Making Our Own Potato Boxes

I asked my husband, David to help me build potato boxes for maximum production from the four flats of potato starts I had growing in my greenhouse. I had one of Russets, one Reds, one Fingerling and one Yukon Gold.

Notice the Amazon smile? My flats are made from cardboard boxes or soda flats. These plants are definitely ready to get in the ground. The picture on the right shows the sprout coming from the potato piece. When I'm ready to plant, I just gently pull the roots apart as they get all entwined. You could also plant each potato piece in a separate pot or directly into the ground if it's warm enough. We just had such a wet winter, that I started mine under a grow light in the garage.

This next picture shows the roots of the potato. Notice the small red potato in the middle? They're producing already.

So to build our boxes, we started out intending them to be 8 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet high. I was actually wanting to use scrap fence boards, but David wanted the boxes to look new. (One year of sun and rain exposure would take care of that.) We went to Lowe's to price the lumber and it would cost about $80 each. That could buy alot of potatoes thus defeating the purpose of growing your own potatoes. Unless you just want to grow your own no matter the costs. But my intention is too save money so it's back to recycling fence boards. That means my boxes will only be 5 feet long now.

We started out first thing Sunday morning having purchased self-starting wood screws and using some 2x4s we had on hand. To build 4 boxes we used 4 8-foot 2x4s cut to 2-foot lengths. My husband decided to use his chain saw since it was quicker.

We cut 2 end pieces from fence boards also 2-feet long. We attached the 5-foot boards as sides to the 2x4s. I love that electric chain saw - very quiet and no smelly smoke.

Using the drill with a phillips bit makes it easy to assemble and disassemble.

Adding the ends.

Finished boxes and they're stackable.  

The area before placing the boxes.

Boxes in place.

Potatoes planted in box. You start with the bottom slats on the box. Then as your potatoes grow and you add straw, compost or sawdust,  you just add more boards until you reach the top. By the time you harvest - once the potatoes bloom and the plants start to wilt - you have a box full of potatoes. (I'm glad the boxes weren't longer than 5 feet because they would have been hard to move.)

Now that my potatoes are planted, it's time to practice a little companion planting. The concept of companion planting is to plant crops together that benefit each other in some way wether by chasing away pests or promoting better growth. So I planted onion sets all along the front and on the west end. Then I planted Bok Choy and cabbage in front of the boxes. Mixing plants is also a way to avoid insect pests as they get confused by the different plants. (Do not plant potatoes near tomatoes.) And voila, my work is done. Now we just had to build 4 more to accomodate all my potato plants. I still had some plants leftover for my grandson and my mom.

My little friend Christopher modeling my first box. Don't know
what the deal is with the mouth.

Big brother Ricky had to join in. Now they're just showing off.