🥔🪣 Potato Buckets — How Many Per Bucket?

🥔Everyone says "grow potatoes in buckets" but nobody tells you how many to actually put in. I tried it — half plot, weedy beds and all.

Bucket potatoes — burlap sack of Charlotte with one red — 1 per 30L bucket wins, Tonbridge

Here's what I actually did on Plot 20B:

Buckets I used — 30L builders buckets from Wickes, drilled 5 holes in bottom for drainage. No fancy potato bags. Compost was half garden compost, half cheap bagged stuff, plus a handful of blood fish and bone.

Varieties — Charlotte and Maris Peer — because they said they do well in buckets.

How many per bucket?

* 1 seed potato per bucket — small tubers, about 6-8 potatoes out, clean

* 2 seed potatoes per bucket — more leaves, crowded, smaller potatoes, more blight risk

* 3 seed potatoes — don't. Just don't. All tops, no tubers.

My messy result: 1 per 30L bucket wins. 2 if you chit them small and you're short of buckets.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/504f47_8d60108474354dc78de11bae53e4bb38/720p/mp4/file.mp4

My messy result: 1 per 30L bucket wins. 2 if you chit them small and you're short of buckets.

Watering — every 2 days in July, buckets dry out fast. Mulched top with straw to keep moisture. Fed with comfrey tea once a week once flowers showed.

Harvest — tipped bucket on tarp, rummaged like a kid at Christmas. Charlotte gave me about 1.2kg per bucket with 1 seed. Maris Peer slightly less but tastier roasted.

Bottom line from my weedy plot — 1 per bucket, 30L, 5 holes, don't overwater. More buckets, not more seeds per bucket.

What did you get per bucket this year? How many did you put in?

dave@messygardener.co.ukmailto:dave@messygardener.co.uk