Container gardening isn't only for savvy urban gardeners and folks with limited space to grow, it can also be for folks who want to maximize their yields in a controlled environment. Not only does growing potatoes in a barrel reduce the amount of weeding and exposure to pests and fungi, you don't even have to risk shovel-damage to the tender potatoes by digging them out of the ground when they're done, just tip the container over!

After extensive research to plan my own potatoes-in-a-barrel, I've boiled all of the recommendations down to 4 simple steps to a winning potato harvest.

1. Select and prepare a container

You'll need to pick out a container such as a 50-gallon trash barrel or one of those half whiskey barrel planters. Alternatively, you can buy used food-grade barrels or commercially-available potato planters. Just about any 2 to 3-foot tall container will work, but be sure to select a container that either already has holes in it, or is okay to cut holes in. Next you'll want to clean your container with a mild bleach solution to get out any of the nasties that have been lingering in there. If you don't want to use bleach, you can make a bleach alternative to use instead.

Good drainage is critical for the cultivation of healthy potatoes so you'll want to cut or drill a series of large drainage holes in the bottom and bottom sides of your container. Alternatively, you can cut out the bottom altogether and place it on a well-drained surface like your garden bed.

2. Choose a variety and plant potatoes

Seed potatoes can usually be found at nurseries early in the growing season, but you should only have to buy them once. If you can, “chit” or sprout your potatoes before planting them by setting them out in an egg carton, the side with the most buds facing up, and putting them in a cool light room out of direct sunlight to sprout. Putting the tubers in an open paper bag can have this same effect.



Fill in the bottom of your container with about 6 inches of loose planting mix and compost. You'll want to use a planting mix with a peat moss-like soil amendment like this product made from repurposed coconut husks, doing so will keep the soil from becoming too compacted and help it to store moisture for the roots. Next, add some seed potatoes on the layer of soil, making certain to leave plenty of space between each cube. You can use the whole potato but I like to cut the potatoes into 1 to 2-inch cubes for planting. Loosely backfill the potatoes with another 6 inches of your soil and compost mix and water to dampen soil. Keep the soil damp at all times but be careful not to overwater.

3. Add more soil

When they have about 6 to 8 inches of foliage, add another layer of your soil-compost mix covering about one-half to three-quarters of the visible stems and foliage. Repeat this process of allowing the sprouts to grow and then covering the sprouts and moistening the soil as the plants grow up toward the top of the barrel.

4. Harvest the potatoes

After about 10 weeks or until the plants flower and start to yellow, the potatoes should be ready to harvest. Carefully dig down with your hands to inspect the top-most layer. After you've confirmed your suspicions, dump the barrel out on a tarp and inspect your bounty.

Other tips to grow bushels of barrel potatoes

After the first harvest, keep a few potatoes to use as seed potatoes next year. Bush beans are a great companion plant for potatoes. Instead of using soil, try growing potatoes in sawdust. Experiment with different containers, seed potatoes and watering regimes. If the above steps aren't sufficient, do some more research. Try here. Have any photos or useful tips for growing potatoes in a barrel? Please share!

(NaturalNews) One of the arguments often used to defend genetically-modified (GM) crops purports that biotechnology is necessary to feed the world, as non-GM and organic farming methods by themselves are incapable of producing enough food for everyone. But the truth of the matter is that organic farming by itself is fully capable of feeding the world -- we just need to make a few changes to the way we grow and raise our food, which includes putting an end to the factory farming methods that are destroying our health and the planet.

In a report entitled Feeding the Future, the Soil Association, a U.K.-based organic farming advocacy group, makes the case that organic and other agro-ecological farming systems are not only the solution to the world's hunger problems, but when implemented, these holistic methods of growing food actually facilitate bringing the world's poorest out of poverty.

On the flip side, GM farming systems perpetuate and even create poverty because they lock farmers into an endless cycle of dependence on corporations for both the next season's batch of self-destructing seeds, and the toxic chemical cocktails required to grow them. GM agriculture, in other words, is toxic to the world's economies, toxic to human health, and toxic to the environment.

As was shown in a recent Rodale Institute study, which was the culmination of more than 30 years worth of research, organic farming systems actually produce higher yields than GM and non-GM conventional farming systems. Organic farming is also fully self-renewing and sustainable, as composting, manure, and other organic fertilizing methods naturally enrich soil and eliminate the need for toxic pesticides and herbicides.

Before

After

Well, here is a quick video I took yesterday showing how my garden look today. The garden is going to have an extreme make over for this coming spring more to follow on this.

Here are some pics of what we got out of the Aquaponics :

The tank was low on water this day so you can see most of the fish in the corner.

Somebody's got to do the dirty work, and it might as well be me.

After the dirty work was done.

The final product thanks to my lovely wife.

I know you are probably asking yourself what is Aquaponics well here is a short explanation courtesy of the Backyard Aquaponics guys in Australia. Here are the pics of my Personal Aquaponics System. (See YouTube link for how I build it)

I think this was this past Summer, not bad for late April.

Another look of the Aquaponics during the same month.

By late May we already had the first strawberries, a litter sour but I like sour.

I started my Aquaponics system with 10 Tilapias and 10 Gold Fish, I don't eat the Gold Fish but they are there in case I run out of Tilapias the system needs to keep functioning.

Here is my Aquaponics system humble beginnings, actually my garden humble beginnings I had nothing in my back yard just yet.

Just a few months after take-off.This was inside a green house I built over the system to keep it warn during the winter.

Aquaponics is essentially the combination of Aquaculture and Hydroponics. Both aquaculture and hydroponics have some down sides, hydroponics requires expensive nutrients to feed the plants, and also requires periodic flushing of the systems which can lead to waste disposal issues. Re-circulating aquaculture needs to have excess nutrients removed from the system, normally this means that a percentage of the water is removed, generally on a daily basis.

This nutrient rich water then needs to be disposed of and replaced with clean fresh water. While re-circulating aquaculture and hydroponics are both very efficient methods of producing fish and vegetables, when we look at combining the two, these negative aspects are turned into positives. The positive aspects of both aquaculture and hydroponics are retained and the negative aspects no longer exist.

Aquaponics can be as simple or as complex as you’d like to make it, the simple system pictured above is made from one IBC (Intermediate Bulk Container). The top was cut off and turned upside down to become a grow-bed for the plants. Water is pumped up from the fish tank into the grow-bed. The water trickles down through the media, past the roots of the plants before draining back into the fish tank.