Growing potatoes in bags has become increasingly popular over the past decade, as the ‘grow your own mentality’ has taken off among people across the Zimbabwe.
Many people have gone on to buy one of the popular potato growing kits, which are often sold with a selection of tubers to grow, and are perfect for the purpose. They are reasonably cheap to buy, and offer good value for money.
However, if you’re not too sure that growing potatoes is for you, and you want to experiment before paying out good money for a potato growing kit that you may never use again, you may wonder is there are any alternatives?
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| Growing Potatoes In Bags |
The good news is that there are! Plenty. Potatoes don’t require much to grow a good crop, and it can easily be done in alternative growing bags. One mistake you don’t want to make though, is buying a standard grow-bag from the garden centre. Those are meant for growing tomatoes etc., and are not deep enough for growing potatoes.
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| Growing Potatoes In Bags |
One thing you need to buy in any case when growing potatoes in bags is compost. An empty compost bag can easily double up as a potato growing bag, as long as it has a capacity of more than 20 litres (typical size of the smallest bags). Cut the top of the bag off completely, and empty out the contents into a suitable container.
Fold the bag down to about 1/3 of its height, refill the bottom of it with loose compost (usually comes vacuum packed). Stab a few holes in the bottom of the bag with a garden dibberor a stanley knife to allow excess water to drain out. Now follow the instructions on the How To Grow Potatoes In Containers Page.
Another option could be to use a tonne bag. If you live anywhere near a builders yard, or you know a builder, you can usually get them for the price of taking them away, and they will play host to 9-12 potato plants. Again, fold down the sides of the bag, fill the bottom with compost, and plant your potatoes. You shouldn’t need to make holes in the bag, because of its size, and the fabric’s ability to let excess water through.
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| Growing Potatoes In Bags |
As you can see – growing potatoes in bags is possibly as easy as it gets – and it doesn’t have to set you back a lot of money if you think outside the box.
