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How to Grow Your Own Potatoes


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Preparing Your Seed Potatoes For Planting

Tubers about the size of eggs, or "one drops", are preferred and need no preparation for planting. Cut larger tubers into pieces with at least two strong eyes. Always use a clean, sharp knife. Spread the cut pieces out in a shady location for a few hours until the cut sides develop a leathery film. While it is not necessary, if you are planting into cooler soil or in an area where diseases are common, gently toss the pieces in a sack with a teaspoon of powdered sulfur.

Planting Your Potato Crop

Plant two weeks before the average last frost in your area, or wait until soil temperatures are above 55 degrees. Plant your seed potatoes 4-6" deep, 12-18 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart. The best locations for growing potatoes are in full sun, in humus-rich slightly acidic soil, and with water available on a regular basis to produce the highest yield. Monitor and cover any tubers that heave above the soil to prevent greening or sun-scald.

Hilling Your Potato crop

If you want the maximum yield of large potatoes, hilling is crucial. Sprouts will emerge about 2 weeks after planting. When How to Grow Potatoesthe shoots are 6-8" tall, gently hill the vines by pulling soil from both sides of the row until 3-4"of the shoot is left exposed. Repeat the process again every two weeks for a month. Potatoes will grow from the covered stem above the seed potato, so the more stem you hill around, the higher your yield.

Fertilizing Your Potato Crop

Potato plants can be side-dressed every two weeks from shoot emergence to commencement of heavy flowering with an Organic All-Purpose Fertilizer or by foliar spraying early in the morning with an organic liquid seaweed/fish emulsion extract. DO NOT use high-nitrogen foliar spray or soil drenches like Miracle-Gro or Scotts. If your soil is not in the acid range, then we recommend using an Acid-Based Organic Fertilizer, which will cut down on or even eliminate common potato problems like scab.

Harvesting Your Potato Crop

Baby, or "new", potatoes can be harvested starting about two weeks after flowering ends by gently digging into the side of the hill and removing 2" tubers. Leave plenty of tubers in the hill to continue to mature into full-sized potatoes. At the end of the season when tubers are mature, bend and break, or cut off, the vines. Leave the potatoes in the ground for a week or two after the vines have died down. This increases the storage quality of the tubers by allowing the skin to "set", or firm up. Dig carefully to avoid scarring or bruising, and spread the crop in the shade to dry and allow further skin set to occur. Separate any damaged potatoes and eat them within a week or two. Do not mix damaged potatoes with firm ones for storage.

Storing Your Potato Crop

Your potato crop will keep best in a fully darkened room at 36-40 degrees, with enough humidity to prevent dessication, and with air circulation for respiration. Try to achieve those optimum conditions, as light and/or warmth will turn potatoes green and promote sprouting and softening. Check your stored crop frequently and consume or discard any potatoes that are not perfectly firm.

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