Growing potatoes in bags

Having had disastrous results attempting to grow potatoes in the ground, I'm thinking about doing them in bags next year. I have a couple of collapsible garden rubbish bags which are past their best so plan to use those. I'm assuming just using normal garden soil will be OK. Am I right?

 

Potatoes seem to grow in just about anything. I've grown them in old compost bags for the last few years and mix some old soil with new compost, so I think you will be fine. In containers i think drainage is the key.

 

I mix Coir, own compost, old compost and garden soil with feed in bags. It works for me.

 

I've had better results growing in the ground than in containers, containers have not worked for me in the previous 2 yrs.
Not sure why, even added so called special potato fertiliser but mostly tiny spuds not worth the effort.

 

I gave up planting in the ground when one crop was totally destroyed by slugs and/or wireworm.

 

That is the same reason I grow them in bags now. We also have scab but I get a tiny fraction of that when growing in bags.
I've only harvested first earlies this year but has some the size of small baking potatoes despite using nothing but home made compost. I think the size of compost bag helps as there is a good volume of soil and it stays moist longer.

 

A piece of advice given to me by Arthur Billet, is 'don't put too many potatoes into the sacks, ensure good drainage and watering'.

 

Try going back on some episodes of Beechgrove on iplayer. They have grown "tatties" Potatoes in bags and other containers several times over the last 2or 3 years, just not this year it seems. Usually no more than 2-3seed per container depending upon size of container .