I wonder has anyone tried to grow potatoes here in Taiwan? I heard it’s really easy to grow, basically one potato grows you like 10 or more… Does the climate in Taiwan lend to growing potatoes well?
Seeing how they are kinda expensive maybe some try to grow them in the garden…
its a nice hobby, but for food purposes its probably a waste of your time. It will take you 3 months of work to get those potatoes.
Matt Damon grew them on Mars so it should be possible. Seriously though, I’d love to grow some.
They are quite easy to grow here in Pingtung on the balcony, I switched over to sweet potatoes a few months ago but growing in a smaller pot just for the leaves.
its just for the fun of it as I like to have something great on the balcony.
Here is a website that will get you started, if you’re looking for more of a crop try the bag method at the bottom, make sure they have good drainage because of the heat and give them a bit of shade.
I used to grow them in old car tyres on hard standing , but may not work here, to hot and humid? U.K. whole idea of the tyre was keep soil warm and moist.
How you do it up to 6 tyres.
Get your tire, stuff rim cavity with old newspaper’s, place on the ground fill halfway with soil, put your 3 sprouting seed potatoes on soils top up to rim of the tyre with soil.
When green leafs start to show put another rim stuffed tire on top fill with soil, same again when leafs start to show.
I did it 4 tyres high and very successful.
I found this YouTube, difference is they not stuffing rim to save on amount of soil needed. Plus compost type soil is pricey in Taipei, best get from down by the river.
The wife has grown potatoes in a slightly raised bed in Hualien. The last batch was very good. She is 100% in charge so I only know she was successful. Three month process.
We do it. If you stagger it and keep up, you can grow year round. (Maybe not way up north in winter).
What kind or potatoes? Red, white? Something else?
So, when you harvested them, you have to take the whole tire tower down? What was the yield? I’d like to try that!
Got pics?
I’d probably do it if I had a garden, or even a rooftop. I thought about it before, but came to the conclusion that it isn’t worth the time/effort if you only have a balcony (as in my case).
IDK about that. Tending a garden is mental healthy. 
I grow stuff already (herbs and microgreens). I was referring specifically to things like potatoes, garlic, etc., that need to be buried and tended to for months, when space is a constraint.
potatoes here rot easy. soit’s often that specifically microclimates are chosen/made and smaller varieties are growth to prevent rotting of the core on the bigger ones.
Taitung, Chunhua, Yunlin, Taichung and other dry areas are usually the hot spots for potatoes. plus planting at the right time. fall through spring is the go to timing, and varies a bit on your specific location/variety. summer is black spot central, even for the tiny allergy types
Potatoes are pretty easy to grow in a container (containers / tires / bags help with soil being too wet and rotting), don’t really need much tending to, but don’t generally love heat. Choose your variety carefully.
I did it with what we call early (new potatoes) but can be done with others.
It’s great to harvest using mostly compost that is fairly loose, lift tires off and lovely clean potatoes fall out.
Big crop much more than in the ground.
Sorry no pics was long time ago.
I’m imagining a string a firecrackers!
I attempted to grow them once for amusement value. They struggled a bit and then died.
Potatoes are a temperate-climate plant. It might be theoretically possible in winter, but I wouldn’t expect too much.
they can handle the heat and sun, it’s the wetness that causes huge problems, which means soil structure is key. plus all the usual pests and pathogens. control the water, have a decent chance 
we have potato farmers down here in the various drier microclimates. pots on balconies should be easy for said reasons of controlling water, just make sure they get enough light and airflow.
It’s pretty well accepted (most?) potatoes are susceptible to heat stress and yield much less when temperatures get too high. In GA, I’ve planted in bags a few years running, at different points - any I plant past early April don’t do nearly as well, and it’s not the wetness.
for sure, that can happen. I find though it’s mostly tuber diseases caused by pathogens which are more prevalent in the heat. solid plays a big role in that process, especially in containers. there are numerous varieties that will grow here in the summer if it doesn’t flood. the roots get lots of diseases and are all messed up. but the plant still grows and appears pretty above ground.
I think most of the farmers around me are like you mentioned in.GA. pull out everything out by march April before the diseases got nuts.
