Growing Potatoes

I decided to record the details about how I planted potatoes this year since I didn't do the traditional route and I am curious about how this method will turn out.  So far it isn't looking great.

We went the cage route this year.  With the boys help, I build 6 tall cylinder cages out of wire fencing.  I used a bale of straw to spread around the sides of the cage, poured in some soil, and then placed the potato spuds on top of the soil.  I topped it off with more soil and watered it.

It started with only about 6-12 inches of soil at the bottom and it didn't seem like it took very long to see green leaves poking up through the soil.

I decided to make have three more cylinders, but this time I used three that were already made and someone had just given them to me.  They were wider and shorter.

 The plants seemed to sprout like crazy, and now, at the end of July it's been two months since things were planted and seven out of the five cages have a lot of green growing in them.

I noticed a couple weeks ago that two of the cages looked dead.  Not only were the plants dead, but they were now completely gone.  Since I have been working in the garden a lot, I decided to knock the two cages over and see what the cages had produced up to this point.

It wasn't good.

There were only potatoes in the bottom 12 inches of each cage and although these will taste great, it really isn't what I was hoping for.

Cage One

Cage Two

Everything I read said that there should be potatoes in the entire cage, as soil is added, potatoes will grow in layers.  That definitely didn't happen with these two.

Based on what I've read, this isn't the best method and trenches are the best way to grow potatoes, with raised beds being the second best way.  I'm hoping that the wider, shorter cages will be more similar to raised beds and will have a better yield.

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