Love your videos, for some reason my tomatoes, carrots and potatoes have all failed, it just makes me feel more determined to do better next year, keep up with the great work 👍.
My spuds have been amazing this year even with the rain. But I used mole hill soil and sharp sand 50 : 50 so it always drained well no matter how wet it got. Compost whether homemade or bought is just too fine to drain these days and especially when they add moisture retaining agents in the bought stuff. I'm sticking to soil and sharp sand in containers from now on. Never known a wetter Season but still grew well.😊
Sorry to hear this happened Tony. But thanks for having the balls to admit something went wrong. I wish more gardeners on TH-cam did videos like this. I learn a lot from things like this. Thanks as always.
Tony that's fabulous and as you said it's how we all learn,from failures.Thats how success comes Just one point of note it's seems to be that growing in containers can be expensive
Lol!!! I feel your frustration/memory issues! It’s easily done! I found an unopened packet of carrots under an insect netting tunnel last year a month after thinking I had zero germination! This year we accidentally ate all our saved Charlotte seed potatoes and had to invest in 10 new bags! 😂
Thanks for the info Tony. I find gardening is a real challenge as you never know what the weather will bring. I have had some poor results with some vegetables this year as a result of the cold wet weather but then I was surprised by how many other vegetables have thrived. Such a learning curve
Thank you so much for your honesty. The weather has alot to do with our success for sure. Last spring i had for the first time the most beautiful heads of broccoli. I was so pround of myself. This spring i grew them the same way only to have them bolt because it got to hot and we went right into summer with 90 degree weather. Very disappointing but that is not gonna stop me from trying to grow it again. Gardening is very challenging. But i love it because of the successes i do get.
Great video, mate! Simple changes we make in how we garden can have devastating effects when conditions change. You do a great service sharing what went wrong so that others can benefit from your experience.
We all have failures and as educators its our duty to show the bad with the good mate. it allows people to understand its ok to fail. You learn far more by failing than you ever will by succeeding all the time
We always watch your videos as we share the same climate. Thanks for explaining why my potatoes didnt grow last year, too much moisture. This year they were better as we did put them on spare paving stones to drain and they were more sheltered, being behind my garage. Always relieved when you say you had a bad harvest too, so we cant be doing it all wrong. Looking forward to the next video.
Exactly what happened here too. My Desirée plants remained small in foliage and showed more chlorosis signs, yields of about 800 gram per 30L bucket. The excessive rain probably also washed a lot of nutrients out of my soil mixture (cocopeat, greenwaste compost, general potting compost and soil, plus a hand of dried manure pellets and extra potassium/Mg fertilizer)
We grow in Kodiak,Ak. Our growing season is cool and wet...we have gotten this year record rainfall in the spring and record dry spells in July. What we have found is using chicken wire allows drainage. We fill the bottom of our towers with 8" of used chicken straw, add 4-5" of compost, plant into that and cover seeds with 5-6" of used chicken straw. We hill with straw as the plants get larger. When we need water shed the chicken wire does a great job, when we need water retention the straw keeps them supplied. We have been getting between a 9 to 10/1 yield consistently for the past 6 years regardless of the season. We grow about 400 lbs a year. Thanks for all the great vids.
My failure this year was my sweet corn. I have a kiddie pool that I put some chicken wire around the inside and landscape fabric (as a dirt barrier) to make it deeper. I used a mix of coco and HP with micorizhha (can't spell) I put my sprouted corn seed in about 2 inches apart. I thought with the depth I had the soil at (about a foot or 30 cm) the corn would be ok. Nope. They tasselled and no ears. Read up on it and one problem is overcrowding. Yup. So my gardening friend its not just your potatoes but my corn that I wanted to share so no one makes that mistake!!!! Carry on Gardening!!!
I’m sorry to hear about your poor potato harvest, Tony. I learn a lot from your videos, and I appreciate the frank and honest footage about your experience this growing season. Interestingly, I used what I suspect is waterlogged soil in preparing a bed for some fall peas. I dried the soil as best I could, but I think it’s so used to being wet that it pretty much hoards water all the time, and my peas are not thriving. Might be connected, might not - that’s the experimental nature of gardening! Thanks again for all you provide to your followers!
Your garden is amazing I'm really impressed by your fencing for the potatoes I'm definitely going to use that method next year. My beans just didn't grow I think down to the cold weather and hungry birds but at least something got a feed from them. My sweetcorn didn't grow more than about 14 inches and there was only one very small cob per plant. 😮
We planted 5, 50ft long beds of potatoes super early on Feb 1st in an unheated greenhouse to avoid frost. We did this to time harvest around July 1st to plant summer crops. We didn't do anything special except 1 round of hilling. We got 625lbs of potatoes.
I was surprised by how compacted the soil in my containers was when I harvested last year's potatoes. The harvest was disappointing, and we'd had record breaking amounts of rain. I didn't put those all together until this video. Thanks for sharing! And I look forward to the Oakland Garden containers making it to the US
I live in Northern Germany, sandy soil, potato country. Even with those excellent conditions, the rain was so bad, potatoes and tomatoes got blight. I dug my potatoes up and accepted a smaller size and reduced quantity rather than rotten potatoes. We are in the climate change. Gardening will become harder and harder. One will have to learn to adjust and go with the flow.
Hello Tony. Sorry to hear the harvest wasn't as great as possible. Weird gardening year this year. I got some Kondor and Maris Piper to tip out here. Will see what they are like soon. All the best.
I only grow first & second earlies (same Oakland. containers as you use - they're great) so due to the dry spring/early summer, it was too little, rather than too much water which caused me some trouble (some of my second earlies break up with a mere 10 minutes' simmering). Glad I don't grow maincrop, as we had blight pretty bad here in mid August. I use grass clippings as mulch & when it's on thick enough to be above the rim of the container & sloping outwards, it works to limit how much rain gets through, with heavy rain running off. Following your container method is one of the best things I've done in almost 60 years of gardening - the other was going 'no dig/no till' (I prefer the second description).
Based on your past video about potatoes in containers, I tried to grow them for the 1st time this year. I also experienced problems and realized that my plant growth overtop of the potatoes died very early and when I harvested the potatoes shortly afterward, I found that the soil was saturated and had an anaerobic smell. Generally speaking, I wasn't really watering that much at all compared to what I had heard in various youtube videos, so I'm a little surprised by this result/discovery. Even more surprising, in light of this result, is that my 10-gallon buckets were not on grade and were elevated on the wall of my raised bed garden walls - therefore, they should have been able to readily drain. I'm still pretty new to gardening, but it almost seems like the stars need to align perfectly for some crops to perform well!
Thank you so much! Very useful for me here in NZ - constant rains during the winter and really hot dry summers (with exclusion of couple years with summer deluge!) :) Was about to give up on growing potato in buckets... Now will try again with your advices! Thanks again.
My failure this year was my greens. Had them covered from the start. Alas I lost the lot to very hungry catterpillars. I have today started some seeds for greens in my propagator, I realise it is a fair bit late, but going to try anyway. I have treat myself to two GreenStalk vertical planters from GrowTowers in Sweden. They were a bit pricey but will be able to plant a lot more things in the future. Thank you for all your video's.
Just wanted to say thanks fella. Since i mentioned the word POTATO all my kid is asking about is when she can start to grow some in our tiny garden so i used your code and bought some tubs Guess i know what i'm doing next year haha Thanks for the content keep it coming :)
Hi Tony pity about your harvest but it doesn’t matter how many holes in the container they won’t drain in the way you want because of the perched water table you’re growing media is like a sponge and will hold on to water no matter what. I noticed you may have grown on a hard standing so unless you put a wick in the container water just stays within the container when you grow the container on a bed of soil soil the soil acts as a wick allowing water in and out if you google perched water table you’ll see what I mean hopefully this helps really like your videos they’re always informative 👍
The relentless rain....I thought my potatoes would rot l, but had my best ever harvest. I added sharp sand in places, and removed excess clay. Best bed was like a lasagne....3 inch layer of sand at base on top of original clay. Then 6 inches of secondhand compost. Superb results.
I got sarpo mira maincrop this year after you recommended them for their blight resistance and crop potential but they were a disappointment, mainly due to a cold damp spring and a rainy early summer. Had some huge tubers but also lots of slug and worm damage. The charlotte second earlies were great as usual but I am now looking at growing maincrop only in containers so I can better control the watering needs and use my raised beds for other crops. This video made me feel like I am not such a failure though because if it can happen to you it can happen to anyone!
Tony - I grow potatoes both in containers and in the ground and have to say that my containers have never out performed my rows in the ground. This year here on central south coast on the South Downs we had the rain but that meant my first earlies were huge and vast crop. The big problem here was the blight despite preemptive copper spray so harvest was a little disappointing although not a disaster. On the up side my onions are the best I have ever produced.
I had same compaction problem with my late crop in the old fashioned trench way, I was digging big lumps of soil and not a good crop, gotta be down to the weather cos i also had a massive successful crop. Happy gardening we will be back next spring.
Polar opposite of my problems with potatoes - I just cannot keep enough water in them, even with the amount of rain this spring and summer. My compost seems to go hydrophobic so maybe the trick to countering this is some of that coir - but not overdoing it.
Cumbria - rain. Endless rain. A lot of veg went into panic mode and bolted. I dont blame it - I feel like bolting myself to a place with lower rainfall.
Sorry for your issues. Here in Colorado USA. The growing season is very short. We have to really vigilant when it comes to the weather. We can have snow in June. My potatoes did well. Thanks for your knowledge.
I grew Sarpo Mira and used Oakland containers. Had to us peat free compost this year and definitely not a fan of it. Had no flowers at all and the greenery seemed to die back sooner than it should have. Harvested first bucket a couple of days ago - small potatoes, poor yield and some were rotten. Not sure I will bother again next year unless I can get a hold of some compost that contains peat.
You can also try a layer of gravel or stones at the bottom of the pots for drainage and air, and the roots will still grow through to the soil below. We had lots of rain in Ontario Canada plus I overwatered and got lots of early blight. Then cut way back on water and when I did added lots of liquid humic acid and seaweed. The plants survived fine to harvest even with early blight. Cheers🎉
I really wanted to love your container method and went all in but just as an FYI for anyone reading this method does not work well for very hot climates even with drip lines in place. No fresh potatoes for us this winter 😢 Edit for clarification: In the beginning they grew beautifully but even when scaling back watering the 100+°F temps means the moisture in the containers basically cooks the plants.
@@simplifygardening Those are both very big countries with varying different bio regions so just because your method works in a temperate region doesn't mean it will work in every region. I've been successfully growing large crops of potatoes for 15 years but was excited about this method for the ease of harvest, spent a ton on 10 gallon pots, watched your video many times, didn't over plant, set up drip lines, even had hay stacked around all the edges to help protect from sun hitting the black plastic & also tried a shade cloth. As soon as the heat hit 100°F consistently they began rapidly dying off. When I inspected the first die off the soil was incredibly hot, a thermometer inserted into the ones who hadn't died off showed nearly the same temperature. It's simply too hot here for above ground growing in black containers. Just like you admitted to failure in your video due to your climate it's also okay that your method doesn't work for every region of the world. I'm guessing a lot of your personal growing methods would fail if you tried them in high mountain desert environment 😉
I live in a maritime, almost rainforest mountain shed area in pacific NW. My solution for our super rainy weather. Large felt pots. I used your videos about container gardening but worried about the short cool wet climate more common than not. I was VERY pleased most normal years. We had a few summers July-August where I did have to hand water a lot but most of time...minimal watering needed. My GD was tickled. Just dump onto tarp and let her harvest. If tried in a warmer and drier area...you might get tired of daily to 2Xday watering. But it was not bad up here except during unusual heat spell. Highly recommend felt IF your used to daily rains thru Feb - Aug. I use felt pots Inside of plastic tubs too for perennial flowers. Keeps the plants from being root bound and easy to divide.
The real problem is our location and our weather, so unpredictable! Down in South Devon its been too dry in 2024, in June and July we only had 2 days of heavy rain, which made containers needing more watering. IF I had taken notice of your previous watering set up It would have been so much better, but the excessive rain in Winter and early Spring lulled me into complacency 🙂 I had a much lower yield from mine due to the dry and family problems that were more important meaning I was not there to water.
Such a shame Tony! I know how much effort you put in and how much it means to you. My potatoes, this year have been rubbish! My home guard first earliest had no flavour whatsoever and stared to break up when boiled. Main crop maris pipers were no better, so disappointing. I planted 19 Oatlands 30 ltr tubs and will try for 30 next year . I have a couple of tubs of HG not harvested to see if they will regrow for Christmas.
I planted quite a few buckets, but after some good initial growth the leaves seemed to die off and go yellow, once about 8 inches high. I haven’t harvested them yet, as they didn’t go in until the end of May. I’ve checked the soil and it feels moist. I’m not sure what happened? Living in Blackwood, we too had a lot of rain. However, as you say, it’s all a learning experience and I’m new to gardening.
Tony, I struggle to hit the "ten multiple", which is the ratio between the weight of the seed and its harvest. I would like to know what your multiples typically are. Thanks from Maine
I had basically the same problem, too much water retention and too much compaction. I used 50% dirt and 50% compost. I should have used 75% compost and 25% dirt. I got started in on trying to fix that problem yesterday evening and will finish it this evening and try to grow some cabbages.
@@simplifygardening I added a lot more compost and I think I got it dialed in now where it'll drain better and not turn to concrete. It looks perfect now and if it doesn't grow ten times better, I'll be shocked. I also added 8 ounces of homemade fish hydrolysate per each 10 gallon container.
I am interested in using you OSR straw tip but can't find a refillable supplier. OSR is often sprayed with weedkiller to hasten ripening so it has to be organically grown.
Tony. Not potato query but Broad bean one. I had a great looking crop of broad beans but that curve ball arrived rust. I saved enough for a few meals but have lost the rest. This is the second time both growling through winter for spring crop. I’ve cleared the bed and the advice seems to be to bag it and not compost. Can you offer advice is this the safest thing I have a huge amount of waste three big bags. No More growing through winter it was a new bed new area new soil And advice appreciated. Thanks from Tasmania
I am just getting back into vegetable gardening. I buy a low carb potato that I doubt I will be able to buy seeded potatoes for. Can I just let a couple of my store bought potatoes grow shoots and then plant them the same way you do bought seeded stock.
I think I had similar issues. My pots looked wet as the soil has compacted when it was wet.. but actually they were drier than they looked lower down, the water just didn’t drain down from the top into the compacted lower layers easily enough (so made me think they didn’t need any watering) Sorry your harvest wasn’t as expected
Thanks Tony. Your potato problems sound like my cucumber problems but it wasn't a moisture problem. I had tons of cucs last year form July 1st hrough September but this year they died off in late July. I have had succession plantings in so I've been able to get cucs all summer but just not ale to give them away. I'm not sure what causes the bacterial wilt or whatever it is that kills them off early but I'm probably going to move them back to the location I grew tem last year in 2025.
@@simplifygardening same here in Wisconsin, Us-severe drought to way above normal rain. Our tomatoes suffered. We have sandy loam. Getting tricky to garden. We just had extreme heat Sunday-Tuesday dew points in upper 70s-80, it was a jungle.-reached 100*F-real feel temp 116*F that weather is not normal for us, but the jet stream is out of sync. Let’s hope the ocean currents don’t stop. Glad it’s gone for now. Last two winters were extremely warm. Last year Halloween 37*F and increased to 52*F and rain by Christmas. This year’s fall planting needed shade cloth but couldn’t do anything about temps. I seriously don’t understand how they grow crops where the heat is continuously frying. Person gets concerned for sure. My husband use to be a volunteer firefighter and his main calls were rock rescue unlike what you have had with the wildfires you’ve mentioned. Never a dull moment in those days. Stay safe.
You think you had rain. Try Ireland. Everyone has blight and is suffering bad. Growing a harvest , just hasn't happened this year. A learning year for sure.
Being able and honest enough to say "I failed/was wrong" in 2024 is rare. Only for that, you deserve like & comment, aside from to come video content
It's not rare at all, YT is overflowing with fails.
oh i did make a mistake this year for sure
@@lksf9820 if your going to make videos its good to show the good and bad
Love your videos, for some reason my tomatoes, carrots and potatoes have all failed, it just makes me feel more determined to do better next year, keep up with the great work 👍.
@@simplifygardening It absolutely is, I wouldn't contest that!
My spuds have been amazing this year even with the rain.
But I used mole hill soil and sharp sand 50 : 50 so it always drained well no matter how wet it got.
Compost whether homemade or bought is just too fine to drain these days and especially when they add moisture retaining agents in the bought stuff.
I'm sticking to soil and sharp sand in containers from now on.
Never known a wetter Season but still grew well.😊
Sorry to hear this happened Tony. But thanks for having the balls to admit something went wrong. I wish more gardeners on TH-cam did videos like this. I learn a lot from things like this. Thanks as always.
Thanks 👍 These videos are the reason why I made them so we all learn
Tony that's fabulous and as you said it's how we all learn,from failures.Thats how success comes
Just one point of note it's seems to be that growing in containers can be expensive
I failed in the worst way. Holidays meant I didn't even plant them, got back a few weeks later and thought I had. Lovely crop of dandelions though
Lol!!! I feel your frustration/memory issues! It’s easily done! I found an unopened packet of carrots under an insect netting tunnel last year a month after thinking I had zero germination!
This year we accidentally ate all our saved Charlotte seed potatoes and had to invest in 10 new bags! 😂
Oh thats a real shame, we all have failures in one form or another. sometimes whats a failure to one is a win to someone else too
@@amandar7719 its been a strange year for sure
Thanks for the info Tony. I find gardening is a real challenge as you never know what the weather will bring. I have had some poor results with some vegetables this year as a result of the cold wet weather but then I was surprised by how many other vegetables have thrived. Such a learning curve
Every year is a learning curve, just when you think you nailed it mother nature humbles you lol
Thank you so much for your honesty. The weather has alot to do with our success for sure. Last spring i had for the first time the most beautiful heads of broccoli. I was so pround of myself. This spring i grew them the same way only to have them bolt because it got to hot and we went right into summer with 90 degree weather. Very disappointing but that is not gonna stop me from trying to grow it again. Gardening is very challenging. But i love it because of the successes i do get.
Those buckets are excellent, I always used to grow spuds in tyres but I bought 30 of those buckets and the results are really good!
Im glad you changed I did a video on the dangers of growing in tores
You are my go to potato guru! I’m sad for your harvest.
Thank heavens for next year!
Blessings!
So nice of you. Just another learning opportunity. And you only ever lose if you quit
Great video, mate! Simple changes we make in how we garden can have devastating effects when conditions change. You do a great service sharing what went wrong so that others can benefit from your experience.
We all have failures and as educators its our duty to show the bad with the good mate. it allows people to understand its ok to fail. You learn far more by failing than you ever will by succeeding all the time
We always watch your videos as we share the same climate. Thanks for explaining why my potatoes didnt grow last year, too much moisture. This year they were better as we did put them on spare paving stones to drain and they were more sheltered, being behind my garage. Always relieved when you say you had a bad harvest too, so we cant be doing it all wrong. Looking forward to the next video.
Exactly what happened here too. My Desirée plants remained small in foliage and showed more chlorosis signs, yields of about 800 gram per 30L bucket. The excessive rain probably also washed a lot of nutrients out of my soil mixture (cocopeat, greenwaste compost, general potting compost and soil, plus a hand of dried manure pellets and extra potassium/Mg fertilizer)
we always appreciate your videos and learn something. :)
Thank you for the ebook also. you are generous and a great teacher.
We grow in Kodiak,Ak. Our growing season is cool and wet...we have gotten this year record rainfall in the spring and record dry spells in July. What we have found is using chicken wire allows drainage. We fill the bottom of our towers with 8" of used chicken straw, add 4-5" of compost, plant into that and cover seeds with 5-6" of used chicken straw. We hill with straw as the plants get larger. When we need water shed the chicken wire does a great job, when we need water retention the straw keeps them supplied. We have been getting between a 9 to 10/1 yield consistently for the past 6 years regardless of the season. We grow about 400 lbs a year. Thanks for all the great vids.
Thankyou for sharing the downsides of gardening so that others can learn from mistakes or the perversity of weather.
My failure this year was my sweet corn. I have a kiddie pool that I put some chicken wire around the inside and landscape fabric (as a dirt barrier) to make it deeper. I used a mix of coco and HP with micorizhha (can't spell) I put my sprouted corn seed in about 2 inches apart. I thought with the depth I had the soil at (about a foot or 30 cm) the corn would be ok. Nope. They tasselled and no ears. Read up on it and one problem is overcrowding. Yup. So my gardening friend its not just your potatoes but my corn that I wanted to share so no one makes that mistake!!!! Carry on Gardening!!!
Mine tasselled with no ears too.
@@TheEnglishladyskitchengarden I'm strangely disappointed BUT its a lesson. Did you plant too crowded as well?
Thanks , nailed it enjoy the journey of progress
I’m sorry to hear about your poor potato harvest, Tony. I learn a lot from your videos, and I appreciate the frank and honest footage about your experience this growing season. Interestingly, I used what I suspect is waterlogged soil in preparing a bed for some fall peas. I dried the soil as best I could, but I think it’s so used to being wet that it pretty much hoards water all the time, and my peas are not thriving. Might be connected, might not - that’s the experimental nature of gardening! Thanks again for all you provide to your followers!
The great thing is we get to try again my friend
Thanks for sharing, and taking one for the team!
My potatoes are still in their containers, looks like your video is my sign to harvest!
anytime
Your garden is amazing I'm really impressed by your fencing for the potatoes I'm definitely going to use that method next year. My beans just didn't grow I think down to the cold weather and hungry birds but at least something got a feed from them. My sweetcorn didn't grow more than about 14 inches and there was only one very small cob per plant. 😮
We planted 5, 50ft long beds of potatoes super early on Feb 1st in an unheated greenhouse to avoid frost. We did this to time harvest around July 1st to plant summer crops. We didn't do anything special except 1 round of hilling. We got 625lbs of potatoes.
Still the man when it comes to growing in contains ive learned loads of the Channel
Thanks Wayne
This year was a major lesson to learn. Super valueable
Yeah this year was a challenge for sure
I'm putting some fine woodchips in the bottom of my pots, hope you get a better crop next season 😉🌱☀️😁
Would love those containers in Australia 🇦🇺 😍
Thanks for all your informative videos
I was surprised by how compacted the soil in my containers was when I harvested last year's potatoes. The harvest was disappointing, and we'd had record breaking amounts of rain. I didn't put those all together until this video. Thanks for sharing! And I look forward to the Oakland Garden containers making it to the US
I live in Northern Germany, sandy soil, potato country. Even with those excellent conditions, the rain was so bad, potatoes and tomatoes got blight. I dug my potatoes up and accepted a smaller size and reduced quantity rather than rotten potatoes. We are in the climate change. Gardening will become harder and harder. One will have to learn to adjust and go with the flow.
Its ever evolving my friend. Those that do not adapt with the changes get left behind. The first thing is to know there is an issue
Same here with some of mine ,you just sorted it
nice video! really useful for me as a newbie gardener
Hello Tony. Sorry to hear the harvest wasn't as great as possible. Weird gardening year this year. I got some Kondor and Maris Piper to tip out here. Will see what they are like soon. All the best.
All my potatoe pots had blight, so annoying too much rain will try and lift them up slightly next year. Great video x
Sorry to hear that
I only grow first & second earlies (same Oakland. containers as you use - they're great) so due to the dry spring/early summer, it was too little, rather than too much water which caused me some trouble (some of my second earlies break up with a mere 10 minutes' simmering).
Glad I don't grow maincrop, as we had blight pretty bad here in mid August.
I use grass clippings as mulch & when it's on thick enough to be above the rim of the container & sloping outwards, it works to limit how much rain gets through, with heavy rain running off.
Following your container method is one of the best things I've done in almost 60 years of gardening - the other was going 'no dig/no till' (I prefer the second description).
Great info Tony, sorry about your spuds, you’ll do much better next year I’m sure!
All the best Jules 💕
Thx for sharing your experience n solutions.
Based on your past video about potatoes in containers, I tried to grow them for the 1st time this year. I also experienced problems and realized that my plant growth overtop of the potatoes died very early and when I harvested the potatoes shortly afterward, I found that the soil was saturated and had an anaerobic smell. Generally speaking, I wasn't really watering that much at all compared to what I had heard in various youtube videos, so I'm a little surprised by this result/discovery. Even more surprising, in light of this result, is that my 10-gallon buckets were not on grade and were elevated on the wall of my raised bed garden walls - therefore, they should have been able to readily drain. I'm still pretty new to gardening, but it almost seems like the stars need to align perfectly for some crops to perform well!
As discussed the medium can retain moisture and in my case too much
Thank you so much! Very useful for me here in NZ - constant rains during the winter and really hot dry summers (with exclusion of couple years with summer deluge!) :) Was about to give up on growing potato in buckets... Now will try again with your advices! Thanks again.
Never give up keep trying to find a solution you will find it and then your golden
My failure this year was my greens. Had them covered from the start. Alas I lost the lot to very hungry catterpillars. I have today started some seeds for greens in my propagator, I realise it is a fair bit late, but going to try anyway.
I have treat myself to two GreenStalk vertical planters from GrowTowers in Sweden. They were a bit pricey but will be able to plant a lot more things in the future. Thank you for all your video's.
Sorry to hear that. Loads of people suffered with the greens this year
Dry all summer here in Kentucky. 3 hours hand watering, poor harvest so just tearing out plants now...Try again next year !
Oh wow! we have all had our challenges this year
great video Tony, I always learn something. I think this has been a tough year but like you say its a learning process.
Sure is Pauline
Just wanted to say thanks fella.
Since i mentioned the word POTATO all my kid is asking about is when she can start to grow some in our tiny garden
so i used your code and bought some tubs
Guess i know what i'm doing next year haha
Thanks for the content keep it coming :)
Hi Tony pity about your harvest but it doesn’t matter how many holes in the container they won’t drain in the way you want because of the perched water table you’re growing media is like a sponge and will hold on to water no matter what. I noticed you may have grown on a hard standing so unless you put a wick in the container water just stays within the container when you grow the container on a bed of soil soil the soil acts as a wick allowing water in and out if you google perched water table you’ll see what I mean hopefully this helps really like your videos they’re always informative 👍
Hi Tony, great video, thanks for sharing and take care 😊
Thanks, you too!
The relentless rain....I thought my potatoes would rot l, but had my best ever harvest. I added sharp sand in places, and removed excess clay. Best bed was like a lasagne....3 inch layer of sand at base on top of original clay. Then 6 inches of secondhand compost. Superb results.
Sorry m8, been a cooler summer than usual, great stuff again 👍
I got sarpo mira maincrop this year after you recommended them for their blight resistance and crop potential but they were a disappointment, mainly due to a cold damp spring and a rainy early summer. Had some huge tubers but also lots of slug and worm damage. The charlotte second earlies were great as usual but I am now looking at growing maincrop only in containers so I can better control the watering needs and use my raised beds for other crops. This video made me feel like I am not such a failure though because if it can happen to you it can happen to anyone!
You are such an inspiration to us home gardeners! I’m sorry you had a bad harvest. My potatoes did way better this summer than last :)
So nice of you thank you David
Tony - I grow potatoes both in containers and in the ground and have to say that my containers have never out performed my rows in the ground. This year here on central south coast on the South Downs we had the rain but that meant my first earlies were huge and vast crop. The big problem here was the blight despite preemptive copper spray so harvest was a little disappointing although not a disaster. On the up side my onions are the best I have ever produced.
Thanks Tony a very insightful video I'm now using them 30 gallon pots for my Christmas potatoes blight was my problem last year so 🤞🥔🥔
i use the tubs had a good year this time , northeast of newcastle
Perfect thats great to hear
Thank you.
I had same compaction problem with my late crop in the old fashioned trench way, I was digging big lumps of soil and not a good crop, gotta be down to the weather cos i also had a massive successful crop. Happy gardening we will be back next spring.
Sorry to hear that
Polar opposite of my problems with potatoes - I just cannot keep enough water in them, even with the amount of rain this spring and summer. My compost seems to go hydrophobic so maybe the trick to countering this is some of that coir - but not overdoing it.
Another great video thank you Tony ⭐️♥️
Tony, An excellent video and Im excited to get the freebies. But no one knows what kind of summer, wet or dry is in the future.
Perlite imbeds in the skin, tried that once, not a fan of peat moss either for noce potato skin, straw has worked well
I tried it also but just thinking aloud and will try it again. some testing to do next year
Fab video Tony, useful information as always👍
Looking forward to meeting you at Malvern 😂
Thanks for the Bronze membership on Danny's channel ❤
It was great to meet you Linda. sorry about the late reply im only now getting through the comments
I had the same problem with my 1st early potatoes
Fingers crossed for my main crop
Fingers crossed for you
Cumbria - rain. Endless rain. A lot of veg went into panic mode and bolted. I dont blame it - I feel like bolting myself to a place with lower rainfall.
Sorry for your issues. Here in Colorado USA. The growing season is very short. We have to really vigilant when it comes to the weather. We can have snow in June. My potatoes did well. Thanks for your knowledge.
Thanks for sharing. You def need to stay on top of it with a short season
I failed the same too.
I grew Sarpo Mira and used Oakland containers. Had to us peat free compost this year and definitely not a fan of it. Had no flowers at all and the greenery seemed to die back sooner than it should have. Harvested first bucket a couple of days ago - small potatoes, poor yield and some were rotten. Not sure I will bother again next year unless I can get a hold of some compost that contains peat.
How do you feel about fabric pots? Would they have alleviated this problem?
You can also try a layer of gravel or stones at the bottom of the pots for drainage and air, and the roots will still grow through to the soil below. We had lots of rain in Ontario Canada plus I overwatered and got lots of early blight. Then cut way back on water and when I did added lots of liquid humic acid and seaweed. The plants survived fine to harvest even with early blight. Cheers🎉
Yes that might help, but if the soil is holding and not releasing then it wont drop it all the same
I really wanted to love your container method and went all in but just as an FYI for anyone reading this method does not work well for very hot climates even with drip lines in place. No fresh potatoes for us this winter 😢
Edit for clarification: In the beginning they grew beautifully but even when scaling back watering the 100+°F temps means the moisture in the containers basically cooks the plants.
There must be something going on we have folks in Australia and USA using them to great effect
@@simplifygardening Those are both very big countries with varying different bio regions so just because your method works in a temperate region doesn't mean it will work in every region.
I've been successfully growing large crops of potatoes for 15 years but was excited about this method for the ease of harvest, spent a ton on 10 gallon pots, watched your video many times, didn't over plant, set up drip lines, even had hay stacked around all the edges to help protect from sun hitting the black plastic & also tried a shade cloth.
As soon as the heat hit 100°F consistently they began rapidly dying off. When I inspected the first die off the soil was incredibly hot, a thermometer inserted into the ones who hadn't died off showed nearly the same temperature. It's simply too hot here for above ground growing in black containers.
Just like you admitted to failure in your video due to your climate it's also okay that your method doesn't work for every region of the world. I'm guessing a lot of your personal growing methods would fail if you tried them in high mountain desert environment 😉
I just found your channel from your article on properly watering Christmas cactus. Looking forward to watching your educational videos.
Awesome! I do a lot of work with journalists. Welcome to the channel. There is about 14 years of content to get through
I'm looking forward to it!
I live in a maritime, almost rainforest mountain shed area in pacific NW. My solution for our super rainy weather. Large felt pots. I used your videos about container gardening but worried about the short cool wet climate more common than not. I was VERY pleased most normal years. We had a few summers July-August where I did have to hand water a lot but most of time...minimal watering needed. My GD was tickled. Just dump onto tarp and let her harvest. If tried in a warmer and drier area...you might get tired of daily to 2Xday watering. But it was not bad up here except during unusual heat spell. Highly recommend felt IF your used to daily rains thru Feb - Aug. I use felt pots Inside of plastic tubs too for perennial flowers. Keeps the plants from being root bound and easy to divide.
The real problem is our location and our weather, so unpredictable! Down in South Devon its been too dry in 2024, in June and July we only had 2 days of heavy rain, which made containers needing more watering. IF I had taken notice of your previous watering set up It would have been so much better, but the excessive rain in Winter and early Spring lulled me into complacency 🙂 I had a much lower yield from mine due to the dry and family problems that were more important meaning I was not there to water.
Yeah we all have challenges and hopefully now this will continue to help those who suffered tons of rain
Last week I thought I heard the echo of a scream "nooooo!!!"
it was more of a holla lol
i planted a jostaberry a couple of weeks ago because guru tony told us to
some sort of bug munched the leaves.hopefully it did enough growing to come back next year
Blight was bad here in Ireland
i had this issue with tomatoes in uk
Ive been ok with tomatoes but they are in a tunnel
question - how do you store your soil and buckets when the season is over? do you cover them or put them inside or anything special?
I use the soil on the garden beds and use new compost I have made through winter, and the containers are stacked under cover behind the water tanks
Tony do you think the same would have happened if you could have used peat instead of coir ?
Such a shame Tony! I know how much effort you put in and how much it means to you.
My potatoes, this year have been rubbish! My home guard first earliest had no flavour whatsoever and stared to break up when boiled. Main crop maris pipers were no better, so disappointing. I planted 19 Oatlands 30 ltr tubs and will try for 30 next year .
I have a couple of tubs of HG not harvested to see if they will regrow for Christmas.
I did say last year I was going to test it and i found out it doesnt work its still a win. knowledge is more of a prize than the harvest
Ty fam
Thanks
I've been using fabric bags. They wick away excess moisture fairly quickly. The downside is that they require more watering in dry conditions.
I planted quite a few buckets, but after some good initial growth the leaves seemed to die off and go yellow, once about 8 inches high. I haven’t harvested them yet, as they didn’t go in until the end of May. I’ve checked the soil and it feels moist. I’m not sure what happened? Living in Blackwood, we too had a lot of rain. However, as you say, it’s all a learning experience and I’m new to gardening.
We have been very wet but if they dried up when they first started growing then they would have died back
Thanks for the tips
Any time
Tony, I struggle to hit the "ten multiple", which is the ratio between the weight of the seed and its harvest. I would like to know what your multiples typically are. Thanks from Maine
great video Tony
from ireland 👍👍
Glad you enjoyed it
the old buckets won't waste, tony. we can always drill extra holes.....................brian
Exactly just think drainage
I had basically the same problem, too much water retention and too much compaction. I used 50% dirt and 50% compost. I should have used 75% compost and 25% dirt. I got started in on trying to fix that problem yesterday evening and will finish it this evening and try to grow some cabbages.
The thing is the weather changes year on year so you never know for the best
@@simplifygardening I added a lot more compost and I think I got it dialed in now where it'll drain better and not turn to concrete. It looks perfect now and if it doesn't grow ten times better, I'll be shocked. I also added 8 ounces of homemade fish hydrolysate per each 10 gallon container.
New subscriber here. My kind of channel, definitely want to do better with potatoes. Thanks ☺
Welcome to the channel
My potatoes are awful this year my maincrops died back in July and tiny when usually twice the size
I am interested in using you OSR straw tip but can't find a refillable supplier. OSR is often sprayed with weedkiller to hasten ripening so it has to be organically grown.
Have you tried your local animal feed merchant. Its often sold for horse bedding, and so maybe more chance of organically grown?
yea about half of my purple potatos have weird blisters on them, and others have big cracks
Cant win huh?
Can’t beat the old way trench them
Well that hasnt worked here either. soil gets waterlogged too
Tony. Not potato query but Broad bean one. I had a great looking crop of broad beans but that curve ball arrived rust. I saved enough for a few meals but have lost the rest. This is the second time both growling through winter for spring crop. I’ve cleared the bed and the advice seems to be to bag it and not compost. Can you offer advice is this the safest thing I have a huge amount of waste three big bags. No
More growing through winter it was a new bed new area new soil
And advice appreciated. Thanks from Tasmania
I never plant them until early spring for this exact reason. you dont get them as early, but you do get them
My main ctop potatoes, died off very earlier. Wasnt sure why the soil was a little dry but not enough for them to die. So who knows
I am just getting back into vegetable gardening. I buy a low carb potato that I doubt I will be able to buy seeded potatoes for. Can I just let a couple of my store bought potatoes grow shoots and then plant them the same way you do bought seeded stock.
Yeah you can do that
My spuds turned out ok BUT they were quite small. How do I grow bigger spuds 🥔? Big enough for jackets?
Reduce the sprouts to just 2 per seed potato and ensure you have a variety thats main crop. use the potato tool to help find them
I think I had similar issues. My pots looked wet as the soil has compacted when it was wet.. but actually they were drier than they looked lower down, the water just didn’t drain down from the top into the compacted lower layers easily enough (so made me think they didn’t need any watering)
Sorry your harvest wasn’t as expected
Its all a learning point.
@@simplifygardening it sure is!
I didn't get any white or sweet potatoes this year. I had space in a new plot and just don't know what went wrong.
Thanks Tony. Your potato problems sound like my cucumber problems but it wasn't a moisture problem. I had tons of cucs last year form July 1st hrough September but this year they died off in late July. I have had succession plantings in so I've been able to get cucs all summer but just not ale to give them away. I'm not sure what causes the bacterial wilt or whatever it is that kills them off early but I'm probably going to move them back to the location I grew tem last year in 2025.
they are prone to powdery mildew
Coir holds a lot of water. Tried it for seed starter and it should have a lot of perlite added.
Yeah last year it worked well, but it was a dry year, this year rained constantly
@@simplifygardening same here in Wisconsin, Us-severe drought to way above normal rain. Our tomatoes suffered. We have sandy loam. Getting tricky to garden. We just had extreme heat Sunday-Tuesday dew points in upper 70s-80, it was a jungle.-reached 100*F-real feel temp 116*F that weather is not normal for us, but the jet stream is out of sync. Let’s hope the ocean currents don’t stop. Glad it’s gone for now. Last two winters were extremely warm. Last year Halloween 37*F and increased to 52*F and rain by Christmas. This year’s fall planting needed shade cloth but couldn’t do anything about temps. I seriously don’t understand how they grow crops where the heat is continuously frying. Person gets concerned for sure.
My husband use to be a volunteer firefighter and his main calls were rock rescue unlike what you have had with the wildfires you’ve mentioned. Never a dull moment in those days. Stay safe.
Try using burlap bags. I can get them for $2 a piece.
You think you had rain. Try Ireland. Everyone has blight and is suffering bad. Growing a harvest , just hasn't happened this year. A learning year for sure.
Can i grow potatoes during autumn and winter if it doesn't hard freeze?
its more about whether you can prevent blight
How many pots of potatoes do you plant to get 400 lbs? Ive had 8lbs per pot, which is good for me.
Last year it was 60 this year 70 and only got half the amount
Thanks for the reply, very helpful and extremely interesting @@simplifygardening
Interesting clip although not the best results a person wants at harvest time!