I quite fancy having another go at this next year!  Last time I tried I forgot to drill holes in the bottom of the bin, ooops!!

Could I use an incinerator instead of a dustbin?  I’m just thinking they already have holes in..  What do I need to do?  From what I remember it’s stones at the bottom, then compost, then the potatoe thing (just one per bin or more?) and then you keep topping the soul up but I can’t remember when?  How big a crop would one bin yield?

Thank you!

I love the idea of topping up the soul! 

I don’t tend to use bins, just compost bags.  I grow three seed potatoes per bag, at a push four.  The advantage with a bag is that you can roll the sides down when they are just starting off, allowing more light in.  Then topping up with soil from a second compost bag as they start to shoot.  Yield would depend on conditions, how well watered they were etc.  I think this year I probably got 1.5 kilos from 3 seed potatoes (a rough guess, as I didn’t weigh them).

Ooops, silly auto-corrective text on iPhones!!

Although given how relaxing gardening is meant to be it’s quite a nice thought!  (I’m yet to find my inner green-fingeredness all taureans are meant to have, I’m looking hard though!)

lovely, thanks for that, bags might be easier!

i tried this but didn´t get a massive yield, i since read (somewhere reliable) that it only works with early varieties. Also from experience keep metal or black bind out of direct sun or you´ll literally be growing baked potatoes!!

Tried this for first time this year as had to give up my lotty in April. .  We didnt use a dustbin but put empty dog feed bags with slits in the bottom inside black binliners. We rolled the whole lot down, planted the seed potatoes in the bottom then rolled up the bags when the leaves started showing and topped with compost.

Positives: We were able to grown potatoes without ‘land’, It was a good experiment to share with the children.
Negatives: VERY expensive as we had to buy in the compost as our bin didnt produce enough. very water hungry and yield was not high when compared with growing them in the earth.

We will not be growing ‘proper’ potatoes this way again as tbh they are so cheap to buy in the shops, we are going to try it again for New Potatoes and types you cant often buy like Pink Fir Apples.

Hope this helps
DD x