{"id":19664,"date":"2022-05-18T08:28:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T12:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=19664"},"modified":"2022-05-18T08:28:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T12:28:52","slug":"growing-potatoes-in-barrels-due-to-wire-worms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2022\/05\/18\/growing-potatoes-in-barrels-due-to-wire-worms\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you recommend how to grow potatoes in barrels due to a wire worm infestation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Question:<\/h3>\n<p><strong>I have decided to grow potatoes in half whiskey barrels because my garden soil has wire worms in it and is not good for growing potatoes. If I plant them in the barrels, what kind of soil should I use? What should I fertilize them with? Compost? If there is a way to get rid of wire worms organically?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Answer:<\/h3>\n<p><em>Pamela Hargest, Horticulture Professional<\/em><\/p>\n<div>There are many different growing mediums you can use for containers, but the most important thing is that the medium drains well. I&#8217;d recommend combining some composting (about 30%) with a standard potting mix. Once the potato\u00a0plant begins to emerge, you can use a water soluble fertilizer (5-10-10) every few weeks. I&#8217;d recommend checking out\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/extension.unh.edu\/blog\/2020\/03\/what-best-way-grow-potatoes-containers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/extension.unh.edu\/blog\/2020\/03\/what-best-way-grow-potatoes-containers&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1652897572797000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1NCX7i0FV3X_FK-R73ZwKh\">this blog post from UNH<\/a>\u00a0on the best way to grow potatoes in containers. One of our Master Gardener Volunteers also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2020\/05\/01\/maine-home-garden-news-may-2020\/#growing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2020\/05\/01\/maine-home-garden-news-may-2020\/%23growing&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1652897572797000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3CrIvlUj1Dry1kG7xFXScj\">wrote an article on growing potatoes in grow bags<\/a>\u00a0which you might find helpful.<\/div>\n<p>As for wireworm, we typically recommend cultural controls such as controlling weeds in the area where wireworm is present and potentially not growing crops in the infested area for a year or two. Here is more information about wireworm:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hort.extension.wisc.edu\/articles\/wireworms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/hort.extension.wisc.edu\/articles\/wireworms\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1652897572797000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3EJrq_aDi0h9qdAD3tyy9e\">https:\/\/hort.extension.wisc.edu\/articles\/wireworms\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I have decided to grow potatoes in half whiskey barrels because my garden soil has wire worms in it and is not good for growing potatoes. If I plant them in the barrels, what kind of soil should I use? What should I fertilize them with? Compost? If there is a way to get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,204,201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-pests","category-vegetables"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can you recommend how to grow potatoes in barrels due to a wire worm infestation? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2022\/05\/18\/growing-potatoes-in-barrels-due-to-wire-worms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can you recommend how to grow potatoes in barrels due to a wire worm infestation? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I have decided to grow potatoes in half whiskey barrels because my garden soil has wire worms in it and is not good for growing potatoes. 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