Imagine you want to cook a delicious potato soup. But the potato staircase is empty, the supermarket around the corner is closed. It's a good thing that potatoes are only a few steps away - in the disused water bucket on the balcony.

A place for potatoes

Your balcony doesn't exactly look like a classic potato bed with furrows and piled up ridges. But the potato itself doesn't care whether it grows in a large potato field or in a bucket.

What it needs to grow is soil, warmth, water and nutrients. You can give it these conditions almost anywhere: on the balcony, the roof garden or the sunny inner courtyard.

All containers with a capacity of at least 10 liters and a drainage hole in the bottom for excess irrigation water are suitable for planting. These can be plastic water buckets, black mason's tubs, sturdy rice or jute sacks, wooden crates or a potato tower. Special, recyclable plastic plant bags are available from specialist retailers.

What else do you need

  • a few hours of sunlight a day
  • simple garden or potting soil or, better yet, enriched with compost
  • always a full watering can
  • seed potatoes

All potato varieties are suitable for growing on the balcony, so you can grow whatever tastes good and looks good. For a bucket with 10 liters you need 1 - 2 seed potatoes. In larger containers you put 3 - 4 potatoes.

How is the harvest?

A rich harvest is not to be expected on the balcony. The planter sets limits to potato growth. But the harvest is always enough for a few meals. A yield of approx. 1kg of potatoes is possible per seed potato.

balcony decoration

You benefit twice over from potatoes on the balcony. While the delicious tubers grow below, the blossoms of the potato plant decorate your balcony above. Depending on the variety, they bloom white to violet.

Conclusion

When growing potatoes on the balcony, you should not focus on the yield, but on the joy of gardening. Growing your own potatoes is always an experience, especially for city children.

tips and tricks

You can't get enough of looking at the potato blossoms? The jasmine-flowered nightshade (bot. Solanum jasminoides), which is related to the potato and has similar flowers, is a balcony plant for sunny to partially shaded areas and with a high water requirement. But be careful: Like all nightshade plants, it is poisonous.

Category:

Vegetable garden