Last year during the gardening season I tried to make a pallet garden. Sadly that did not work out as well as I had hoped and I have basically given up on it in favour of planting potatoes in bins full of coconut coir.
We are using 68 L Rubbermaid bin’s half filled with coconut coir (a more ecologically sensitive replacement for peat moss) and planting seed potatoes in the bins.
The package of coconut coir says it rehydrates almost instantaneously and I have to admit, it was amazingly quick to rehydrate. I simply broke the slabs into hand sized pieces and then added cold water from the hose. With a little bit of manipulation the coconut coir soaked up the water and turned into what looks almost exactly like peat.
I then transferred the rehydrated coconut coir from the mixing bin into the bins we intend on planting the spuds in. Of course before we put anything in the bins we drilled 6 or 8 holes in the bottom of the bins so that they had some drainage.
We ran out of time today so we didn’t have time to do the actual planting but the bins are ready as soon as we get a chance to fire some seed potatoes into them.
As an aside, we bought two extra packages of peat replacement for when the potato plants are ready to be “hilled”. All we have to do is pack more material in around the plants and that is in essence, hilling the potatoes.
The coconut coir is available at your local gardening supply store. Each package cost about $15.
I will let you know how this new form of potato growing works out.