Hilling Container Grown Potatoes
It was a busy weekend in the garden! Our potatoes have been growing like crazy so it was time to hill them. Hilling is just covering the plant with more soil. Every time that you hill your potato plants the area you just covered up will become a layer of potatoes coming off of the main stalk of the plant. Growing potatoes in containers is super easy and a really good way to keep normal potato pest (usually live in the soil) out of your crop. We use rubber maid storage totes and a couple potato bags. The potato bags were a great idea as they have a side flap that you can harvest potatoes from, but in reality we end up just turning them upside to harvest anyway.
This first video was an overview of all the potatoes. You should hill the potatoes when they are between 3" and 6" above the soil.
This video is the actual hilling part. Just add soil bit by bit and fill in around all the leaves. Be careful not to break the leaves and stems while adding the dirt. Don't pack the soil in either, leave it loose around the plant. Fill with soil until there is just the top inch of leaves sticking out. Finish with a good heavy watering.
Here is an overview of all the containers will the hilling completed.
Potatoes are super easy to grow. They are a great beginner plant for people starting into gardening. There is also nothing quite like the taste of a potato right out of the dirt and onto your plate.
Hope you like the videos and the information. Upvote and follow for more pictures and videos I will be doing all summer.
Hi Jordan, great videos!
I've tried growing potatoes in adapted plastic bins a couple of times in the past. I stopped growing them as I never produced a decent enough yield.
However, having looked at you videos I think this may have been down to letting the leaves/stems grow too high before covering over. Definitely going to try again!!!
Thanks!
Ya if they get too tall before you hill them it really shrinks the yield. A few of mine were even a bit too tall. Hope you try them again and get great results. They truly are amazing in flavor fresh from the garden and worth the effort.
Thanks!
...one quick question, Should I put drainage holes in the bottom of the container?
Ya i drilled about 25 quarter inch holes spread out across the bottom of each of them
That's looking pretty good! I've grown in a large wooden box last year and had a couple of buckets of potatoes to show for at the end of the season. This year I've moved to buckets and am curious how it's going to turn out (stole the idea from a youtuber under the name Allotment Diary). My favourite variety flavour wise so far is Mayan gold.
Thanks! I have seen people growing them in 5 gallon buckets and it looked like it worked really good. Probably not far off of the 2 potato bags i have going lol. I have never had a mayan gold but i do look for a bunch of different kinds. If i see those i will have to pick them up and grow em. We have Caribe, Bintje, Little Giant, Carolina, Gemson, and Purple magic growing right now.
Nice selection, that's impressive! I'm only growing two types: mayan gold and sapo mira. The sapo mira grows way better in my region and is resistant to pests. Next season I might take your lead and grow more varieties.
We tried to mix up the harvest times. Caribe is very early harvest, Little Giant and Gemson are early harvest, Purple Magic is in the middle, Bintje and Carolina are late season. Should spread out for fresh potatoes all season and into the fall.
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