Potato Towers and an Awesome Crop of Summer Spuds

We’re trying a different method of potato growing in this year’s food gardens. I learned about it while doing my 6-month master gardener internship at the UConn Agricultural Extension Center in East Haddam, Connecticut. What amazing gardens there are there: the absolute cutting-edge methods of food cultivation.

Potato towers were used in those gardens to grow hundreds of pounds of potatoes in summer. They’re fantastic space savers that produce big quantities of potatoes, when used right. There are a few tricks to get the best yield, and we’ll be applying them to our gardens this summer to grow our favorite russet (for him) and purple sweet (for me) potatoes.

Once constructed, the potato tower is insanely easy to use. This is what you need: for one tower, about 10 feet of flexible wire fencing (like deer fencing), about 5 feet tall; straw; peat moss; compost or garden soil; and several clamps (of any kind) or strong wire to clip the fencing together in a circle.

Start by loosening up the soil at the spot where your tower will stand. Cut the fencing to a length that, when formed into a standing circle, will be about 4 feet wide. Simply shape the fencing into the circle you need, and use clips (or thin wire) to join the ends together, forming a rounded cage that will stand upright on the ground.

Stand the cage upright. Then, place about 6 inches of loose straw at the bottom on the cage: top that with about 6 inches of a mixture of compost and peat moss. Then, place your potato slips, greens side up, on top of the peat/compost mixture. Cover that with another six inches of peat/compost mixture, and another layer of straw. Water well, and keep moist, but not soaked.

Remember these things about potatoes: potatoes will thrive in an acidic soil, but produce poorly in a sweet alkaline soil. So, don’t add any lime to the tower, but instead, use plenty of acidic peat moss, which has a lower ph.

You’ll need to ‘earth up’ around the spuds as they send up stalks, just as you would if growing your potatoes conventionally in the ground. You want to keep these emerging stalks buried in soil, leaving only about a foot or so of the tops of the stalks above the soil line. This is because the potato plants will send out their root systems from these buried parts of their stalks, and from this tangle of root systems, your potatoes will grow. Earthing up is essential.

The only real care these potato plants will need for the 75 to 110 days they’ll need to mature (depending on the variety you choose) is earthing up and watering. For extra measure, feed them once a month with a water-soluble 10-10-10 fertilizer. This will really amplify the potato yield.

Obviously, once the potato plants grow above the top of their potato cage, you’ll have to stop earthing up. If you can (but you can skip this step), mulch the top of the soil with more straw. This will help hold moisture in the potato cage. Totally not required, but if you have some of that straw left over, why not?

Know the variety you’re growing, and its time from planting to maturity. Also, do not mix potato varieties in one tower. If you want to grow two varieties of potatoes, as we will this year, then build two towers. Different potato varieties behave differently and grow at different rates.

At the point of maturity, or a little beyond (I always let potatoes go a little longer), all you have to do is summon your strength and tip the potato cage and its contents sideways, pulling it up from the ground. Roots will have grown into the ground, so it will be a hard pull. I ask my husband to do this part of the job.

Spread the soil across the ground with your hands (I don’t use a hoe or rake, as any sharp tool will slice into potatoes), and start harvesting your beautiful, home-grown, organic, fresher-than-fresh potatoes.

A fresh homegrown potato stands head and shoulders above any potato you can buy. Even the pricey organic ones we buy the health food store don’t hold a candle. This is such an easy method of potato cultivation that there’s virtually no excuse not to do it this summer. It takes up little space and actually looks very cool. Prepare to answer questions from curious people.

It’s also a back-friendly method, because if I’m going to speak the truth, the older I get, the more ways I look to be kind to my body. Years ago, shoveling out hundreds of pounds of potatoes from the ground was no sweat. Now, my body - particularly my back - disagrees. A girl has got to know her limits as much as she knows her potatoes.

Barbie xo