Story: Growing Potatoes at Home
Episode: 6
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
Air Date: April 2025

Maximise your space and grow a plentiful potato crop at home using vertical gardening techniques like stacking tyres or using stacker pots, perfect for small spaces like balconies.

• Purchase certified seed potatoes to ensure they’re virus-free, or use sprouted potatoes from your kitchen after cutting them into 2-3 pieces, letting them dry overnight before planting.
• For limited space, stack old tyres and fill the bottom one with soil or potting mix. Plant 10 tubers, and as they grow, add more tyres and soil, allowing the plants to produce tubers from the bottom to the top.
• By using 10 plants, you could harvest around 100 potatoes, weighing approximately 20kg, as each plant typically yields 6-10 tubers.
• Use stacker pots for a vertical growing solution, filling each level with potting mix and planting seed potatoes in each pocket. This method is ideal for smaller spaces like balconies.
• While stacker pots yield fewer potatoes (around 3-4 per pocket), they produce about 40 potatoes over 12-16 weeks, which can reduce food bills significantly, offering roughly 8-10kg of tubers.
• Both methods are perfect for gardeners with limited space, such as apartment dwellers, and can provide a steady supply of homegrown potatoes, reducing grocery costs over time.