Potato Towers are a cool way to grow a lot of potatoes in a small space without the need to dig, weed, hill potatoes. It is a disability friendly way to grow spuds!

YouTube has videos on building potato towers. Here are the tips the videos don’t include.

Potato tower dimensions

• 3 ft X 4 ft,
• 2 ft X 3 ft
• Measure mesh needed calculate tower circumference (rx2)x3.14
• (2×18)x3.14=113 inch circumference or 9.4 feet of mesh for 3 ft round tower
• (2×12)x3.14=75 inch circumference or 6.3 feet of mesh for a 2 ft round tower

Materials

1. Mesh, chose either
   • Wire mesh with min. 2 inch square openings. Cut with tin snips , or other wire cutters. Chicken wire will work as long as you wear heavy gloves, it’s really pokey.
   • Plastic snow fencing – cut with scissors.
2. Twine
   • to sew/weave tower together and hold watering tube in place
3. Dried Leaves , 2-4 garbage bags worth
4. Soil or Compost/soil mix, 2-4 bags or one heaping wheelbarrow
5. Chaff or straw, 1/2 a square bale
   • Make your own nutrient rich chaff using dry stalks from last year’s plants. Wrap stalks in polyester cloth. Stomp or repeated drive over stalk bundle until stalks are broken into 4-6 inch pieces.
   • Straw has no nutrients.
6. Bone or Blood meal or soaked Alfalfa pellets
7. Potatoes – 4-5 potatoes per layer.
   • Use seed potatoes, old store potatoes that are sprouting. *To grow store bought potatoes wash with soapy water to remove growth inhibitor. Dry, and place in cloth bag or cardboard box for 3-6 weeks.
8. Polyester material at least 6 inches wider than towers.
   • Polyester will not rot and can be used for years. I use a cheap tablecloth.
9. Garden stakes
10. 1/2 inch PVC tube with 3/16 inch holes drilled up and down the pipe every 4-6 inches, capped at one end.

How to Build Potato Tower

1. Use twine or yarn to sew/weave edges of tower together. 
   • I start with a short tower then secure the second tower to it when the short tower is full.
2. Pick a sunny spot to plant tower.
   • Towers can be place in large containers, on top of mulch, or on the lawn.
3. Set tower on polyester material
4. Stake down material
5. It is ready to be planted!

How to Plant Potato Tower 

1. Loosely line the inside of the tower with 6-8 inches of straw or chaff. Make it loose, you can see light through it. 
2. Fill with 4-6 inches of leaves. 
3. Sprinkle leaves with bone meal/wet alfalfa pellets. 
4. Place 4-5 potatoes around the edges of the tower.
5. Cover with enough dirt to cover the potatoes. Not a lot of soil is needed.
6. Water gently, just so the soil is damp. Add more soil if needed.
7. Place watering tube vertically in the centre of tower. Use twine or cotton string to hold it in place.
8. Repeat planting process until the tower is full.
9. Check frequently that tower is standing straight.
10. Water using the tube and soak all the outside edges of the tower. Tower is properly soaked when water runs out the sides. Big towers can hold 45 min. of water once or twice a week depending on the weather. 
11. Potatoes are ready to harvest in 90-120 days.

Harvesting Potato Tower

1. Ideally harvest after 90-120 days. We harvested one year in Oct. after it had snowed. The spuds did not freeze in their tower.
2. Harvesting supplies. Sacks or buckets to hold potatoes. Small shovel. Wheelbarrow or buckets to hold soil. Disability option: stool or garden seat.
3. Cut all the potato tops from the tower. Compost or use as chaff for next year.
4. Empty each layers of the tower by hand.
   • Everything that is not a potato is saved for next year’s planting.
   • Notice the leaves are all now soil!
5. Unclip top tower if you used 2 towers on top of each other. 
6. Halfway down the second tower, lift off the second tower off, or undo the sides. 
7. Continue harvesting.
8. Potatoes store better if they are dirty.
9. Store dirty potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place.
10. Put everything away. 
11. That sheet/tablecloth you put underneath the towers will catch most of the dirt. Otherwise you get tower humps.

Disability and Family Friendly

Potato towers not only save space they are a disability friendly way to grow spuds.

• Can be grown anywhere that is sunny.
• No bending!
• Can be planted and harvested while sitting.
• Children enjoy helping with this project.
• Big harvest in a small space.

Tips

1. Take your time and take frequent breaks. 
2. Ask for help. If you share the crop your friends and the curious will help.
   • Feed and water your helpers.
3. Rather than bending or kneeling, use a plastic foot stool, garden chair, or get the neighbour’s young child to plant/pick the low stuff. Permission to dig in dirt appeals to young children. 
4. Water in the morning or evening. 
5. Use a calendar to note when you planted the potatoes.
6. Optional, feed your potatoes a gallon of compost tea every 2-3 weeks after leaves poke out of the side.

Potato towers in the garden.

I have a no-till garden. It is mulch with raised beds, potato towers and perennials.