Ever heard of the potato tower? This is not a mountain of potatoes, but a tall planter for growing potatoes on the balcony. Plastic buckets, boxes or sacks are also a good alternative to the potato field in the garden.

Find the right vessel

Potato plants need enough space to develop their underground shoots. Containers must therefore have a capacity of at least 10 liters. A large plastic water bucket or a sturdy plastic bag already offer space for a potato plant.

For a bigger harvest, you need at least 20 liters of capacity. Bricklayer's tubs or even a potato tower are suitable for this. All buckets are filled with garden soil from the garden center or hardware store.

The trick with the potato tower

The potato tower is layered. Place up to 4 seed potatoes on a layer of garden soil about 15 cm high and cover them with about 10 cm of soil. When the plants are about 15 cm high, they are covered with a new layer of soil so that only the top leaves are sticking out.

You repeat this until the soil has reached the top edge of your container or a height of approx. 80 cm. This repeated piling up causes the potato plants to grow taller, forming layers of stolons with new tubers.

Build a potato tower

Variant one:

  • consists of a high flower pot or a flower box (16.99 €) with a height of 50 to 80 cm
  • Drill a hole in the bottom of the container so that excess water can drain away

Variant two:

  • is built from bamboo or reed mats and winding wire
  • Roll the mat vertically into a tube and tie it tightly with wire
  • Set up the tube so that it does not tip over and possibly secure it with sticks
  • fill with soil
  • When setting up, remember that this variant is open at the bottom and the water runs onto the balcony!
  • more suitable for courtyard and terrace

Variant three:

  • created by stacking bricks in a tower shape

Variant Four:

  • consists of three mason tubs
  • a drainage hole is drilled in the bottom bucket
  • two buckets are each placed on top without a bottom

Black bricklayer tub with advantage

It doesn't matter whether you place several black brickwork tubs next to each other or build a potato tower out of them - with the dark-walled containers you benefit from the sun's rays and can use the tubs warmed up in this way as growth accelerators.

tips and tricks

Mill mice like to visit the potato tower if it stands on grass or earth. You prevent this by laying out a foil with drainage holes under your tower.

Category:

Vegetable garden