Originally Published: 2022-05-22
A fun and easy way to start potatoes early is to use a five gallon bucket. This can be done by anyone even if you live in an apartment. The idea is this:
- Take a 5 gallon food grade bucket drill several holes in the bottom to let excess water drain out. (NOTE: Home Depot etc. sell these.)
- Add some potato parts (seeds) chopped and spaced on the bottom of the bucket.
- Cover with about 2 inches of soil.
- Water regularly
- Soon you will some green plant poke its head through.
- Cover with an additional 2 inches of dirt
- Continue steps 4 to 6 until the the bucket is filled with dirt and let it grow.
- Simply water and once the plant dies (about 4 months later) turn the bucket upside down a tarp.
- The potatoes will have grown at various levels throughout the entire bucket! You will get several potatoes.
I do this in February so that by mid-March I can move them into the greenhouse and have some potatoes ready to eat by June/July. In addition I also plant one of my box gardens with potatoes to ensure a good haul for the winter.
I usually do 3 or 4 buckets and that gives me a good 5 to 10 pound yield and there is nothing better than fresh produce.
With the dumped soil on the tarp let it burn in the sun for a few days and add the soil to a regular compost pile and in a couple of years it will be fertilizer.