Local Harvest Gardening

I received two grow bags for Christmas, and would like to grow potatoes in them this year. does anyone have ideas re soil and irrigation for these? Is there a best variety?

thanks, Joanne

I grew potatoes in large grow bags and for the most part they were watered by overhead sprinklers I had set up.Mine were filled with straight aged compost that had wood chips mixed in along with some vermicompost. I bought 7 yards of aged compost from Local Harvest last spring...if you are in the Fraser Valley get some aged compost from Dan!!

We grow potatoes in grow bags and not only are they a good use of space in a small garden they work very well. They look attractive and are easy to top up with soil or clippings. Mine are placed just on the edge of the overhead sprinkler as they want to be well watered especially in dry weather.

This post from West Coast Seeds provides a graphic on how to use them. https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products ... row-bags-2

The nice thing about grow bags is that you can put them anywhere and they don’t need to take up valuable space in a garden bed. I’ve placed them along a fence, lined a path or even against the side of the greenhouse that gets too hot in summer..

In previous years I’ve also grown potatoes in jute coffee sacks from a local roaster. The coffee bags were free but the grow bags provided a better yield.

I am thinking about giving up my boulevard potato bed I started last year for bags too as I would like to keep them stored in the dirt once the plant has finished for slow harvesting over the winter months. I also need to try to utilize more space in my yard where permanent beds are not available but I have a good sized driveway! Saw a good hack for a raised bed that could also be a grow bag hack that uses a cardboard box that is wrapped with galvanized mesh. The YouTube showed chicken wire but I think I would use 1/2 inch mesh instead.

The cardboard may not last the season and you may have to unload and put the spent compost back into a new compost batch to reinvigorate it for next season but piqued my interest. It may require a wooden base if I want to move it t a drier location for winter storage with a dolly too.
https://youtu.be/_1ykegOWgG4

Bags work really well. A great video I enjoyed on this subject can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzrIYt6d8fA