"potato bins" do not work...save yourself a lot of heartache and plant your potatoes in the ground or in grow bags.

Signed,
Bin There

I haven't tried a bin myself yet, but I have put some research into doing so and ran into a similar lack of definitive info on which varieties to use. If and when I do it, I'll probably just select a few varieties that Irish Eyes Garden Seeds has listed in their Cage Collection for growing in bins, figuring that will give me the best shot.

Anyway, All Blue is in the Cage Collection, so I think you have a fighting chance! Maybe contact them and ask about the Nicola?

Hope this helps,

~emmers

Here is a link that might be useful: cage collection

TO lonmower :

Why?

Ok...so I can't just ask why can I? What happened when you tried a bin? WHat type of potato did you use? Etc...thanks.

TO emmers_m :

Thanks for the link, I will run with the All Blue in the bin and see what happens. I pulled up the grass today for a 3x7 in ground plot as well. I am going to run two rows, one of each variety.

I tried the potato bin three growing seasons. I did a lot of (online) research. There has been much written about this subject on this forum and elsewhere. Here are my conclusions.

It has no chance of it working unless you use a late variety

There is a lot of discussion of what fill material to use...and really no definitive answer.

Regulating watering cycles is very difficult...depending on your fill material, it is hard to keep the moisture level balanced in the entire bin. The bin will dry out quickly because it is above the ground.

My experience was that the tubers only grew in the bottom of the bin and the yield was less than the same variety grown in the ground and hilled.

Do some research, I think you will be hard pressed to find reliable sources that can document success. We all wanted this to be REAL, but my experience is that it IS NOT!

Its funny you say " do some research" and "we all wanted this to be real" because I have read every article online I can find and it seems that no one really knows anything about this growing method!

There seems to very little success and mostly talk of "what to do" or "what to try".

I guess I got caught up in it to.

I will probably just hill the plants in the base for the bin. I didn't buy a bin, just pre-cut some crap lumber to build it up with so its no loss if I don't go for it.

I'm on the fence, may try it still but thinking about the above ground growing medium makes me think twice to. If its soil, thats alot of soil, if its straw, thats alot of work keeping it moist. You are making it easier to scratch one more "experiment" off my list.

Thanks.

The idea that you can grow hundreds of pounds of potatoes in a small compact box and at any juncture take a board off and reach in and get fresh spuds for dinner is as alluring to gardeners as the sirens on the rocks are to desperate sailors.

Happy Gardening

Agreed...I dug 4 trenches today...2 more sometime this week.

If its to good to be true...it probably is.

Although I will say this, if I ever hear, see, read any confirmation of success with a particular type of tater in a bin, I will try it, but at this point, I have what I have to work with.

Thanks again.

Yeah, I don't think it has any "real" value either, It isn't worth the extra trouble, they will grow on the vines, but unless you have a very long season (year round ;-)
you can't get the little ones (the babies that grow on the stem) to fully mature, plus, access to the bottom tubers need to be incorporated into the design of the bin, so they don't have to languish ,while you are letting the "stem" potatoes get large enough to have value. as you see by my video (link below), they will and do grow on the stem, but they would take so long to mature.... As I said, unless you have perfect conditions ie... 80 degree soil (max), very long season (year round) and access to harvest the mature spuds ,while letting the others grow, I don't see it working,... eh.... what do I know ;-)

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Here is a link that might be useful: Potatoes growing up the stem (away from the seed)

I'm drawn the the idea as well but want to find out if it really will work. So I decided to do an experiment this year.

I'm growing my potatoes in two pyramids. The bottom tier will just be my regular bed height with the potatoes hilled. The next tier will be a short tower (around 2 ft high), and the third tier will be a taller tower (3-4 feet). I'll plant all the seed potatoes at the same time and tower them as they grow. Since they'll all be in the same bed, same sun, same watering it'll be interesting to see which plants produce the most.

I'm growing the German Butterball which I've seen recommended as a good tower potato. The other variety will be NorDonna. It's labeled as a medium-late variety. I haven't seen anyone who has grown this in a tower but it was one of only a few red skin varieties that were available to me locally.

I'll be keeping track of my planting and harvesting on my blog and will keep you posted as to the result at the end of the season.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog

Good Luck.

I'm trying again this year. Last year I mulched with fresh grass clippings that rotted in the rain. The vines rotted too. Clearly, bins require a late potato, prompt hilling, and leaving the potatoes to mature. It's the usual trade-off of management for space.

So what should I expect from this bin. It's my first time and I did some research, but still don't know the best way. Why wouldn't I get results