8 Tips For Growing Potatoes
How To Grow The Best Potatoes In Your Garden
Looking to grow your own potatoes and don’t have any idea how to begin, when to plant, or where to sow them? No worries as I’ve put together these 8 Tips On Growing Potatoes just for novice gardeners as I was once there myself. AND … if you don’t have a large garden or an area to grow your own in the ground, I will also be posting some very creative ways you can grow potatoes on your porch and patio. So check it out and please take the leap and plant a few yourself – I promise you won’t be disappointed as nothing tastes better than homegrown potatoes !!
8 TIPS FOR GROWING POTATOES IN A GARDEN
- SOIL PREPARATION – prep the soil at least two weeks before planting so amendments have time to work and improve the soil. Since potatoes grow best in loose, well drained soil, you can add some loam if you have heavy clay or sandy soil. Now is also the time to also add compost as it add nutrients to the soil, as well as improving moisture retention so the soil doesn’t dry out quickly yet still drains well. Potatoes also like acidic soil so maybe add some pine needles into the mix.
- LOCATION – pick a spot where your potatoes will receive full sun – 6 to 8 hours a day
Image by monicore from pixabay - PREP YOUR SPUDS – cut large seed potatoes into smaller pieces about 2″ wide. Each piece should have at least two buds or eyes. After cutting the potatoes, let them sit at room temperature for two or three days. Then chit the potatoes (allowing them to sprout) by giving them a head start before planting them. This is simply placing potatoes on paper, or if you have any – in egg cartons, with the eyes upright.
- PLANT IN EARLY SPRING – seeing potatoes loves cool weather, they can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in the early spring, once the soil temperature reaches 45˚F. It’s best to wait until the soil dries out a bit since waterlogged soil will cause the seed potatoes to rot.
Image by Winsker from Pixabay - KEEP TUBERS COVERED – prevent your potatoes from forming green skin by covering with soil or mulching heavily so that no light reaches the tubers. You can also keep adding soil to the ground as the plants begin to grow.
- CONSISTENTLY WATER – make sure the plants get an average of 1-2 inches of water per week.
- HARVEST TIME – towards the end of the growing season the foliage will die. Don’t be alarmed as this is natural. Do a test run and dig up a potato from one plant and rub the skin of the potato with your fingers. The potatoes are ready to harvest if the skin of a potato won’t scrub off easily. If the skin does come off easily, wait a few more days and then test a couple more potatoes.
image by Kolar.io – upsplash - CROP ROTATION – you shouldn’t grow potatoes in the same spot until 3 or 4 years later, so be prepared to move them around each season. To enrich the soil, you can follow potatoes with beans, leafy greens, a cover crop, or another non-Solanaceae family crop (solanaceae meaning potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum and chillies).
And there you have it – the 8 TIPS FOR GROWING GARDEN POTATOES. Good luck and keep me posted on how your potato crops did this season. And check out my next post on some very creative ways you can grow potatoes on your porch and patio. I’ll include the potatoes I’m growing in an old trough since I’m always fighting gophers and moles.