Hi, Urban gardening is getting a lot of attention these days, and a sort of classic permie technique in small space would be building potato towers. However I haven't heard of anyone who actually would have had it work, the only spuds to be found are at the very bottom. Could someone let me know if you have experienced getting a tower full of potatoes please? Cheers Mari
I agree purplepear. I have had limited success in the past using potato towers and great success with mounding. There is also another thing to consider if you wish to look at it from a nutritionists point of view... Many of the potato tower arrangements are pretty heavily loaded with manures and the like which leads to big juicy potatoes (probably due to high water content too). There is some suggestion that quick-grown, big potatoes are more likely to have a much lower Glycemic Index (GI) than the smaller, slower grown spuds (slow food) - which use a lot less water I am guessing. I'm not saying this is difinitive but I thought I would offer it up as further food for thought . In my experience I think the smaller, slower-grown spuds have a better flavour. Having said all of that, if you can get potato towers to work and you only have a small space then I reckon it is well worth doing! Perfect for courtyards - 'Horses for courses' I guess.
I have made pseudo-potato towers and had some success. I use 4 bales of straw on the ground, fill the middle with compost and plant the spuds into that. Cover with more straw. It worked well, in that I just pulled the bales apart at harvest time and didn't have to dig, they just fell apart revealing the spuds. I didn't get a great yield but that was due to the 28 spotted lady beetle - not the tower structure.
ah but, what if the tower structure led to conditions that lent itself to 28 spotted lady beetle strike? hmm?
They attacked the ones that I had planted in the ground with equal vigour I'm afraid..... It got better as the season wore on.
You know what, I am suspicious of the tower thing, too. I have horrible sow bug problems, and they eat any root vegetables I have. So I set up a couple garbage cans that would drain nicely, gave them the best of compost and good stuff, and got marble sized potatoes. I was worried that the potatoes on the bottom would grow first, but then rot while the top ones were forming. So I got discouraged, set the can aside. We've had a mild winter, and that can started growing again, and has been full of the lushest potato growth there ever was. I'm not going to touch it. I'm not sure how long potatoes take, but I think it's way longer than I thought! It's been 5 months of cool temps, so I'm not sure how much longer it will need to go before the greens die back. I don't remember this happening when I grew them in the ground.