My Journey To Growing Potatoes In Buckets

My Journey To Growing Potatoes In Buckets

My earliest recollection of growing potatoes was in my back garden of the home I lived in when I was 7 helping my Dad. We did the traditional digging a trench spacing potatoes out at 100mm - 150mm centres (well 4" - 6" as we had not gone metric then) in rows, and then as they started to grow, "Earthing Them Up" piling soil 120mm - 200mm ( 5" - 8") high around the stems to encourage tuber growth and prevent sunscald. The mounding increases the underground stem area, boosting yields and is traditionally done 1 - 2 times, stopping when plants flower.     

Originally back in April 2013 my first year on an allotment, I decided not to grow potatoes in the traditional way i.e. trench cover and earth up.

I marked up a 2.4m timber with the centres for the potatoes, 240mm and used the Auger to dig neat 75mm holes 150 - 200mm ish deep - and handful of compost and then popped the potatoes into holes, covered with compost then a layer of native soil.

I then racked up the soil as we had a frost the previous night, as I had read that some people pre mound their spuds and I thought it may offer a little more protection.  

So on the back of the photograph you can see the four potato beds in June 2013, but in amongst the potato Haulms, the stems or potato foliage above ground were lots of weeds. It was during this first year that I mentioned to a work associate that I had an allotment and he informed me that he had been a plot holder for many years and sent me photos of his weed free spuds grown through weed membrane as he hated dealing with the weeds.

So I decided the have a bash at it in 2014 and decided to make a sheet a bed size 2.4 x 1.2m and cut the holes for planting the spuds and for the Haulms to find there way out of the ground. Potatoes are not stupid the foliage wants to find the fastest way to the surface which is straight up. The weed membrane keeps the moisture from evaporating too quickly in very hot weather and the sun beating (OK it's the UK) occasional shining on the soil via the hole in the membrane, it draws the foliage to the surface and the hole in the membrane.

So that second year 2014, I decided to use the same configuration in the weed membrane as I had the first when planting without membrane. That's the layout on the left, the hole diameter is 100mm as I have a soil hand Auger that is 75mm dia and I needed a little tolerance. last year I created the weed membrane layout on the right for second early where the recommended distance was less and the three holes with crosses had pop bottles with pin holes sunk in the ground head first, so that I could water at depth. Its easy to extend the height of the pop bottles by cutting them off at the bottom and stacking them upside down as the Haulms get taller.

As my soil is clay based, I use the Windowed Auger head below. I only have this bit of kit as I use it for taking soil samples for work as a structural engineer, my neighbouring plot holder uses a long handle bulb planter to plant his spuds

The biggest mistake I made the first year using weed membrane was in cutting the weed membrane with scissors. 

This is the amount of fraying that took place in a single year, and I decided to trim and fix the sheets by using a soldering iron, from that day on I have cut all my new sheets using the soldering iron as it seals the edges and you don't end up with shaggy weed membrane. See my post Planting Membrane

Short Video

So here was the potato beds in 2014, I had managed to acquire quite a lot of plastic trim from the window replacement company that was moving to make way for the housing development behind the allotment. 

I replaced the green lawn edging to the beds, that went brittle in the second year with plastic trim and I also used it along the length on the edge of the membrane placing soft bricks, i.e. milk bottles filled with sand on it to stop the weed membrane blowing away. That's pallet wooden slats either end of the bed, and some scrap timber in the middle.

The soft bricks weren't a good idea it turned out as the plastic went brittle and decomposed under sunlight, and I ended up emptying all the sand and putting the milk bottles in the recycle bin.

Using the weed membrane on spuds, I would say worked very well for me, for a long time. I very quickly made specific sheets for Sprouts, Cabbages, Cauliflower, Sweet corn, and in 2014 I also used them for Onions, Spring Onions and Beetroots, the less weeding I have to do the more I love my allotment.

In 2016, I had upgraded two of the bed edgings to recycled timber joists. Once again I used the soil Auger and planted through the weed membrane.  

In 2017, I again had four beds of spuds in the ground planted via weed membrane, however, I also undertook The SoilFixer SF60 Potatoes in Buckets Experiment which was planned way back at the end of 2016 when Tony Callaghan the Managing Director of SoilFixer asked me if I would be interested and like to trial some. 

Now if someone wants to provide me with free products to trial, it would be rude to refuse wouldn't it? As long as they understand that I will be impartial and give an honest review and opinion of the product when I blog about it. 

I'm happy to give anything gardening and allotment related a try. I especially like the SoilFixer kind of trial because the facts and results will speak for themselves. 

SoilFixer SF60 Potatoes in Buckets Results

Marshalls also started to sell their potato buckets, and got wind of the fact I was going to undertake the experiment and offered me to trial them, so I did as part of the experiment. 

They were obviously not a good seller as Marshalls dropped the product a few years ago. They can still be found if you do a google search for them, but they are a bit of a gimmick.  

I did try making my own version using the flower buckets when Morrisons were selling flower buckets 8 for 99p for a contribution to Charity. I melted the holes in one and then tried putting it into another, but they were a bugger to get apart and I dropped that idea.  

Having a friend who worked for TESCO he got me a number of their square flower buckets and for a while I started to grow the First Earlies in them 

I then made the decision that all the potatoes would be grown in Buckets I even bought more buckets to make that magic happen. The eight short square flower buckets of first early potatoes in the photo above were sown a couple of weeks before I caught covid.

The rest of the potatoes were sown into the Heavy Duty 30 Litre Plastic Container Pots / Tubs with Handles that I purchased from Elixir Gardens in February 2022 at £36.39 for 10 with Free Delivery to add to the similar pots I bought a few years ago.

The mesh baskets over was to stop the foxes from digging the spud out.  

In 2022, I completed mixing up the soil, compost Coir and fertiliser with the 600mm Power Planter and the Ryobi Drill and placed 4 Main Crop Java seed potatoes in each bucket.

Two Java main crop spuds at a 1/3 depth

Then two more added at 90 degrees to the first two at 2/3 depth finally topped up and then taken to bed 1 which is where I placed them this year. As the potatoes are harvested the contents of the buckets was placed on a bed that needed topping up. 

Bed 1 with the main crop java spuds in buckets, I really needed my sister to cut her grass and donate the grass to me for mulch on top of the spuds in buckets.

I have used a NPK Concentrated Potato Fertiliser, and worked out the average area of the pots to establish how much to use in each bucket.  

In June last year 2025, I bought 10 number 30 Litre Heavy-Duty Plant Pot with Handles when they were on offer for £30 with free delivery from Oakland Gardens Ltd which was cheaper than the 10 that I got from Elixir in February 2022 at £36.39 for 10

I have found that the 30 Litre Heavy-Duty Plant Pot with Handles – Durable, UV & Frost-Resistant Plastic Planter from Oakland Gardens look and proved to be better engineered and manufactured than the ones from Elixir that have a flat base to them.

The Oakland Garden 30L Plant Pot with Handles have been designed and manufactured with a dual-tier base system and drainage holes to prevent waterlogging and promote excellent drainage and thus healthy root growth, plus it stiffens up the base of the pot. I guess its the ex R&D and Structural Engineer in me that notices these kind of things.  

I have used these pots for larger plants, Potatoes and other vegetables, and small trees, in the past.

I've lost a few of my old plastic tugs when the handles split, so I now use these plant pots with handles instead of plastic garden tugs, as they are made of Heavy-Duty Plastic, which is UV-stable plastic, frost-resistant, and impact-proof plastic that won’t crack, fade, or become brittle in tough weather, and I don't have to make holes in them to let the water drain away.  

They are ideal for storing woodchips, I had half a dozen pots squirreled away for nine months as I wanted to make sure I had some mulch worth woodchips. 

At the moment I have half a dozen filled with cut raspberry canes that I will be burning when I can get to the allotment an hour before dusk when it's dry and we can have incinerator fires.  

As my tugs are depleting I have a few full of weeds 

I do recommend that you sign up for the Oakland Gardens Newsletter so you receive notifications on news and special offers, as there is bound to be one on 30 Litre Heavy-Duty Plant Pot with Handles in the next in March  

These type of pots are very popular with allotment plot holders, because they are so useful, and I did have a few that were, how would one say nicely, borrowed without an intention to return or consent. As a result of this experience, I ended up branding the handles of those that I had left with my trusty soldering iron.  

Now I'm installing raised beds as I can no longer get on my hands and knees to sow or weed due to my mobility issues, following my cancer treatment. I have many 30L pots with handles that I'm decanting the soil from the framed beds into.

I backfilled the excavation and the first level of the raised bed constructed from scaffold boards, with tree trunks and branches and woodchip  

I then add compost greens, coffee grounds and leaves, then decant the soil back into the top level (width of the second scaffold board) of the raised bed.   

I had another 20 of The Oakland Garden 30L Plant Pot with Handles delivered Thursday afternoon, as I will soon need to use them for my potatoes once the last frost date has come and gone for my allotment.

To find the Last Frost Date Based On Your Postcode for your garden or allotment use the hyperlink.  

When its time to harvest the potatoes from the buckets/ pots I have a large garden tray that was gifted to me as the corner was damaged by a company that uses them under water tanks to capture any leaks. I place the tray on one of the raised beds, then lift the pot with handles and empty it on the tray and then dig in and extract the potatoes. 

The potatoes on the left have been brushed off with a wide paint brush and the spuds go home clean. 

I'm glad I made the transition to growing all my potatoes in buckets, not just the first earlies.