Potato Growing Simplified: Tips for Watering, Mulching, and More

**”Uh-oh! Looks like your license key went on vacation. No worries, mate! Make sure to pop in your license key and try again. You’ll be back on track in no time!”**

Watering potatoes in containers should be done between 1 and 3 days. Preserve water half burying the container, mulching the soil’s surface to prevent evaporation. Support potato foliage to create a canopy to shade the container. It will reduce the amount of water and time required.

If you ask 100 gardeners the best way to grow potatoes, you will get 101 different answers. For me, I always revert to containers. Yes, container growing does have considerable benefits regarding space, time, and water usage.

Not only this, But you can increase the yields of potatoes growing in containers if you do it right. The video below shows you the results of an experiment where I developed the same amount of potatoes in the ground and containers.

The results will shock you. Not only were there many more, but their size and skin quality were also much better. They were the same variety out of the same seed bag. So check it out.

Control the growing environment when growing potatoes in containers

Containers are a great way to grow potatoes. You can control the container environment and create the perfect growing conditions for your crop. Even if you have a small yard or limited space, container potatoes yield more with less water usage. To learn more about watering potatoes in containers, check out my article.

Containers allow for better drainage, meaning the soil doesn’t stay wet as long and is easier to maintain. Usually, containers need watering every 1-3 days, depending on how hot or cold it is outside. Still, you can also use mulch (leaves/grass clippings) around the top of the container to keep moisture in longer or reduce evaporation rates.

The soil conditions within the container

The great thing about growing potatoes in containers is that the soil conditions in your backyard or garden do not govern you. In a container, you can control that soil better.

Potatoes are one of the most popular vegetable people grow in container gardens. They have a relatively short growth time and can be planted in nearly any season if you provide enough water to moisten their soil.

But container potato plants will only produce potatoes if they have the proper soil conditions, which is why it’s so essential for container gardeners to choose a good blend for their container potatoes.

Containers allow you to control the environment better than traditional gardening methods because you can change your soil blends according to what best suits your crop or plant variety. For example, potatoes prefer slightly acidic soil. It allows you to create the perfect blend within those parameters, and you don’t have to put up with the PH of your garden soils.

How to stop containers from overheating during the summer sun?

When growing potatoes in containers, It is essential to consider the cold and heat. Potatoes are more susceptible to fluctuations in temperatures. But below is a list of things you can do to help prevent this from happening.

1. Bury the containers in the ground or place a woodchip mulch around them. It will act as a heat sink and draw out heat in both directions. If it is cold, the container will absorb heat from the ground but send heat into the surrounding soil if hot.
2. Mulch the top of the containers with good mulch. Grass clippings, woodchips, paper, cardboard, and straw, but my favorite mulch are rapeseed straw. You can use anything that will mat together and reduce evaporation. More on this later.
3. Support foliage to create a canopy. Potato foliage or haulms will readily bend and flop everywhere, especially if they lack water. Provide support to hold this up, as it will help shield the containers from the worst of the sun.

How much water to give container potatoes?

Container potatoes ideally require about three to five liters or 1.2 gallons of water per week. It includes rainfall. The issue with most containers is that it evaporates or runs out of the bottom as you water. So more water is required to ensure that they are getting enough.

So, before I give you more tips to make your life easier, I will answer the question outright.

How often do water container potatoes? Once a week is perfect when they start to grow, and they may only need to be watered every two days during the height of summer.

Tips for preserving water when growing potatoes in containers

You may have tried growing potatoes in containers for years and found yourself watering vast amounts daily to keep them hydrated. Here are a few tips to help water your potatoes in containers, buckets, pots, or bags.

• Consider the growing soil you are using. I have an experiment running this year which you will see later on, about which soil is best for growing potatoes in containers. But this is something to consider.

Different soils or composts will hold varying amounts of water. Compost is excellent as its full of organic matter. It soaks the water like a sponge. However, it is essential to keep it moist because if you don’t, it will allow water to just run off it instead of being absorbed.

• Bury the container a 1/5 of its depth. It is essential as it allows the medium it is buried in to soak up any additional water that runs out of the drainage holes. Rather than this getting lost, it will hold it, which can be released back into the pot via wicking.

• I decided not to bury the container in the soil. Instead, I placed down a membrane and sat the buckets on it. I then filled the buckets with woodchips that had different particle sizes. It will allow the water that escapes to be absorbed.

It will keep the container cooler as this water in the woodchips acts like a heatsink absorbing the heat away from the containers.

• Next is to mulch the surface. After seeing my videos on container-grown potatoes, I may grow in containers like me or similar. But none of them ever use mulch.

Mulching the surface can help keep down evaporation, but the mulch is highly absorbent, which will hold lots of moisture, releasing it into the soil as it starts to dry out.

The soil will remain damp, perfect for the potato’s growth as they get the required heat and moisture. The mulch holds this water and releases it as needed. It prevents the sun from baking the soil’s surface, making future watering hard to penetrate.

These three tips will reduce your water usage and save you hours of watering. This is how I am growing mine this year, as I want to ensure that the potatoes can fend for themselves if required.

Let’s look at the different forms of watering we can do and what is best and why?

Hand Watering Container Potatoes

The first is to water by hand with a watering can. This is how a lot of us water our container potatoes. We apply water until it flows out of the holes in the bottom, but is this a sufficient quantity?

I don’t think so. If you allowed your soil to dry out completely, as discussed earlier, the earth would shed the water, and you would see this running out of the holes before the soil absorbs it.

Seeing running water out of the container drainage holes indicates that enough has been given, providing the soil was moist. If it was allowed to dry out, give it a watering and leave it for 10 mins to absorb, then water again until this runs out, and then you know it is sufficient.

It is important not to overwater your containers too. In this blog post, I tell you how to know if you are giving enough water but not overwatering your plants.

Using Drip Irrigation To Water Potatoes

The next option is to use a dripper or drip irrigation to water your potato buckets. Suppose you have a nearby tap or water reservoir, such as my IBC container. It could be a great option because it allows you to water over a long period and saturates the soil thoroughly.

However, if you decide to water, remember this one tip. You are better off watering deeply once so that all the soil is moist rather than watering daily. Ensuring the earth never dries out will accept the next lot of water quickly and not let it run off to the ground below and be wasted.

Know when to water your container potatoes?

To find out when water is required, stick your finger into the container soil to its knuckle. If it’s moist, the soil is fine, but if it feels a little dry, it’s time to water again.

How to preserve water when growing potatoes in containers?

I am implementing some other tricks this year, which I will discuss here; although they do not directly relate to watering, they can help conserve it.

I intend to add a mesh screen above these pots to allow the potato foliage to grow through. It has several benefits. Firstly, it will hold all of the potatoes as a group. It will prevent wind and rain from flattening the foliage.

It will keep the foliage upright and not flattened over the side of the container. It shields the surface from the sun’s intense rays, which helps to shade the mulch and protect that valuable water.

It makes life much easier for you as a gardener to get to the buckets without breaking haulms when you water. What size is the best to use for containers? I have tried many sizes of containers over the years and consistently revert to 30 liters or 10 gallons.

This works out best for the efforts. Filling all those containers must be expensive. I have covered this in many videos. I always buy compost for use in the garden.

I use it before it goes into the garden for potatoes. It can be used for a few years, provided I have not had blight. So I have no issues. However, there are always challenges.

This year it’s hard to buy compost. But as I make around 5 tons of my own each year, I used that. I am growing 80 potato containers this year, and 95% are filled with homemade compost. If you want to know how to make it, I have a detailed video, and I will link to it in the show notes below.

What mulch are you using? For the floor, I am using just normal woodchips that can be gained from most tree surgeons. I am using rape straw, a byproduct of the oilseed rape industry. It is usually sold in farm shops as horse bedding.

Could I use anything else I don’t need to buy as mulch? Yes, you could use wood chips or even shredded cardboard. But I like the straw, which helps build my garden’s organic matter.

Benefits of growing potatoes in containers

1. Much easier to plant
2. Much easier to harvest
3. Perfect for people with mobility issues
4. They can place it anywhere
5. Ideal for patio growers
6. Higher yields with less space
7. Plant earlier in spring undercover, then moves out after last frosts.
8. The soil warms up much quicker.
9. Potatoes can be stored in the containers until needed

Conclusion on watering container-grown potatoes

Container-grown potatoes are an excellent choice for growing potatoes. With my tips, you should have no problems preserving water and getting your container-grown potatoes watered without using too much.

Follow these tips, and you will never have to worry about spending lots of money and time watering your container potatoes again.

If you got value from this video article, consider subscribing to the blog for future updates. You can do that below.