have 113ft2 barrel surface (excl the tops and bottoms),water at 70F (magically no losses)and a greenhouse at 50F. Your barrels lose 2260btu/hr(662w)and the water temp in the barrels will drop by 0.82F to 69.18F 662w to make a dent in an hours worth of greenhouse losses :) You now have slightly cooler water so the following hours transfer will be less than 662w. Thats the simplified version, in practice you`d have radiant loss and losses to the ground to consider. Plus the water in the barrels wouldn`t all be at a uniform temperature and winter daytime air temp will rob more heat than is stored. Another variable is the thin boundary air layer on the barrel surface. It will be warmer(relatively)than the greenhouse air due to the flow of heat so theres less temperature differential driving the heat transfer from the barrel surface to the air :) If it doesn`t cost anything, you`ve nothing to lose and may gain "something"
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balal036
11 years ago
you should look into growing them in burlap bags im doing that this year seems a very good choice since when growing potatoes you have to keep mounding it, and harvest would be very easy
jonfrum
11 years ago
Burlap rots quite fast.
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
11 years ago
I agree, just cut those suckers in half and you will get many potatoes. No need for roots to grow into the ground. Potatoes put out very few roots.....mostly potatoes. I've got a few 55 gal halfs lying around and I might do it also. I was saving them for my blueberry bushes, but they won't be needed for a year or two.
Ohiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
11 years ago
What about cutting them in half vertically (from top to bottom) instead of horizontally? I've tried the potato tower concept a couple times and found that most potatoes form in the first 6 inches above the seed potato. I concluded that wider is better than taller. You can actually fit more plants in the space with less crowding. More plants = more potatoes.

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