I have been watching YouTube videos and reading other growers’ blogs avidly over the past year. There seems to be a school of thought that growing potatoes in containers (whatever you choose – big pots, grow bags, or in my case bags for life) is the way forward. Giving you more room in your raised beds and providing an endless abundance of lovely potatoes. I was SOLD.

This Spring whilst I chitted my little spuds, I gathered all the bags for life I could find, bought bags of compost and set about planting. It was a lovely little activity to do with my partner’s kids and I’m all for nurturing an awareness of where your food comes from.

I did however run out of compost before I had safely planted all of the chitted spuds. I flatly refused to cart any more bags home. How expensive is that stuff, really? So I decided to plant the remainder in a spare part of the bed knowing they would be done by early summer thus freeing prime space just when I needed it.

I figured it would be a nice little experiment and results are in…

Potatoes in Beds:

I planted 4 seed potatoes in the raised bed. They occupied probably a 30cm deep row. Today I unearthed them. Oh my goodness they are beautiful! They are a vivid red early potato and I really wasn’t expecting how bright and cheery they would be as I rummaged around the soil trying to find them all. to be totally honest I wasn’t convinced there would be any there at all – so that was a nice surprise too.

All in all, from that small space I harvested a heaped bowl full (that is definitely an official unit of measurement in my garden) of jewel like potatoes. Not bad, but I am torn as I had hoped for millions of potatoes from the space – some expectation management is possibly needed from me!

Potatoes in Bags:

I didn’t need to dig up any more potatoes as really that bowl full is more than enough for us for the moment but I couldn’t help myself. I had to see if the bags had potatoes in them too. And if so, how many? So I chose the smallest bag for life that I had planted. This bag had 2 seed potatoes in it. I eagerly emptied it out on the raised bed to see what I could find.

By jingo there were spuds in there too and probably the same amount as I had harvested from the raised bed…but from only 2 seed potatoes rather than 4. The bags seem to have produced more potatoes per seed potato, but is it worth it?

The Verdict:

There does seem to be a clear winner in terms of the amount of potatoes harvested – with the bag for life method coming out top. However, if you factor in the cost of buying compost to fill the bags for life I really don’t think it was worth it.

By next year I fully intend to be as self sufficient in compost as I can be. Everything that can be composted is being collected and put on the heaps – its one way to hide the multiple delivery boxes from the recycling people. So I might give it another try then? Or I might just pick a bed or half bed and dedicate it to growing spuds each year.

What do you do? Where do you grow your spuds?