Growing Potatoes

• Spring
• Summer
• Vegetables

Potatoes are easy to grow, store well through the winter, and provide a nutritious addition to meals. There’s nothing like the flavor of freshly dug potatoes and the knowledge that they were grown in a pesticide-free environment in your own backyard garden.

The potato tubers grow off the main stem as it grows taller. You’ll need to bury the stem as it gets taller and cover the tubers as they form.

Ward’s Nursery has seed potatoes available generally by the first week of April. Read on or download this synopsis in printable PDF form.

Here are some basics:

Your “Seed”

Plant Certified Seed Potatoes: When you plant seed potatoes, you are planting a potato produced by the plant the previous year. Any diseases or insects that the mother plant may have had are carried over in the seed potato. Planting certified seed potatoes ensures that you are starting with disease free potatoes.

How Much Should You Plant?

Like seeds, one potato piece will yield many harvestable potatoes but the volume will depend on growing conditions and variety. One pound will plant 5-8 ft. of row (1 piece about golf ball size with 3 eyes will be planted on average every 12 inches). One pound of fingerlings will plant 10-16 ft. of row. Open this chart to see our current seed potato varieties available and typical yield.

When Is a Good Time?

Plant Potatoes in Early Spring.  Potatoes prefer cooler weather. They can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in the early spring, once the soil temperature reaches 45˚F. That’s when Daffodils are blooming! Wet, waterlogged soil will cause the seed potatoes to rot. So, depending on how rainy your springs are, it may be better to wait until the soil dries out a bit.

What Kind of Location and Soil Do You Need?

Grow in Full Sun: Grow your potatoes where they will receive full sun (6-8 hours per day) planted in an acidic (pH 6-6.5) , well-drained soil. Most varieties can be planted 10-12” apart in rows 36” apart. A deep grow bag (24″ deep by 36″ diameter) or leaky trash can could hold 3-4 plants.

Prepare the soil by digging plenty of compost into your beds. Compost loosens soil to make hilling easier later. The compost does triple duty – it loosens clay soils, makes sandy soils more moisture retentive and encourages root access to soil nutrients.

Tip for success– Chit Your Potatoes! Give your potato seeds a head start by pre-sprouting (or chitting) them before planting into the ground. To do this, expose the potatoes to indirect sunlight for a couple weeks to start them off.

Planting & Initial Care:

Dig a trench 6 – 8 inches deep. Plant your pieces about 12” apart (Russet type can use more room – about 14” apart). Plant with cut or tail side down and eyes faced up. Cover seed pieces with about 3” of soil. After the plants grow about 1 foot, bury the stem by creating a broad hill around each plant by hoeing soil from each side of the row (or by adding soil to your container).

Keep the Tubers Covered. Hill soil up several times as the plants grow to protect growing tubers from ‘sunburn’. Continue until the plant canopy is large enough to shade the hill and is too dense to work between. Hilling helps prevent weeds until the canopy takes over, too. Use straw or another organic mulch to help soil retain moisture.

Water Consistently. Maintain a consistent moisture level in the potato bed averaging about 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) of water per week. This is especially important in the last 15 to 20 days of the plants life cycle

Pest Prevention:

• Potato Beetles, Aphid and Leaf Hoppers – use a Floating row cover of Reemay or spun polyester. Inspect plants weekly for brown larvae feeding on leaves or golden egg masses on leaf undersides. Pick off any found. Also, Bt labeled for beetles (Spinosad) is an organic bio-rational spray to use if you find the pests unmanageable.
• Early Blight and Late Blight are diseases caused by airborne fungus and affect Potatoes just like Tomatoes. There is no cure for blight so prevention is key. Use a copper-based fungicide or a Bt labeled for fungus to coat leaf surfaces and prevent fungus from attaching. Start using fungicides in early June on a dry day before long periods of humidity or rain are forecast.

Harvest:

Let the Potatoes Mature Fully for Food Storage. You can begin harvesting new potatoes as needed for meals after the plants bloom. If you are growing potatoes for storage, allow the tubers to remain in the ground to mature. Cut the stems to the ground and wait for about 14 days before digging. Cure unwashed potatoes before storing so the skins heal over and thicken up. Cure by storing at 55 degrees in absolute darkness and 90% humidity.

Store cured tubers in a dark area in covered boxes or bins with some holes for ventilation. Ideal storage conditions for potatoes are at 32-40˚F and 80-90% relative humidity.

Prepare for next year

Rotate Your Potato Crop for Healthy Soil

Potatoes should be rotated in the garden on a 3-year system. They are in the same family as tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. This means you shouldn’t grow potatoes in the same spot (or where a ‘family’ member was) until 3 or 4 years later. Follow potatoes with beans, leafy greens, a cover crop, or another non-Solanaceae family crop.

Online book to learn more tips and tricks: https://growagoodlife.com/growing-potatoes-book