If you live in a limited space where you can’t plant crops in the ground, you have to be imaginative.
Some iterations of practical alternatives could be planting in gunny sacks or using plastic buckets.
This article is going to illustrate how you can grow potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket and still get a decent harvest.
Why Grow Potatoes in a Bucket?
In addition to maximizing space, growing potatoes in a bucket has a number of additional advantages:
- To begin with, it’s easier to manage the plants than having them growing in an in-ground garden.
- Second, with the ability to select the soil composition for the bucket itself, there’s a lower possibility of bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases.
That being said, the bucket you use does affect the quality of your potatoes.
Using food-grade buckets is recommended since other materials may leach into the soil, which in turn may leach into your crops.
How Can You Find a Food-grade Bucket?
Bakeries and other food processing plants are the best free sources for food-grade buckets.
You can also buy them from a supermarket or hardware store.
If you go with recycled buckets, make sure they’re not labelled as having been used for paint or chemicals.
If you’re unsure about the food-grade status of your buckets, check the recycling number on the outer side of the bottom. It’s usable if it’s either 2, 4, or 5.
Some manufacturers will even print a cup and fork sign on the bucket.
So here are a few common signs that will tell you its food-grade plastic:
- HDPE 2
- LDPE 4
- PP 5
- NSF
- FDA
- USDA
PETE 1 is ok but doesn’t pass the edge of quality as the ones above.
Factors to Consider Before Growing Potatoes in Buckets
Besides the bucket itself, here are some factors you need to look out for if you intend to plant potatoes in a bucket.
Sunlight
Potatoes love the sun! Your plants should shoot for 7 to 10 hours of sunlight each day.
With them being tubers, they can take the sun’s heat.
When you look for spots for your buckets, make sure they are in the sun!
Watering and Drainage
Being a root crop, potatoes are also very prone to root rotting.
Therefore, you must drill holes at the bottom of the growing buckets.
These will make sure the water does not get saturated, but stays damp.
Twice per day is a recommended watering frequency; once in the morning, and once after sunset.
It’s also a good idea to place your buckets on stones so that they do not touch the ground directly.
From experience: not only will this improve drainage, but it will prevent insects in the ground from crawling up the soil and getting into your row crops!
Soil
When selecting soil, you’ll want something that is a good compromise between holding moisture and draining quickly.
More importantly, it shouldn’t be too compacted.
You can use generic potting soils, but make sure your pots have plenty of drainage holes.
If you would like to do it yourself, you can mix compost, garden soil, and peat moss in a 1:1:1 ratio.
Since you’ll be watering it twice a day, the nutrients are likely to wash away quicker compared to if you were growing these crops in a garden.
For this reason, it’s important to mix the soil with fertilizers before planting.
How to Grow Potatoes in 5-Gallon Buckets?
Follow the steps below when growing potatoes in 5-gallon buckets.
Purchase Seed Potatoes
The first step in growing this crop is to buy seed potatoes; this is not potatoes that you cook with.
Seed potatoes are stalk-free, healthy potatoes that are more likely to have shoots, this is good because those shoots are the ideal way to get a potato plant to grow.
After seed potatoes are purchased, the next process is called ‘chitting.’ Chitting allows the first signs of growth to emerge from the seed potato into shoots that will develop into stems and leaves.
To chit seed potatoes the process takes very little time. Set the potatoes in an egg tray and place the potato egg tray in a ‘cool’ place that receives direct sunlight (a windowsill works well). After two weeks the sprout will be about 1-inch tall.
Fun Fact: Chitting isn’t necessary, but you will be waiting longer for harvest after failing to chit your seed potatoes.
Planting the Potatoes
Growing potatoes in a bucket is nothing like planting other plants.
You will begin by:
- Filling the container with soil
- Introducing the seeds
- and adding more soil
Each layer gives the crops room to grow tubers!
Begin by pouring 4 to 5 inches of high quality soil or compost into each bucket.
Once you have a nice layer of soil, you can plant the seed potatoes (2 to 3 potatoes) down into the soil. make sure they are spaced apart evenly. Then you will add another 2 inches of soil above the seed potatoes (potatoes prefer even temperature).
After planting:
- You will want to water the bucket until the water starts to drain out of the vent holes.
- You also should ensure you set the bucket in a location that will get at least 8 hours of sun and remember to be on a flat surface such as a plank of wood or stones.
You should monitor the weather conditions and surrounding factors to determine how often you need to water your bucket planting.
Then in the dry months water them at least 2 times a day. If you are watering the plants, make sure you are removing the insects / bad stuff while watering them.
To check the moisture content of your soil you can also use a moisture meter.
What to Do When Potatoes Sprout?
Your potatoes should start to sprout a few weeks after planting.
Once you see the leaves coming out of the ground, avoid touching them.
Let the leaves come out of the soil naturally, as this helps them develop strength.
This process typically takes several days.
Hilling Your Potatoes
Sprouting usually commences about two weeks after planting.
Hill your potatoes when your plants are 6–8 inches tall.
Hilling is cutting more soil at the base of your plant coming out of the medium, as the name implies.
This is important because hilling covers the tubers as they form from the growth medium and prevents them becoming green and inedible.
Green potatoes are not edible and are unsafe because they contain chlorophyll and solanine, which can paralyze you if consumed.
You can hill your potatoes using soil, as well as
- coconut coir
- hay
- mulch
- or potting mix
Be careful to not compact the plants when hilling.
This is also a good time to replace the nutrients by applying fertilizers. Gently mix it into the topsoil as you did when planting.
As you check your buckets regularly, hill any potatoes all the time the tubes may start to come out of the soil.
Harvesting Your Potatoes
The optimal moment to begin harvesting your crop is when the plants start flowering.
But to get good yield, you are going to need to be a little more patient.
Check the dirt around the base of the potato plants. If you feel anything, simply pull the plant and you will see the new potatoes.
New potatoes are quite perishable, so it is best to cook them right away.
Keep watch on them as the season goes on. The main crop will be ready for harvesting when the plant dies back in about a week or two.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the biggest advantages to growing potatoes in a container is you get a harvest that isn’t going to be damaged.
That is because unlike plants grown in ground farms, you are not using a shovel to take them out of the growing medium.
You can get your main crop by simply tipping over the containers.
Do this when it is dry, because if they are wet you will increase the chance for them to rot which will be quite the disappointment after all your hard work.
As a reminder: after you get them out of the container let them dry for 2 hours. Do not remove the dirt off them in this length of time.
Storing Your Harvested Potatoes
Bad storage habits can ruin all the patience and energy you’ve invested throughout the growing season, from field preparation up until harvest.
Here is what you should do to keep your potatoes tasty and edible for up to months after harvest:
- Root cellar storage– these ensure that potatoes do not freeze because they are cool and dark. Use a cold corner in the basement or an unheated garage if you don’t have access to a root cellar.
- Rebury potatoes– dig a trench approximately six inches deep and set your potatoes inside the trench. Cover the potatoes with loose soil and straw to limit the amount of rain soak from seeping into the loose soil. This technique keeps them edible for a period of two months.
- Freezer storage– freezer potatoes need to be peeled and sliced, then put into a freezer bag and sealed using a vacuum sealer. Frozen potatoes can last for more than a year with no problems.
- Pressure can– the process of heating potatoes under pressure will remove the starch and will allow you to keep your potatoes for several months.
- Make potato flakes– cook your potatoes until you can insert a knife and easily cut through the potato, then put your mashed potato on dehydrator sheets and put them in the dehydrator set at 140o to create your flakes.
Wrapping Up
Potatoes are popular among many people around the world because they can be prepared into a lot of different dishes.
You can boil them, fry them, and they can also be turned into crisps, fries, or many other delicious meals.
It’s no surprise that theses croppers are popular for gardening enthusiasts who want to try growing this crop.
The good news is that you do not need a large amount of land to consider potato farming, as shown above.
You can grow them in a pail and produce a yield which is both damage-free and free from pesticides.