How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Potatoes

Growing potatoes in the home garden is a really fun project. Potato plants require sun, well-drained soil and regular water, if you can give them those things, you can grow almost any potato variety. 

If you’re short on garden space, potatoes can be grown in containers or grow bags. 

True Potato Seeds or Seed Potatoes?

While it is possible to grow potatoes from the seeds the flowers make (these are called true potato seeds), you’ll get more reliable results if you grow potatoes from tubers that have sprouted. 

If you’re interested in learning more about true potato seeds, Grand Tetons Organics has a great article about them and also sells them.

You can find tubers  for planting (certified seed potatoes) at garden centers and local feed stores. Most non-organic grocery store potatoes are sprayed with an inhibitor to keep them from sprouting, so those don’t make great seed potatoes. That being said, I’ve successfully grown potatoes from grocery store potatoes. I don’t have a problem, planting ones that sprout in my kitchen in the early spring. 

When to Plant Potatoes

Potatoes are a cool-season crop so they are usually planted in early spring, however, in warmer regions  you can also plant fall potatoes and get a second harvest.

For spring planting, the soil temperature needs to be above 45 degrees Fahrenheit before planting potatoes. Potatoes can handle a light frost, there might be some leaf damage but the underground parts will be fine. 

For fall planting, planting time is 110 days before your average first frost. There is no upper limit on soil temperature for growing fall potatoes.

Best Soil For Growing Potatoes

The best garden soil for growing potatoes is one that is rich in organic matter and not compacted. If you have clay soil, you’ll need to break it up with compost, peat moss, or even by adding some sand to it. Since the tubers grow underground, you want the really loose soil to give them room to grow and good drainage so they don’t rot.

While potatoes can tolerate a variety of soil conditions, you’ll get best results in slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6-6.5 but will tolerate soil with a pH as low as 5. 

How to Plant Potatoes from Eyes

You know those little indentions on potatoes? Those are called eyes, and that’s where the potato sprouts from. If you’re buying seed potatoes locally, look for ones that have already sprouted, it will save you a step. If you’ve ordered seed potatoes and they haven’t sprouted, no worries, they’ll sprout soon enough. 

If the potatoes haven’t sprouted when you get them, put them in a warm, sunny spot until they sprout. You’ll want to do this several weeks before you plan to plant them. Forcing potatoes to sprout is called chitting and it can help you have a larger harvest. 

1. With a clean knife, cut the potatoes into large pieces that have at least 2 eyes on each piece. Smaller potatoes can be left whole. The potato will feed the sprout until the plants roots develop. 
2. Lay the seed potato pieces out, cut side up, for a few days in a warm spot. This will “cure” the potato and help reduce the chances of the potato rotting. According to the University of Maryland, “You can also help prevent disease and insect injury by coating the seed pieces with elemental sulfur (place seed pieces and the sulfur in a bag and shake).” Or the pieces can be dipped in wood ash to coat the cuts and prevent rotting and disease. However, do not use wood ash to amend the soil, it’s too alkaline for growing potatoes. 
3. Prepare the garden bed or container that you’re going to grow potatoes in. 
4. Dig a trough about 6 inches deep and 4 inches wide. 
5. Plant the potato pieces with the cut side down and the sprouts sticking up. 
6. Cover the potato pieces with about two inches of soil. 
7. Water when needed, potato plants need about an inch of rain a week.

Growing Potatoes

As the potatoes plants grow, you’ll want to “hill” them by mounding soil around the plant. This will help them make more potatoes. When the plants are about 8 inches tall, cover all but the top 4 inches with soil, chopped hay or shredded leaves. When they grow to 8 inches again, bury all but the top 4 inches. Keep repeating this process until the plants flower.

You want to make sure that the potato tubers are never exposed to sun. The sun can cause green spots which are a sign of

solanum tuberosum in the potato. You should not eat potatoes with green spots or feed them to your animals. 

​Water the potato plant regularly. Don’t let them dry out and then flood them. 

When to Pick Potatoes

You can pick “new” potatoes at any time during the growing season. These early potatoes are perfect for boiling or roasting. You’ll know it’s harvest time when the potato plants die. At this point, you’ll reach into the loose soil and dig the potatoes. This is a super fun activity, especially for children. Use a digging fork and not a shovel to loosen the soil to dig potatoes out of the soil. 

Different potato varieties can take anywhere from 90 to 120 days from the time of planting until the it’s time to harvest potatoes

How to Grow Potatoes in Containers and Bags

​A lot of people grow potatoes in containers or grow bags. I’ve tried growing potatoes in containers but containers need to be watered more often which I struggle with, so they don’t do well for me. 

If you want to try growing potatoes in the containers or grow bags, they process is exactly the same as growing potatoes in ground or in a raised bed. Just follow the process above. Water them whenever the top inch of the soil is dry. 

Potato Pests and Problems 

Probably the biggest potato pest is the Colorado Potato Beetle. They will lay a cluster of orange eggs on the underside of the leaves, you can remove these leaves and burn them (or just squish the eggs.). Ladybugs will eat potato beetle eggs so be sure to attract beneficial bugs to your garden. 

If you know potato beetles are a problem in your area, you can use row covers to protect them. Just be sure to put the row covers over the growing area right after planting the potatoes. Since potatoes are root vegetables, they don’t need pollinators produce potatoes. 

Potato blight can wipe out entire crops of potatoes, remember the Irish potato famine? To avoid spreading, use a 3 year rotation schedule – don’t plant potatoes where other nightshade plants have been planted during the previous 3 years. Nightshade plants are tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.

Storing Potatoes

Once the potatoes are harvested, lay them out in the shade for a day or two to let the skin harden. Don’t wash the potatoes before storing them, just wipe off the dirt.

To fully cure potatoes for storage, put them in a humid place at 55 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks. 

Once cured, potatoes can be stored in burlap bags or buckets with sand in a cool, dry place like a root cellar or unheated basement. Don’t store potatoes with apples or they will prematurely sprout. 

​Because I live in a warm climate, I cannot store spring potatoes from their harvest date in June all through the winter. Therefore, I rely on planting a fall potato crop to carry us through the winter. I also can potatoes to ensure none go to waste. 

Thanks for sharing with your friends!