Grow 100 pounds of potatoes even without an adequate in-ground gardening space with this practical and smart DIY garden design!
Related: Instant Mashed Potatoes: Awesome Survival Food?
How to Grow 100 Pounds of Potatoes in a 4×4 Box
Growing Potatoes Is a Must-Have Survival Skill
Small-space gardening is both efficient and convenient. Being able to produce food without a large area is a truly useful skill for any survivalist, and few foods are better for survival than potatoes.
They keep for a long time, are extremely versatile and filling, and just about everyone likes them. Seriously, have you ever met someone who doesn't enjoy potatoes in one way or another?
Now, learn how to grow potatoes in a box with this easy and inexpensive DIY square garden design. Read on and think about all the great food you could make with the pounds of potatoes you'll grow using this easy guide.
How to Build a Box to Grow 100 Pounds of Potatoes
Before we get to growing potatoes, let's first build this 4-by-4 wooden box. You can reuse reclaimed wood or wooden pallets for this project, but make sure you use those that are food-grade.
What's best about this raised garden bed design is that you can use this box for growing potatoes again and again for different growing seasons.
- 6 2×6″ boards, 8 ft. long
- 1 2×2″ board, 12 ft. long
- 96 2 and 1/2 wood screws
Related: 10 Gardening Tips And Tricks You Can Use Right Now!
Instructions
- The first step is cutting the 2×2 inch board into pieces of 33 inches in length; four pieces will be enough. Then, take the 2×6 boards and cut those into 12 lengths of 21 inches and 12 lengths of 24 inches.
- Make some screw holes in these and attach the bottom row on the 2×2 boards.
- Place this part of the vertical garden over the soil, fill it with mulch, and plant potatoes about 4 inches deep. Remember each layer that you plant must have its sides boarded up.
- Now, let them grow a bit. When the vines reach some 12 inches above the soil, it’s time to add another set of boards and fill the space with dirt. Make sure you don’t cover more than a third of the plant.
- Do the same for each layer until you finish the box.
- In order to harvest your potatoes, take out the screws from the bottom board. With your hands reach in the box and grab your potatoes.
- Replace boards and soil and the layer is good to go again. After the necessary time, remove the second board and have yourself a handful of potatoes.
- Read some more off the internet about growing potatoes to make sure you do it right.
How to Build a Potato Box video from Kain Outdoors:
Follow the full guide on how to grow 100 pounds of potatoes in a square box garden design here:
Watch this video from Arnboat to give you a preview of your potato box harvest:
Now you know you don't need a huge vegetable garden to grow potatoes. A small garden design used wisely will give you all you need to grow food which can actually give you the sustenance you and your family need.
What would you add to this DIY guide for building a garden plant box for potatoes? We will appreciate your tips and suggestions in the comments section below!
Up Next:
- Survival Gardening – How To Grow Lettuce Indoors
- Grow Your Garden All Year Long With An Indoor Garden
- 7 Survival Tips From Bear Grylls: Best Of The Living Legend
Go to our Survival Life Store to shop for some of our favorite self-defense tools and gear!
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 15, 2014, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
always interested in efficent ways of natural gardening. ken
A cheaper, faster and with less work method is to use used automobile tires. And just keep stacking them up to your desired height.
I have heard that you can use leaves as the filling going up but I have never tried it that way.The tires will not rot and an be used over and over.
Since you will be removing and replacing the screws regularly I’d suggest waxing the threads (beeswax or Gulf Wax) before installing them. It will ease the removal process and reduce the chance of splitting the wood, though pre-drilling the holes is also recommended.
Potatoes are such a wonderful staple to have in the garden. I found this box technique to be very interesting; it looks incredibly efficient.
Lorian Bartle
The plastic bottles with core tube for making distilled water is a wonderful way to get fresh water. I modified this method by using larger one liter bottles. It takes longer to make the water but is wonderful as the volume of distilled water collected is more. Another modification is to place the devices (multiples of same devices) in a hot hot attic area (especially in summer) and the water time to distill is shorter by multiples.
thank you for the video, it is a wonderful method. Love the use of two bottles with a stem pipe inside.