Urban Spaces and the Rise of Home Gardening: How to Grow Potatoes in Vertical Towers
As more people move into urban areas, space becomes a precious commodity—one that’s becoming increasingly hard to come by. With shrinking backyards and limited land, there’s a growing trend to return to the simple and healthy habit of growing food at home.
Windows and balconies, for example, can be great spots for specific types of plants. And for those looking to grow potatoes and other root vegetables, there’s a clever solution: using towers that take advantage of dry leaves and organic matter.
Thanks to the method taught by Indian farmer CV Varghese, it’s possible to grow an abundance of potatoes without needing large plots of land.
This technique is called vertical mesh towers, and it’s a game-changer for urban gardening. Want to know how it works? Check out the step-by-step guide below!
Building the tower
Step 1: Buy a metal fence about 5 feet tall with openings roughly 2 inches wide.
Step 2: Cut a 5-foot wide piece to make each tower. Each tower will use one section of the fence, and if you’d like, you can paint them for a personal touch.
Step 3: Wrap the fence to form a circle and secure the ends with pieces of wire or strong clips.
Tower Layers
Place a PVC pipe with holes in the center of the tower before you start layering. Before adding the materials for planting, like dry leaves, cut a PVC pipe that’s 1 inch in diameter and about 5 feet long. Drill holes in the pipe with about 3-inch spacing to allow water to drain. Place the pipe inside the tower, then begin assembling the layers for planting.
The first layer is dry hay.
Step 4: Add about 4 to 5 inches of dry hay. This layer will help keep the potting mix from slipping through.
Step 5: Next, add 20 inches of dry leaves. Use a long stick or a tube to thread the leaves and neatly pack this layer.
Add 20 inches of dry leaves.
Step 6: Add a layer of moist cow manure or another type of compost.
Add manure or another organic fertilizer.
Step 7: Place a layer of soil, which can be mixed with some compost or organic fertilizer, but make sure the mixture is dry.
The soil used should be “loose” without too much moisture.
Step 8: Place some sprouted potato seedlings, evenly spaced, in a circular pattern.
The tubers should be arranged in a circular pattern with regular spacing between them.
Step 9: Add the dry soil mixture again to cover the potatoes.
Step 10: Repeat the process by adding more layers of dry leaves, cow manure or compost, dry mix, and potato sprouts, in that order.
The vertical “potato tower” for farming! Varghese says that in one tower, he was able to plant 20 potato sprouts.
Maintaining the potato tower
In November 2020, Varghese planted potatoes and some vegetables in more than 10 towers. “In some towers, I planted potatoes at the bottom and tomatoes or peppers on top,” he says, adding that this didn’t affect the growth or production of the plants.
After planting the sprouts, Varghese watered them regularly but made sure not to over-saturate them. Within a month, the leaves started growing outside the mesh tower, and he added organic fertilizers to replenish the potting mix.
By the end of January, the vegetables were ready for harvest. Although Varghese didn’t calculate how many kilograms he grew, he says he harvested 120 potatoes from 10 towers.
Varghese’s 28-year-old son, Akhil Varghese, says there were so many vegetables they couldn’t eat them all by themselves. “Once we took what we needed, we shared the rest with our neighbors,” says Akhil.
Credits: elhorticultor.org
¿Cómo cultivar papas en torres de hojas secas? Planos e instrucciones paso a paso