Trashcan potatoes

We’ve had a vegetable garden several years now and have always wanted to have a potato patch. Lack of space prevented us from doing so; however, this year I ran across an article that talked about growing potatoes in a trash can. Several articles and weeks later, I purchased 5 32-gallon trash cans. The adventure started.

The article indicated that you drill drainage holes in the bottom of the can, put about 4-6 inches of compost in the can and plant up to 5 potato eyes. Every time the plants grew up to 1″ tall, we were to cover them back up with compost. This was to continue until the can was full of compost at which time you let the plant grow and process as if it were in the garden. Sounds easy enough.

Week 1:

Bought trash cans, drilled drainage holes, put in compost and potato eyes. I thought it would take a couple of weeks for the plants to poke through, but I was wrong. By the end of the first week, the picture at the top was what had grown. I planted potatoes in both trash cans and garbage bags. It took 2 five gallon buckets of compost per container to cover up the first batch of plant growth.