# How to Build a Potato Tower



## Debbie_Davis (Mar 28, 2011)

Now that I've built a potato tower, what do I do with it???


----------



## Tee (Mar 26, 2009)

Hi Debbie, once you have the potato tower built, fill it with a soil mix and plant your seed potatoes in it. I have an article on that coming tomorrow.


----------



## Sy (Mar 29, 2011)

I tried with stacked tyres and got to seven high with the plant still thriving out of the top but not one potato (except the original seed). Any explanation?Thanks


----------



## Tee (Mar 26, 2009)

Hi Sy - I'm not real sure what went wrong. Did you add soil, or straw as you went up with the tires? You need soil or straw for the potatoes to grow in.


----------



## Horatio (May 11, 2011)

A website where you can buy great potato towers is: henleypotatotower.co.uk

They have a tower which stacks up. It also has holes in the side so you can put some of the stalks outside at all levels so that there is more foliage which means more potatoes can grow. It also comes with a polycarbonate lid to keep the frost off in the early weeks. It's a very good product that lasts a long time and works!

If that's not enough they also have a £500 competition for the gardener who produces the most potatoes in a tower in a year!


----------



## Brian4 (Dec 29, 2011)

Awesome set of plans, wanted to try it for my first year garden this year, but was too busy. Going to be a fun winter project - definitely going with the 2" x 6" composite boards... Thanks for the plans and posting! Semper Fidelis!


----------



## Josh1 (Feb 5, 2012)

I built a 4 foot high tower, 2ftx2ft, this last summer. I used Mel's Mix for the soil. The plants grew wonderfully all summer as I dutifully filled the box as they grew. At harvest time, only the top 6 inches had any potatoes. The bottom 3 1/2 feet had nothing but dirt. No roots, nothing. I have no idea what happened?
Any ideas?


----------



## Tee (Mar 26, 2009)

Hi Josh,

Sorry to hear that your plants did not produce as you'd hoped. 

To be honest, these towers did not produce as well as I'd hoped too. I grew two towers - one with Red Pontiac potatoes, one with German Butterball.

I received maybe 1 pound of potatoes total.

After considering what went right and what went wrong, I believe it comes down to:

1) You need to use the right kind of potato. Most people I've talked to that grew potatoes successfully in a similar tower have said late season potatoes work best. So you shouldn't use early or mid-season potatoes.

2) The tower needs to be shorten by at least a foot. I think building a 2-foot or 30-inch tower would work much better.

I have a photo gallery on the Veggie Gardener Facebook Page tracking the entire progress of the potato towers from start to harvest. You can check it out here - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150173734413358.300961.219530763357&type=3


----------



## linda_hergert (Mar 6, 2012)

will this work for sweet potatoes


----------



## Tee (Mar 26, 2009)

Hi Linda - one of fabulous members of our Facebook Page tried this with sweet potatoes last season and it worked really well. I think it actually worked better for her sweet potatoes than it did for my potatoes. It'as worth a try! I will note that she lives in a warm climate and the long season helps with sweet potatoes!


----------



## Kay2 (Apr 9, 2012)

Are you sure about those plans? If you screw each side 3/4" in and 1" down , when connecting the sides the screws will hit each other !!


----------



## Elayne_Gilhousen (May 1, 2014)

What issue was the tower of potatoes in Fine Gardening? I miss laid the magazine and I want to build of fence ,straw, compost and soil. ,I already have secured seed potatoes


----------



## Ray_White (Sep 22, 2014)

Two comments: First, in my desert environment I would make the tower 3' x 3' or even 4' x 4' so it wouldn't dry out too fast (or possibly lining the inside boards with plastic would help keep moisture in?) and I'd line the bottom with hardware cloth to keep pocket gophers out.

Second: you can make a potato tower out of chicken wire and straw. Just cut off a length of chicken wire, bend it into a circle and hook the ends together, then add a layer of clean straw, plant your potatoes and as they grow add layer after layer of clean straw. At the end of the season just unhook the chicken wire ends and harvest your nice clean potatoes.


----------

