Growing Potatoes in a Bag

I’ve never grown potatoes. But when I got the opportunity to test Gardener’s Supply Company’s Potato Grow Bag this summer, I thought, why not give it a try? The fabric bags come in several colors, but I went with black so it wouldn’t stand out so much amidst the rest of the containers in our garden. Our potato starts came from our friends at Bossy Acres: three fingerlings and 2 blue heirlooms. Thanks Elizabeth and Karla!

The planting process was similar in some ways to the type of hilling you do with potatoes when you plant them in the ground. Following the instructions on the Grow Bag packaging, we put the bag where we wanted it in the garden and filled it with a 4 inches of pre-moistened, organic potting mix. (Gardener’s Supply sells a mix that you can buy, too.) Next, we placed our potato starts on top of the mix, being careful to space them evenly apart. As instructed, we covered the little potato pieces with another 3 inches of potting mix and watered everything well.

The plants grew fast and we followed the instructions to add 4 inches of potting mix for every 8 inches of growth until the bag was completely full. One thing to note: The instructions didn’t say this, but because we have problems with voles, we put a small square of hardware cloth between the bottom of the bag and the ground before we filled it to keep the critters out.

It wasn’t a lot of work to take care of the potatoes as they grew. The porous fabric bag is designed to allow heat and any excess water to dissipate, and it seemed to do those things well. Even after a heavy rain, the bag was never soggy. The biggest issue for us was the amount of real estate the crazy, floppy foliage took up in our small garden. It’s not like we thought potatoes grew on trees or anything, but I admit that we had no idea what a potato plant looked like as it grew. Who knew there was so much greenery? And pretty flowers, too!

Harvesting was something of a surprise too, but not the good kind. While the instructions on how to grow the potatoes in the bag were clear, the harvesting process was left up to us. I did some research and found a lot of conflicting advise. Some gardeners say you should harvest potatoes when the foliage begins to yellow while others suggest waiting until the foliage is dried up and dead. And then there are those who believe that it’s best to harvest somewhere in between those two time periods. I went with that last group of folks figuring we’d be okay if we split the difference. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not.

It had been nearly three months since we’d planted the tiny potato pieces in the bag, and we were excited to dump the bag out on the tarp we spread on the ground. We got the camera, cut back the foliage, dumped the bag and started digging around in the dirt with our hands. In all, we harvested about 7 blue potatoes and 14 fingerlings. Hmm? The bag is supposed to be capable of producing up to 32 pounds of potatoes. So I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being disappointed. I fertilized. I watered. What happened?

I contacted Gardener’s Supply to see if they could help me understand where I went wrong, and they got back to me right away suggesting that this year’s excessive heat may have reduced yields. They also agreed with some of the gardeners I talked with who said that fingerlings and heirlooms are especially susceptible to heat-related problems. Placing the bag in partial shade might have improved the yield in the heat, they said, adding that they plan to include that tip on the bag’s instructions next year.

All in all, I think the bag concept worked really well. Dumping it out to harvest the potatoes was easy, and the bag held up very well so it could definitely be used again next year. Now we just need to decide whether we want to give up that much space on our small urban lot to grow potatoes again. Or might there be something else we’d like to try?