potatoes

[ms.shell]

i have never grown them before. we are in the middle of planting our 2 veggie beds and i did not plan for potatoes. DP just called and said a friend wants to give him a big bag of potatoes that have been growing already in his garden. We are in zone 8b, so it gets hot and we are now planting summer things; tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash. Is it too late to be thinking about planting potatoes? I could allocate some space in one of the beds, but i am not sure that is a good idea, because what i am reading talks about mounding the soil as they grow, which might be weird or messy in the regular bed. DP said he could start a new bed just for potatoes, but i am having trouble thinking of where- our backyard is pretty much full with beds already. I have a big rubbermaid bin and am wondering about using it as a grow box, or some other large container....
But the main thing i want to know is if it is too late to be planting potatoes or if we should bother. And if so, whether i should plan space in the garden for them or whether i can use this bin...it is 16" wide by 24", and 16" deep....maybe that is too shallow....would that be a big enough container? or what else would work better?
any potato advice for a newbie would be much appreciated!

[onthemove]

I live in zone 6b and we can't plant our potatoes until end of May and harvest in October. Last year was my first year of growing potatoes and I grew 4 different varieties and they all produced well. (we are still eating them) I think potatoes are forgiving. We dug a deep row, put in the seed potatoes, and as they grow take the loose dirt from around the plant to hill the potato plant. I would take a few plants and just try it out and learn from there! I have no experience with containers but can't see why it wouldn't work.

[ambersrose]

People have mixed opinons about this method but you can grow the potatoes in a large trash bag. Do a search for the specifics and decide if it would work for you.

[Daffodil]

I've never gardened anywhere that warm, but I don't see any reason why it would be too late to plant potatoes now. They're more cold hardy than, say, tomatoes, so they can be planted earlier, but as long as there's enough time left before frost for them to mature, I think they should be fine whenever you plant them.

You don't really have to do the soil mounding thing. You need to make sure there's room for the new potatoes to grow above the seed potato you plant, so if you don't plant the seed potatoes very deep, you'll need to add a lot of soil or mulch as the plants grow. But if you plant them reasonably deep, say 8 inches, you won't really need to mound up soil around the plants, though you will still probably want to make sure they have a thick layer of straw (or similar mulch) over them to protect any potatoes near the surface from sunlight.

I think that bin sound a little small, but maybe you could grow one or two plants in it.

[ms.shell]

thanks for the replies. i think i will give them a bit of space in the garden then, and just plant them pretty deep. thanks again for your help.

[MsVyky]

We've always grown potatoes by chucking the old ones from the kitchen into a bag of potting soil and cutting a few holes


We are Zone 3A- barren wasteland. LOL