You’ve probably seen a myriad of ways to plant potatoes on Pinterest. From pots to wire cylinders, from raised beds, to specially made bags, and the list could go on and on. But you may be wondering how to plant potatoes simply and cheaply. No frills or major upfront investment to get started. Thankfully potatoes have grown for hundreds of years just directly out of the dirt. Read on for a beginner’s guide on how to plant potatoes in your vegetable garden this year.
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Seed Potatoes
“Seed potatoes” is a confusing term for those new to growing potatoes. Seed potatoes aren’t actually seeds. They are tubers, the very same tubers that we eat in fact. If you’ve ever had a bag of grocery store potatoes sprout, you’ve had seed potatoes in your house. Potatoes simply multiply by replanting their roots.
Can you plant sprouting grocery store potatoes?
Yes, but…Keep in mind the varieties that you may be planting may not be 100% suited to your climate. Also, if the farm those potatoes came from had issues with disease, you could be introducing disease to your soil and setting yourself up for disappointment. If you want to ensure a better chance of a successful harvest of potatoes, look for disease-free, certified seed potatoes. All that being said, we have always ended up with a potato plant from grocery store potatoes. The harvest, however, varied.
Soil & Timing
Since potatoes grow underground, taking time to prepare the soil they are going to grow in is an important step in planting potatoes. Light, loose, and well-draining soil is preferred by spuds. So if you have heavy clay soil like we do in the Carolinas, consider mixing in organic matter and compost to help lighten the soil. Then till, claw, or broadfork the soil to loosen it up.
Potatoes like fun sun but also prefer cooler soil (45-55 degrees), so planting them a bit earlier than your summer crops will ensure the soil temperature is to their liking. Down here in zone 8, we’re planting a few weeks before our last frost date. If we for some reason have a late frost after the potatoes have sprouted, mulching or covering with agribon (LINK) can help protect the tender leaves from damage.
How to plant potatoes
Chit or Pre-sprout potatoes
If you’ve bought seed potatoes and they haven’t shown signs of budding or sprouting. You may need to give them a little encouragement by “chitting” them. Simply place your seed potatoes in an area with bright light for a few weeks and you should see some eyes sprouting on those sleepy spuds. In our experience, we have not had to complete this step as our potatoes eagerly sprout inside our house well before we’re ready to plant!
Cut potatoes
If your potatoes are smaller than a golf ball, don’t worry about this step. But if you have larger seed potatoes, you’ll want to cut them into about 2-3 inch sized chunks. Make sure that each piece has an “eye” or a bud that will sprout into a new plant. Cut the potatoes one to two days before you plan to plant them. This ensures that the seed potatoes have a chance to scab over a bit, which prevents the potato from rotting or succumbing to disease before it takes root in the soil.
Planting Potatoes
Dig a trench about 6-8 inches deep and plant potatoes chunks about 10 inches apart in the row.
Place the sprouted side up and the cut side down. If you are planting more than one row of potatoes, space the rows about 3 feet apart. Be careful to not break off or damage the sprouts. Cover lightly with soil and leave the rest of the soil from the trench in a pile nearby. As the potato plant grows up, continue to mound up more dirt around the plant. Remember we’re trying to grow tubers underground, so the more of the plant underground the better.
Keep the soil moist
While the potatoes need well-draining soil, they also need to be kept well-watered. The plants will especially need water when they begin to flower as this is when they begin to set tubers underground. After the plant has finished flowering and starts turning yellow, stop watering to allow the potatoes to cure underground for a few weeks. After 3-4 weeks, carefully dig up your homegrown potatoes and allow them to dry a few days in an open shed or garage before putting them in storage.
Hope this has helped you learn how to plant potatoes for success in your garden this coming growing season. If you’d like to watch us plant our own potatoes, check out our recent YouTube video showing the process from start to finish.