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Old March 13, 2014   #31
PaulF
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Brownville, Ne
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This thread just drew my attention. This is what happened to my barrel-o-mon...I mean potatoes. The process sounded like a great idea. I even mixed soilless mix and straw as the growing medium. What I read said this would work as well or better than straight mix.

In a 50 gal barrel I started at or near the bottom with potato eyes (I used whole potatoes so as not to allow the cut places to become diseased.) They all grew stems, etc. I kept filling the barrel as the plants grew upward. About halfway up the barrel the plants began to dry up. I did have drain holes in the bottom and I did water when it looked like the plants needed water.

After a while all the plants died from what looked like heat stroke. The barrel was in a place where it received morning sun and afternoon partial sun and evening shade. Thinking that there would be tubers on the end of the plants like when potato vines died out when planted in the soil, I tipped the barrel over and found nothing but soilless mix and straw. The year was hot and dry, but everything else grew OK.

Being the first time effort I reckoned I had done something wrong. Maybe, maybe not but that was the first and only time for potatoes grown in a barrel for me. Will it work for some folks----probably. Will it get another chance for me----probably not.
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