A family I knew in the Pacific NW planted potatoes and when the green grew through to the top they placed an old tire over the plant & mounded soil over the leaves. When the leaves again grew through the soil another tire was placed on the 1st tire, and so on until there were 6-8 tires stacked. At Thanksgiving they took me out & had me reach in and dig the number of potatoes needed for the meal. Amazing, and minimal ground area used.

@gardengrowngroceries

14 күн бұрын

I made wood collars that stacked on top of one another one year. I didn’t notice any difference. Just as with my buckets all the potatoes were clustered around the roots. But maybe it’s the varieties I’ve grown

@pinkcashmere1908

7 күн бұрын

Very clever 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

This is such a great idea. It might be cool to maybe drop a tall laundry or wicker basket in there so that you can use the handles to pull up everything whenever needed.

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

That is a great idea! I'm definitely doing that this year. Thanks!

@heidiedwards7819

3 ай бұрын

That’s what I was thinking! It’s not easy to kneel and reach arm length into the can!

@michale539

Ай бұрын

That's a great idea!

What I like about this video is it gives the before and after. Most garden videos are filmed running and never give you the outcome. It's a big time investment but makes a much more useful video.

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I very much agree. Too often I feel we're left hanging as to the outcome and whether whatever we've just watched is actually useful.Cheers!

I layered fresh onions with straw in a banana box and they lasted for months

Great video... Thank you. We love our home grown potatoes here in north of Ireland but have only had enough to storesome in rates in the potting shed. I vaguely remember my daddy and older brother building a clamp of potatoes outside after halloween to save them for use throughout the winter. They put down a good base of dry rushes and straw piled the potatoes on top and happed them up with more dry rushes and straw covered with a deep layer of soil all over the top. Lastly they covered the entire mound with a generous blanket of rushes and weighted it all down with ropes and old tyres and posts. The potatoes were good to eat until the earliest of the new potatoes could be lifted about May.

@tammyjoeesser582

9 ай бұрын

Thank you for the clear explanation of how to do it 😊

Try screened holes for ventilation. Avoid mold moisture.

@gardengrowngroceries

14 күн бұрын

I’ve seen some people using a pvc elbow on the lid for ventilation but others didn’t so I wasn’t sure it was really necessary. Thanks. I’ll try it this year

First time here at your ch.😊 Love to see how to grow stuff ? Your family is blessed to have you..😊

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

Thank you. I keep telling my family that. They seem dubious :)

If you go to a rental place and rent a two-man auger, you can get that done pretty dang fast and you could do several holes in the day that you have the auger. The auger is about $125 a day. We rented one for some solid tubes for fence posts. I believe it was a 12 inch auger. They probably make them bigger to rent a.

Maybe fill the inside of the lid with spray foam to insulate the lid ?

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

That's a good idea. I just might do that

Wow !!.. Quite amazing!! 😊 Thanks for the idea..

@gardengrowngroceries

Ай бұрын

You’re welcome!

Thanks for the demo!

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

Your welcome. Thanks for watching

I'm in Zone 7A in NE TN. I harvest whatever I can, but noticed that if I accidentally leave tiny potatoes in the ground, they come up the next year and I have potatoes again. This year I'm making a whole bed of nothing but potatoes with the intent of deliberately leaving some in the ground to see what happens next year. Stay tuned! 😸 I suspect that the garbage can method would probably work better for folks in Zones 6 and below.

@gardengrowngroceries

Ай бұрын

You’re probably right. My potatoes survived the ai tree in the root cellar. They mostly remained firm but they did sprout much more than I anticipated. I know back in the day they used to store potatoes in a clamp, a dirt mound they would cover with straw for the winter and dig them up in the spring. So leaving them in the ground would probably work. With that said, I had a potato sprout on my last fall that I accidentally left in the ground. I left it there for the winter and it never regrew. However, 3 other potatoes that I didn’t know about and they resprouted this spring and are growing. So you have a good chance of getting potatoes next year

You have to get the potatoes sprouting eyes to replant them. We've done it and it worked out fine.

@gardengrowngroceries

5 ай бұрын

Awesome! That should work out fine this year then :)

I have had potatoes running for months at a time. If you accidentally miss one, you're going to start a new crop. But I'm in Texas.

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

That year-round growing climate could make a difference, at least in being able to get a harvest out of the plant. I guess the best way to know is for me to just try it. Take a potato I've dug up and stick it in the ground again and see what happens.

Great Video. Definitely need to make me one of those root cellars. I've only been growing potatoes now for about 4 years. This year something eat all the leaves off my plants. Had to harvest early and didn't get potatoes as big as I'd like. Any idea how to stop that in the future? Do I need to cover them at night?

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

My potatoes have been a bit of a disappointment this year too. Less than half of what I was anticipating based on what I've grown before. I've seen a number of gardeners report similar low yields (and a few reporting bumper crops). Maybe it's a weather thing. As for whatever's eating your leaves, I only saw signs of that at the very end of the plants life so I wasn't too concerned about it. If you have insect netting, covering the plants could certainly help

Did you remove the taproot from the beets, turnips and rutabagas prior to storing them in the can or is that a new root? Maybe they wouldn’t have grown again had the taproot been removed? Just curious. Great idea either way.

Would sand work? I’ve heard of storing carrots in sand.

@gardengrowngroceries

Ай бұрын

I’ve heard that too. Damp )not wet) sand is supposed to help carrots store for a long time. I’m planning on growing an excess amount of carrots this year and will be trying that method

Good experiment...but, store bought potatoes are often sprayed so they won't sprout. Your home grown may still sprout....it would be interesting to see if that is the case.

@sheila9573

Жыл бұрын

Not true...all mine sprout... bought directly from the store.

@gailsgardenherbsmore1605

Жыл бұрын

@@sheila9573 sometimes they do an sometimes not. I've had both.

@chaseoklahoma7267

Жыл бұрын

I planted organic potatoes from the store and got a great harvest this year

@gailsgardenherbsmore1605

Жыл бұрын

@@chaseoklahoma7267 Yes! That's what I plant too...organic store bought.

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

So far I haven't had that experience. My russets, which were all store bought, have been producing nicely. And they were just regular potatoes out of a bag as you can see in the video. The potatoes I had the most trouble with this year were the certified seed potatoes I bought. Crazy times

Where will you keep all the potatoes after they cured? Do you think you are able to store enough veggies to make this cellar worth it?

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

I hope so. I recently obtain a community garden plot which will expand my garden size so I should be able to grow more than I previously did. I'm going to try to store the potatoes in the interim in my basement. Of course, if successful, that raises the question of why bother with the trashcan? Hey! It was a fun project! :)

@tammywhite9229

Ай бұрын

@@gardengrowngroceriesmine chitted that I had in a cool room (50-60) year round. I want to try the trash can method.

@gardengrowngroceries

Ай бұрын

@@tammywhite9229 turns out the trash can worked out well. I also stored some in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator. To be honest I think they did better but the trash can worked quite well.

will bears dig something like this up ?

@gardengrowngroceries

6 ай бұрын

Bears are not a problem that I've had, and I haven't seen anyone else online report a bear issue, but I imagine a determined hungry bear might try. I did find what I thought were mouse holes dug alongside the can, but obviously, they weren't able to get in, which is why I think a metal can is better than the plastic ones I've seen some people use. Cheers!

Cans buried in the ground for potato storage... Earwig problem! ☹️ They eat potatoes.

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

Hasn't been my experience...yet! But it's only been one year

@pamskinner9490

20 күн бұрын

How would earwigs get into a can sealed with a tight lid?

I tried storing my potatoes one year in the basement in sand. Thinking! They say put your tools in there and they won't rust right? Sounded like a good idea. NOT.. They had grown all winter in there. LOL Epic Fail

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

Ha! I did that one year but with straw. By springtime my potatoes had footlong-plus stems sticking out of them. I did see a video by MIGardener where he said "plant 'em anyway!" If it happens again I will try that

Do you and your wife can as well ? Or do you sell your veggies?😊

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

We don't sell, but we do can. I try to split between canning and freezing

Cans buried in the ground... Earwig problem!

@gardengrowngroceries

Жыл бұрын

It certainly wasn’t an issue last year and that could be because the galvanized can has a tight fitting lid. A plastic can doesn’t provide such a good deal and might invite such problems. But I’ll keep an eye on it over time

Florida, I don't think it will work. To much humidity??? Maybe

@gardengrowngroceries

8 ай бұрын

That could very well be. I just did a quick internet search and found Florida university extensions saying they are not practical in Florida and much of the south precisely because of heat and humidity. Bummer

@DaveE99

Күн бұрын

@@gardengrowngroceries but don’t potatoes need like 90% humidity, or is it the heat that screws it as don’t they need 45°F. I wonder what the ground temp is at different temps through the year there. I know I can do ice baths inside with 45°F water off the hose from outside in winter (colder than inside faucets) (I just have to drag it inside and have a shut off valve at end) and I can do an ice bath pretty quickly in winter. It’s July now and the soil temp out of the outside hose is like 65°F which is what the inside faucet is at lowest. But it’s is nice that for a certain number of months I have this option to trigger my heat stress proteins and decrease inflamation and increase dopamine and norepinephrine and feel amazing.