Companion climber for potatoes

[desman]

I have a drum I’ve started growing potatoes in. I will gradually fill the drum over time so the potato stems short more roots and make more potatoes as the drum fills. I have one end of an arch coming out of the drum. I want to plant something with the potatoes to grow along the arch. I guess it needs to be an annual since the potatoes will be harvested by up-ending the drum. I originally wanted to do a type of Mexican melon, but read growing melons with potato is not advised. Alternatively a legume would be great…sweet pea maybe, but not sure it can handle the stems being gradually covered as the drum fills.
Can anyone with more experience suggest something better?

 

[HelenCate]

Tomatoes are the only thing I can think of that might stand up to a bit of gradual hilling. Pros: you have a crop both on the ground and on the trellis. Cons: you can't harvest your potatoes without disturbing your tomato roots. Continually watering your tubers when they are harvestable might contribute to them either rotting or resprouting.

 

[JoshW]

Can we get a pic of the arch? Maybe butt a pot up to the side of it?

 

[desman]

Here’s a pic. On one end is the potato drum, the other is the banana patch. It’s the entrance to the kids cubby area so hoping for something to cover the arch as kids will get a buzz from it. The bananas being such heavy feeders prob going to rob most annuals of nutrients. I whacked some cucamelon seedlings on the banana side today. And I chucked some excess snake bean seeds on the potato side. If the beans don’t work, hopefully the cucamelons cover the whole thing. If they can’t compete with the bananas I might plant some butterfly pea there and see how they do. Either way, out of solutions for the potato side.

 

[desman]

Another pic

 

[desman]

Tomatoes are the only thing I can think of that might stand up to a bit of gradual hilling. Pros: you have a crop both on the ground and on the trellis. Cons: you can't harvest your potatoes without disturbing your tomato roots. Continually watering your tubers when they are harvestable might contribute to them either rotting or resprouting.

Yeah I think tomatoes are a good option for that reason, HelenCate, but I read that because potatoe and tomatoes are from the same nightshade family, if they’re planted together it can invite disease.

 

[HelenCate]

Not sure about the disease aspect tbh. If you're growing from seed potatoes they are supposed to be disease free. Unsure about what the tomato foliage might bring into the equation.

 

[desman]

Not sure about the disease aspect tbh. If you're growing from seed potatoes they are supposed to be disease free. Unsure about what the tomato foliage might bring into the equation.

I just planted potato’s from the cupboard/green grocer that started to sprout. But yeah it’s prob more a risk mgt thing than a given disease outcome in terms of tomatoes and potatoes being a bad combo. One site I read said, as being same family, they will compete for the same nutrients - I would have thought that could be managed by upping the fertilizer. I guess if one plant gets a disease/pest then the other will as well so might lose the both crops. Snake beans were the only other crop I could find that someone had mounded/hilled, so I planted those. Will keep you guys posted on how it goes.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Good luck!

 

[desman]

Thought I’d give an update on this project. The potatoes grew well to start with but have now gone cactus. Maybe too much rain but also added sugarcane mulch to hill them and after rain it got really warm. Perhaps I should give up on the potatoes and fill the bin with compost and grow some beans

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I wish I could tell you what to do. I'm currently working on getting some bean seeds from my plant that got ripped to shreds by hail. I'm hoping it'll put it's last efforts into giving me healthy seed beans before it dies completely.

 

[desman]

Have you ever had success with potatoes? If they’re trouble in the subtropics I might just ditch them.
Hope your plants come good after the hail for you

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Have you ever had success with potatoes? If they’re trouble in the subtropics I might just ditch them.
Hope your plants come good after the hail for you

I have personally been unsuccessful with potatoes. It would do really well, then we'd have a rainstorm and it'd die. But Mark seems to do great on potatoes. My soil here is very dense, so water just gets stuck, probably rotting my potatoes.

 

[Robbie]

There is two types of potatoes like tomatoes determinate and indeterminate. The indeterminate are the ones you back fill this may be your problem?
Just check the variety you are growing and google (indeterminate potatoes) it should give you a list of potato varieties that you can grow in bags and back fill as the plants grow. I have 3 varieties of indeterminate growing in feed bag at the moment and 2 determinate, 1 of those is congo potato bright purple flesh they make a very colourful gnocchi, picture of congo potatoes and the gnocchi below.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

There is two types of potatoes like tomatoes determinate and indeterminate. The indeterminate are the ones you back fill this may be your problem?
Just check the variety you are growing and google (indeterminate potatoes) it should give you a list of potato varieties that you can grow in bags and back fill as the plants grow. I have 3 varieties of indeterminate growing in feed bag at the moment and 2 determinate, 1 of those is congo potato bright purple flesh they make a very colourful gnocchi, picture of congo potatoes and the gnocchi below.

Thank you!

 

[AndrewB]

Being in the same family, you can graft tomatoes onto potatoes, it will mean a lower yield for both, as you are fruiting above & below ground, but it's a cool way to grow both in a small area. Keep the fertiliser up for best results.

 

[Robbie]

Being in the same family, you can graft tomatoes onto potatoes, it will mean a lower yield for both, as you are fruiting above & below ground, but it's a cool way to grow both in a small area. Keep the fertiliser up for best results.

Now what I would like to graft is a eggplant onto a giant devil fig they grow into a small tree produce mass of fruit live for years and is more diseases resistant I believe you can graft a tomato onto the devil plant as well just can't get the devil plant here in Tassie

 

[desman]

Hey guys thanks all for the comments. So interesting. Robbie, I had no idea there were indeterminate and determinate potato varieties…I just planted ones that sprouted in the cupboard. Rookie error. I have no idea what type they are. I might rip these out and buy some indeterminate seed potatoes a start again in another drum. Or just cover these up and if they’re indeterminate they’ll survive and if not….compost! Those purple ones, Robbie, look delicious!!

 

[HelenCate]

Maybe too much rain but also added sugarcane mulch to hill them

Have you dug down with your fingers to check that the water is actually getting to the potato roots through the sugarcane? I do this also and when I first started doing it I didn't realise just how much water I had to give them to get through a thick sugarcane layer. Now I put the sugarcane on much more loosely to allow water to penetrate down to where it's needed.

 

[HelenCate]

I'm growing in half poly tubs also. All year round. Subtropics. Good harvests. I do have 40-odd tubs going though so I have a continual harvest. I like my taters