No need to over complicate growing potatoes. This vegetable will grow just about anywhere, so long it’s not waterlogged.
Growing them in cardboard boxes is an easy way to not only grow potatoes but help kill off grass for a future garden bed.
Here I go into how to properly put together a cardboard box full of seed potatoes.
Let’s Dive In…
Growing Potatoes in Cardboard Boxes | Instructions
And yes, you can grow storebought potatoes, just make sure they are organic.
Tools you Need
Medium to Large sized cardboard boxes: boxes without plastic pictures on them is best.
Dirt: Can be native dirt from your yard, or potting soil, or fill dirt
Straw, pine litter, dried grass, or old bedding for mulch; you see old straw from the chicken/duck runs from the winter prior in the photos
Instructions
- Prepare your potatoes. Let them sprout, then cut them into pieces. See Other Tips below for more on preparing potatoes for planting.
- Pick your spot: the cardboard boxes will kill off grass underneath, so create a spot you want to make into a garden bed afterwards for the future. Potatoes need full sun.
- Fold any flaps down inside the box. This will create a thicker wall to help make the box last longer in the summer.
- Fill your box halfway with dirt.
- Next, get your potatoes. Find the sprouted eyes. Place your potatoes a few inches apart, with the sprouted eyes facing up. No need to bury the potatoes.
- Fill the box with your mulch, to the top.
- Water well. And wait. Potato sprouts should be seen above the mulch within two weeks or so.
- Later in the summer, you can harvest your potatoes after the plants above the mulch die back. Simply cut the cardboard and dig up your potatoes. Old cardboard can be left on the ground as a weed barrier with the dirt left on top for next summer’s new garden bed.
Other Tips
Preparing potatoes:
- Allow your potatoes to sprout as much as they want.
- About a week or two before planting, cut them into smaller pieces, leaving 1-2 eyes or sprouts on each piece.
- Allow them to sit in an egg carton to dry up. For 1-2 weeks.
- Plant them sprout side up.
This process is called chitting. It’s a way to make your seed potatoes stretch farther to get more potatoes out of your harvest.
That’s It!
This applies to all types of potatoes or sweet potatoes.
Cardboard boxes are not the most aesthetically pleasing looking things, but they are a great way to not only grow potatoes but take a load of work off your back when trying to create more garden beds in the ground.
You can jar them up after harvest, or stick them in a dark, cool, semi humid place for winter.
Enjoy!
-Chelsea, The Cottage Vegetable
- Canning Plain Pumpkin (& how to purée it later) | Pressure Canning Recipe & Video
- Mini Fruit Tree Guild for Small Gardens | Companion Plant for Dwarf Apples or Pears
- April: It’s time to get your hands dirty!
- Pressure Canning Carrots & Onions, with Herbs | Raw Pack Method
- Growing Potatoes in Cardboard Boxes (with pictures)
Use coupon code COTTAGEVEG10 for 10% off your purchase site wide at OLLE GARDENS
12-IN 1 Metal Raised bed in Barn Red, featured in my own personal garden
The Cottage Vegetable
Gardening & Preserving for a Practical Kitchen
Coupon Codes, Disclaimers, Disclosures Here
Visit The Cottage Vegetable Shop
Garden for your Kitchen: A practical guide to plan and plant a backyard garden that actually helps you in the kitchen
E-Book link, in the SHOP.
“A frugal garden is a used garden: one where every pound of produce can be brought to the kitchen and used”– Chelsea, The Cottage Vegetable
The Cottage Vegetable 