Potatoes
Solanum tuberosum. SOLANACEAE.
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Potatoes
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow potatoes in the accompanying table’s tabs:
-
- How many potatoes to plant
- Growing conditions for potatoes
- What are determinate and indeterminate potato varieties?
- When to plant potatoes
- How to plant potatoes
- Watering, fertilizing, and pruning potatoes
- Companion plantings for potatoes
- How to harvest, store, and use potatoes
Growing Potatoes
Potatoes are cool-season perennial, deciduous tubers, a popular root vegetable in the Nightshade family. A close relative of tomatoes and peanuts, they have bushy, somewhat vining plants, to 2 ft. (60 cm) tall, bearing purple, white flowers and many oval, round, finger-shaped, or clustered, brown, purple, red, tan, or yellow tubers at their roots.
Flavor and texture vary by cultivar. Cultivars are classified as early, midseason, or late season based on the length of time required for maturity. Choose disease-free or resistant cultivars known to be successful in your region.
Potato varieties also differ in growth habit. Some are indeterminate—they produce successive waves of new tubers as their roots develop—while others are determinate and produce only one set of tubers at their roots during the seasonal growth cycle.
Potato Plant and Care Guide
How Much to Plant
Allow 4–5 plants per household member, yielding 20–50 potatoes.
How to Plant
Seed potato cuttings germinate in 10-14 days.
Early Cultivars—Average Climates: Sow in full sun in spring 4–6 weeks before last expected frost. Mild-Summer Climates: Sow in late spring.
Midseason Cultivars—Sow in spring when soil warms to 50–85°F (10–29°C).
Late Cultivars—Sow in late spring. Cut seed potatoes into segments with at least 2 eyes, dust cut surfaces with garden lime, and plant 2–3 in. (50–75 mm) deep, 10–14 in. (25–35 cm) apart, in rows 30–36 in. (75–90 cm) apart.
When sprouts emerge, add 2 in. (5 cm) of soil over the planting to prevent tubers from greening.
Indeterminate Potatoes—Plant indeterminate potato types—including Amarosa, Bangcock, Bintje, German Butterball, Elba, Nicola, Royal Blue, Russet, Russian Blue, Sarpo Mira, and Snowden—4 in (10 cm) deep. When sprouts appear and two sets of leaves have formed vertically on the leaf stalk, bury them with loose soil to the top of their foliage, making a hill.
Repeat as each successive two pairs of leaves set. Continue until the entire hill is layered 18 in. (45 cm) deep, then allow the plants’ foliage to grow normally, set flowers, and die back before digging. Hills will form potatoes on each set of roots in the planting, producing a bountiful harvest.
Best Conditions for Growth
45–80°F (7–27°C); needs vary by cultivar. Zones 2–10.
Soil Type and Fertility
Damp, well-drained, sandy soil. Fertility: Rich. 4.8–5.4 pH. Prepare soil at least 2 ft. (60 cm) deep.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly damp; allow soil to dry between waterings. Withhold water 2 weeks before harvest. Fertilize only at planting with 5–10–10 formula. Mulch. Cultivate until flowers form. Borer, grub and fungal disease susceptible.
Pairing Recommendations
Beans, cabbage, corn, eggplant, horseradish, and marigolds.
Maturity, Picking and Gathering
Early: 90–110 days.
Midseason: 100–120 days.
Late: 110–140 days.
Harvest new potatoes when flowers begin to fade; mature potatoes, when foliage withers, digging carefully with a garden fork, 8–10 in. (20–25 cm) from stalk and working inward to the vine. Harvest promptly. Brush clinging soil from tubers.
How to Store and Preserve
Fresh, stored in a cool, dark, well-ventilated spot, for 6 months; avoid refrigeration. Use new potatoes immediately.
Warning: Stems, leaves, potato eyes and any green skin areas on potato tubers are a poison hazard if ingested.