Quote:
My potato towers are 3' tall x 3' square. I plant three varieties in them, German Butterball on the very bottom, Pontiac at mid level and YuKon Gold at the top.
When the Butterball vines reach the top of the tower, i fill in and plant the Pontiacs. I use a mix of compost and rotted sawdust and fill in as the plants grow.
I've had good luck doing it this way. I've never gotten potatoes at the top of the towers by just planting one time at the bottom.
Ken
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That makes a good use of space, but you still may be limited in the yield to what those three potatoes produce normally, not in a tower. I doubt you exceed that. All are commercial type potatoes that have been bred fro machine harvesting and for not growing tubers on stolons.
After what I have seen, and this is admittedly speculative to a large degree, to even make an attempt at seeing if a tower/bin approach works, in any way that realistically increases yield over normal growing methods, a different type of potato is necessary. One that produces tubers off stolons and stems, so that as the stem is increasingly buried, it sets multiple layers of tubers. One of the threads linked to above shows photos of several potatoes that had set small tubers off stems and stolons. Another trait that likely would be useful is very long season potatoes (120-150 days), so that the plant grows throughout the season, setting tubers very late at the topmost layer.
This may not be possible in areas that have short seasons as frost may kill off the plant before it is able to bulk up any additional potatoes other than the initial bottom layer.
Here is a thread from another web site that was documenting my 2013 experiment, until I killed them
http://tatermater.★★★★★★★★★.com/thre...tato-bins-2013