| Matt, Unfortunately Caribe is an early potato variety with a DTM of approximately 70-90 days so it wouldn't be a good candidate for growing in a potato bin. Other early season types to avoid if you use this method include Red Dale, Cranberry Red, Onaway and, of course, Caribe and Yukon Gold as you mentioned. Some late-season potatoes that are generally available through online retailers include Bintje, Russet Burbank, Carola, Red Cloud, Island Sunshine, King Harry, German Butterball, Butte, All Blue, Russian Banana and all other fingerling types, Elba, Snow White and Rio Grande. I've grown potatoes in bins some years and the degree of success varies from year to year and is highly reliant on soil fertility and rainfall. You have to have very good fertile soil at the ground level and plant the seed potatoes into that. You have to provide adequate moisture throughout the growing season. The material you use in your bin can vary from compost to soil (nothing too sandy that will dry out too much and nothing too clayey that will hold too much moisture)to hay or straw or chopped/shredded leaves, etc. When I grow in bins, I use a combination of all the above, making sure that there's an inch of soil or compost for every two or three inches of straw, hay, grass clippings etc. In our climate, the bins can dry out very quickly in hot, dry years. Success with this method seems highly variable--some folks love it while others think it isn't worth the effort. It helps if you understand how potatoes grow. The potatoes need to form good roots in a rich, well-draining soil so the plants will be healthy and grow vigorously. You need those good, healthy roots to give you good healthy stems and lots of foliage. As you hill up the soil (if growing in-ground) or add layers of organic matter/soil (if growing in bins), stolons will form along the underground portion of the main stems. These stolons will grow laterally for a short distance and at the end of each stolon, tubers (potatoes) eventually form. This is the only place tubers will form--along the underground (or undermulch) stem's stolons that are produced between the original seed potato piece and the soil surface. Research has shown that maximum productivity results when the final depth of the original seed potato is 6" to 8" below the soil surface so you don't gain more tomatoes by planting more deeply, whether you're planting underground or above ground. It is mostly the health/abundance of your foliage that determines how many tubers form and how large they grow. Without great foliage to conduct photosynthesis, you won't have numerous tubers or large ones. So, don't forget that the general health and vigor of the plants is what will make it a great versus poor producer. The main advantage to bin systems is that there's less heavy digging involved and the harvest is easier. I do not necessarily see larger yields with potatoes in bins versus those in the ground. Sometimes the ones in the ground produce slightly better yields and sometimes the ones in the ground produce slightly better yields. Like everything else in the garden, yield seems to have more to do with growing conditions and variety, and less to do with bin-growing versus trenches versus mulch growing. I was going to trench plant all my 2010 potatoes in a new section of garden that we rototilled up in the fall in our band of sandy soil. Heavy rainfall is making me rethink that because right now if you walk in that area, you sink down into the heavily saturated soil. I may go with bin planting because of the high moisture level in the ground and the nearly continuous winter raifall. I'll have to decide in the next couple of weeks because it is almost time to plant. You can read about other gardener's experiences with potato bins, bags, or boxes at the Vegetable Forum here at Garden Web. A lot of those folks tried it either in 2007 or in 2008 and some had moderate success, but from what I remember reading at the time they were doing it, a lot of them had disappointing yields. I don't think nearly as many tried it in 2009. Dawn |
