[fatbelly]

Hi All,

This season as in past seasons my spuds have suffered from slug damage (apart from my Desiree's). So for next season Intend to try potage bags to reduce the slug damage. What experiences do people have of growing spuds in bags.

What are the pitfalls and the advantages. Thanks

[Christine]

Watering has been my problem when I've done it. Perhaps that's been the compost in the bags but I've always found they dry out faster.  Also unless you plant really deep in the bags you can end up with a smaller crop.

[Auntiemogs]

I think it depends on the size of the bags.

I've tried old Ikea bags, and the large potato planter bags in the past.  Both took a fair amount of compost, and were difficult to move.  Watering was an issue (too much/too little), and I found lots of snail/slug eggs in the Ikea bags, as I recall.

The best crop that I had was when I used Morrisons flower buckets (with holes drilled in the bottom), sitting on large, shallow trays.  I just watered into the tray, and lifted the whole plant out to harvest a few at a time.  Having said that, I've only grown Charlottes this way, so I don't know if it would work as well for the larger potatoes....

AM 

[mumofstig]

I found that bags, of any sort, dried out much too quickly, perhaps I'm just too lazy with the watering can

I think pots, the bigger the better, hold water much better - which shows in the yield.

[AnneB]

I grew some Casablanca in Wilko's potato bags for the first time this year.  I was forced down that route by over enthusiastic seed potato purchases!

Like Auntie, once loaded with compost they were difficult to move - you couldn't pick them up by the handles or they would break.

I didn't have too much trouble watering.  I put compost in the bottom halves of the bags, loaded up with the potatoes and then once in situ topped up with ordinary soil.  Their demands for water didn't seem too big doing it like this.  I watered them when I watered the rest of the plot, they didn't get extra waterings.

The potatoes were lovely and slug free.  I thought the yield was slightly lower than in my normal raised beds.  This year I put slug pellets in the bottom of every row at planting time and I have been very lucky with slugs outside of bags too.  I grew Sharpe's Express, British Queens and Kestrel.   I have yet to harvest the main crop Ambo and Pink Fir Apple so don't know how they have fared.

I think I will use the bags again next year for 1st earlies.  If nothing else it frees up a bed for something else.

[Growster...]

We had three Marshalls Grow bags, and did five 'Annabelle' spuds in each one, all in an unheated but frost-free greenhouse.

Crop was not fantastic, but it's maybe the chance of beating the system and the weather which is the key, rather than getting huge numbers.

Watering is a faff admittedly, and the compost wasn't the cheapest, but like a lot of these methods, it may be just the fun of thinking you're getting a few of your own new spuds when they're expensive...

We keep the 'used' compost for carrots and other stuff, which we grow in buckets high up to avoid the dreaded carrot fly.

[Auntiemogs]

We keep the 'used' compost for carrots and other stuff, which we grow in buckets high up to avoid the dreaded carrot fly.

I'm sure there's an untapped market there somewhere Growster!  Sky-buckets? 

[Growster...]

We keep the 'used' compost for carrots and other stuff, which we grow in buckets high up to avoid the dreaded carrot fly.

I'm sure there's an untapped market there somewhere Growster!  Sky-buckets? 

Great idea, Mogs!

For the record, I was over near you on Elmley Nature Reserve just recently!

An old chum runs this with his daughter and SIL, and what a fabulous place it all is! Marvellous experience of nature and wild life...

Marsh Harriers, and all sorts of rare birds just there for the looking!