How To Grow Potatoes In A 5-Gallon Bucket Indoors

If you want to learn how to grow potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket indoors you are in the right place. Learning how to grow your own food is fun and rewarding.

Key Takeaways

• Growing Potatoes In A 5-Gallon Bucket is an easy and efficient way to cultivate your own spuds indoors.

• Utilize coco coir as a growing medium, place a sprouted potato at the bottom, and fill the bucket progressively as the plant grows, ensuring good drainage by drilling holes at the bottom.

• The ideal setup also includes ample light, proper watering, and a cool, room-temperature environment for optimal growth.

Potatoes need a long growing season, good soil, good drainage, and moist soil. They will do well at room temperature and prefer growing in a cool place.

They are usually grown in acidic soil to prevent potato scab. Growing indoor potatoes will take time and it is not for folks looking for a quick harvest.

I use coco coir to grow potatoes plants indoors. Don’t try to use garden soil it will compact too much and it may bring in bugs or diseases.

I think 5-gallon buckets will give me enough depth. I also plant my potatoes a bit differently than most so I need a large container.

I don’t think I would use a smaller container. Besides a 5-gallon plastic bucket is easy to come by and they make great container gardens for larger plants like potatoes or tomatoes and peppers.

So I grow potatoes indoors in a 5-gallon bucket. I use coco coir as my potting mix and I plant my sprouted potato in the bottom of the bucket filling in around it as it grows towards the top.

I add a couple of inches of coco to the bottom of the bucket and place my potato on top of the soil.

Then in a couple of weeks, I fill in around it as it grows. I think that is the best way to grow potatoes. Even when they are grown outdoors farmers hill up their plants.

I actually drilled holes in the bottom of the bucket and placed it inside another bucket to catch any excess water.

Growing Potatoes In A 5-gallon Bucket Indoors Video

How To Grow Potatoes In A 5-gallon Bucket Indoors

Before you can grow potatoes indoors you will need a potato. Yes, we grow potatoes from potatoes.

Potatoes are a member of the Nightshade family. Like tomatoes or other plants in this family, the leaves are poisonous

So don’t try to eat them and let your pets eat them either.

Potatoes are grown from tubers. When conditions are right they will start to sprout and grow “eyes”. These grow into potato plants.

Certified Seed Potatoes Or Home Sprouted Spuds

You can use potatoes that have started to sprout if they are healthy. I used potatoes from the grocery store.

But some people use certified seed potatoes which are disease-free. I am also growing sweet potatoes with plants from the grocery store.

I have used both and the only advantage I see for certified seed potatoes is that you know what variety they are.

Most seed potatoes are treated and it’s hard to find organic potatoes but mine are because the spuds are from last year’s garden.

Preparing Seed Potatoes For Planting

Either way, once you have a potato sprouting eyes it is ready to plant. Some folks cut smaller pieces of them.

They end up with a chunk of potato attached to each eye. I like to use small seed potatoes instead.

I prefer planting whole potatoes. I think that an open cut is more prone to disease or fungus entering the plant.

How To Grow Potatoes In A Bucket Indoors

Most people like to fill a bucket up with soil mix and stick the plant on top. I don’t think you get the best yield that way.

I fill my bucket with several inches of soil and place my potato in the bottom with the sprouts partly above the soil. Actually, I use coco coir for my growing medium.

How Many Potatoes To Plant In A Bucket

I only planted one potato because it had multiple shoots coming out of it. I think you really only need one potato for a bucket.

As the stems grow I remove lower leaves and fill in around the stems with more coco coir. I leave a few leaves on top uncovered.

The leafless nodes will grow roots which in turn will grow potato tubers. I think you get more potatoes in your bucket this way.

Lighting

Potatoes prefer to grow in full sun. This part of my house is really a dark place. My garden is under a north-facing window which means it won’t get any direct sunlight so using a Spider Farmer SF2000 LED grow light is a good idea.

Why Use Coco Coir In Your Bucket?

By the way, my potato sprout came from red potatoes that I grew last year in coco and they did better than anything I’ve ever grown in soil.

They were gorgeous they had nice skin, no scab, no hollow potatoes they all had a nice shape. So potatoes do really really well in coco.

I really do recommend if you’re growing indoors that you use coco coir because peat is mined from our wetlands.

It takes thousands of years for a peat bog to develop and then we can destroy it in a matter of hours by harvesting the peat in there.

So it’s really not what I would call a renewable source and we need to save our wetlands.

So coco coir is made from coconut shells and you know in the places where it grows they harvest the coconuts and the shells are just a by-product.

You know and every year the trees grow more so it’s a totally renewable resource and you can also reuse it a bunch of times.

Whereas potting mix that’s peat-based, is really acidic about 4.0 to 4.5 pH but coco is pH neutral it’s around 6.0

They have to add lime to it so things will even grow in it and once that lime is depleted it’s pretty much useless again.

Plus it compacts which coco doesn’t do. Coco doesn’t need wetting agents as peat does either.

Coco is easy to water and wicks well and provides superior aeration compared to peat.

So there are some real advantages to using coco coir over potting mix and I really recommend you use that instead of potting mix.

Read how coco coir is made https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coir

Here is more information about growing in coco coir:

Potato Grow Bags

If you don’t want to use a bucket potato grow bags are a great alternative.

You can still use coco coir in them and you can still plant the same way I do.

Some potato grow bags come with a flap you can open to view the growth inside the bag. So if you’re the curious type you can peek in on them.

If you like baby potatoes this is a good way to get at them without pulling up or killing the plant.

I will update things when my plant starts growing so stay tuned if you want to learn more about how to grow potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket indoors.

Hilling Up Potatoes In A 5-gallon Bucket

So here is a picture of my potatoes growing in a 5-gallon bucket.

I have been removing foliage from the lower parts of the branches and filling it in around them with coco coir.

I will keep removing leaves and hilling up around the branches and will stop once they get above the bucket top.

Almost Done With The Hilling Process

So here is the bucket refilled with coco coir. I have one shoot shorter than the others so I can’t fill the bucket to the top.

But I should be able to get the bucket filled to the top very soon.

I dug in with my hand looking for some new potatoes but I did not find any. They are probably deep in the bottom of my potato container.

Potato Bucket Harvest Time

So I planted these potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket of coco back in May. Outdoors the vines would die back but indoors they are still alive in December.

The bucket was on the edge of my light and got dry a couple of times so they did not receive the best of care. But it was definitely time to harvest potatoes.

Also, these were supermarket potatoes so not certified and probably not the best variety for indoors.

I got a bit over 3 and a half pounds of spuds. There were no green potatoes.

Last year I grew potatoes in an outdoor garden bed and I think they yielded better, They were definitely bigger There were more mature potatoes.

Still, I would rather grow my own than buy store-bought potatoes. Next time I know I will get better results. Next year I might try different types of potato varieties like Yukon gold.

Here’s the video:

 

Growing Potatoes In Buckets FAQs

Diving into the process of growing potatoes indoors, especially in a 5-gallon bucket, might raise various questions, especially for beginners.

Our FAQ section aims to cover a spectrum of inquiries from the preparation stage to the harvesting phase.

Each question and answer segment is designed to provide thorough insights and ensure a fruitful potato growing journey, even within the constraints of indoor gardening.

Q. How do I prepare my seed potatoes for planting in a 5-gallon bucket?

A. Begin by selecting healthy sprouting potatoes or certified seed potatoes.

If using larger potatoes, you can cut them into chunks ensuring each piece has at least one eye.

However, using small whole potatoes with multiple eyes is preferable as it reduces the risk of disease.

Q. What type of soil is best for growing potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket indoors?

A. It’s advisable to use coco coir instead of garden soil as it provides better aeration, doesn’t compact, and is free from pests and diseases.

Moreover, coco coir is a renewable resource and maintains a neutral pH which is beneficial for potato growth.

Q. How often should I water my potato plants growing in a 5-gallon bucket indoors?

A. Keep the growing medium moist but not waterlogged. The frequency of watering may vary based on the room temperature and humidity.

It’s crucial to ensure good drainage to prevent water stagnation which can lead to rot.

Q. When and how should I harvest potatoes grown in a 5-gallon bucket indoors?

A. Harvesting can be done once the foliage starts to die back, or after 10-20 weeks of planting.

Gently empty the bucket and sift through the coco coir to collect your potatoes. It’s a fun process, almost like a treasure hunt!