Anyone with experience of growing potatoes in towers??

[Rhys]

I’ve just decided to take the plunge and buy some potato towers online from Henley Potato Towers.

I’ve done a bit of reading on the subject and a few tips are clearly around (like choosing your strains wisely, ensuring haulms grow out of the side of the tower at each height etc etc) but was wondering if anyone here had had success, frustration or otherwise??

With space limited if you want a good variety of vegetables, a tower seems a good option if it works.

Appreciate any comments from those with experience.

[Ros]

I’ve had goodresults growing potatoes in old compost bags turned inside out with holes cut in the bottom….much cheaper!

[Jane Wilding]

I’ve successfully grown potatoes (and all sorts of other stuff) in tyre towers. I started off with good soil and organic matter, put 3 spuds in and covered them, and as the haulms grew I put another tyre on top and filled that with soil too. I ended up with 3 tyres, and the results were very good, potatoes all down through it. I’m not sure that it saves space though, unless you’re growing them on paving rather than earth. The only trick is to fill the wall of the tyre with soil by pushing it outwards as you go, so there isn’t a great big air space. And you can always get tyres from Kwik fit or wherever, for free. Tyres collect and retain heat (because they’re black) so apart from the fact that they’re ugly and made partly from fossil fuel and will be around for millennia after we’re extinct, they’re a fabulous garden resource!

[Rhys]

Well, I planted 9 Sarpo Mira tubers in a large Henley Potato Tower on April 3rd and today I had a little feel around the top to see if there are any tubers growing after 17 weeks.

The tower is about 80cm high and I detected at least two large potatoes less than 1 inch under the surface.

One of those was next to a haulm which had grown out between the 2nd and 3rd layers of the tower, again confirming that such extra growth can aid tuber formation.

The aim now is to bulk up for as long as possible before harvesting in late September for winter storage. A few doses of Tomorite are in order……

[Author]

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