How to Grow Potato Plants: The Complete Guide (2024)

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You’ll need a location with at least 6 hours of direct sunlight and fertile, loose, well-drained soil; hard or compacted soil leads to misshapen tubers. Ideally, the soil is slightly acidic (pH 5.8 to 6.5), and the soil temperature is at least 45º to 55ºF(7° to 13°C). In the fall, mix compost or organic matter into the soil. Learn more about compost, soil amendments, and preparing the soil for planting.)

When to PlantPotatoes

Garden potatoes can be planted 2 to 4 weeks before the average last frost date. The soil temperature should be at least 55°F during the day and 45°F at night. But pay more attention to the soil than the calendar to determine planting time.The soil should not be so wet that it sticks together and is hard to work. Let it dry out a bit first.If you have a late and wet spring, you can plant later—through April (depending on location) or even June, especially incontainers.

In cooler regions, the early-maturing potatoes are usually planted early to mid-April. In warmer regions, planting times range from September to February; in central Florida, gardeners plant potatoes in January; in Georgia, they plant inFebruary.

See our Planting Guide for the best dates to plant by zip code or postal code.

How to PlantPotatoes

Potatoes for planting are called ‘seed potatoes’ and are usually sold in bags or netting. Use certified (disease-resistant) seed potatoes from which eyes (buds) protrude. (Do not confuse seed potatoes with potato seeds or groceryproduce.

When you get them, break them free, lay them out in a tray (such as an old egg carton), and pop them somewhere bright and frost-free to sprout – such as an indoor windowsill. This is a process called ‘chitting’. It’s not essential, but chitting helps speed things along a bit so that by the time they’re planted, they’ll be primed and itching to send outroots.

As the video below shows, after a month of chitting, the potatoes produced stout, stocky, green sprouts, which is exactly what we’re after; we don’t want the long, pale sprouts you get when potatoes are left in the dark. If you haven’t had a chance to chit your potatoes and it’s already time to plant, don’t worry – get them in theground.

A great way to get more seed potatoes for free is to cut them in half. But only do this if they’ve got plenty of “eyes,” which appear as small dimples and are where the sprouts emerge from. You want to put the end of the potatoes with the most eyes facing upwards for thisreason.

At least two days before planting, use a clean, sharp paring knife to cut large potatoes into golf ball-size pieces, with 1 to 2 eyes each. This time allows the pieces to heal or form a protective layer over the cut surface, improving both moisture retention and rot resistance. Do not cut up seed potatoes that are smaller than a hen’s egg; plant themwhole.

• Outside, prepare the planting area by simply spreading compost across the surface to a depth of around an inch or 3 cm. Potatoes are fairly hungry plants, so this extra nourishment will help to support good soil fertility and a strongharvest.

4 Methods of PlantPotatoes

There are different approaches to planting potatoes. (See a demonstration in the above video, ifneeded.)

• Dig Holes: For each seed potato, dig a hole about 6 inches deep (or 16 cm). Add in a little slow-release organic fertilizer (e.g., chicken manure pellets) and then pop in the potato with sprouts pointing up and cover with soil. Space potatoes about 16 inches (or 40 cm) apart in both directions for early types. Maincrop potatoes need a bit more space to stretch their legs, so space them at 18 inches (or 45 cm)apart.
• Dig V-Shaped Trenches: Dig 2- to 2.5-foot trenches (60 to 75 inches). Lay a nourishing cushion of garden compost along the bottom and a few of those chicken manure pellets, then set your tubers into position about one foot or 30 cm apart. Then just fill back in. I don’t think it makes a huge difference which way you plant, so do whatever’s easiest in the space youhave.
• Plant in Straw: Nestle seed potatoes down into the soil surface, then cover them with straw. See our article on planting potatoes in straw.
• Plant Potatoes in Pots: If you don’t have the garden space, plant in large containers, old compost sacks, or purpose-sold potato sacks. Fill the bottom of your pot or sack with about 4 inches (10 cm) of potting mix, then lay one or two potatoes on top and cover. Once the foliage is growing, add in more potting mix, a bit at a time, to hill or earth them up until the soil level reaches the top at which point the foliage almost seems to explode insize.

See our article about container gardening with potatoes.

• Watering Potatoes: Firstly, water! This is really important because potatoes are lush and leafy plants, and those tubers take a lot of effort to swell. So if it’s dry, water thoroughly. Maintain even moisture, especially from the time after the flowers bloom. Potatoes need 1 to 2 inches of water a week. Too much water right after planting and not enough as the potatoes begin to form can cause them to become misshapen. Stop watering when the foliage begins to turn yellow and die off.

  If you’re growing in containers, take extra care to keep your plants really well watered, especially in warmer weather, as this really will make all the difference in achieving a good crop.
  

• Hilling Potatoes: The potato flavor is improved by depth and darkness. As the potato plants grow above the soil surface, you’ll need to periodically “hill up” or mound up soil and compost around the plant so that only the topleaves stick out of the ground. It’s vital not to allow potato spuds to be exposed to sunlight, as this also causes them toturn green and produce a chemical called solanine, which gives off a bitter taste and is toxic. Do the hilling in the morning, when plants are at their tallest. (During the heat of the day, plants start drooping.) Just draw up the soil with a hoe every time the stems get to around 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) tall so that just the very tops are left poking out. Continue doing this in stages until you can no longer draw up any more soil, or the foliage closes over in between the rows.

  If you’re growing your potatoes in a smaller raised bed, it may be easier to simply top up with organic matter around the wholearea.

• Protect From Frost: Late frosts can damage the young foliage – something to watch out for with early starts. Frost-bitten plants usually have enough energy to shake off any damage, but it can set plants back nonetheless. So if a frost is forecast and potatoes stand to get clobbered, do whatever you can to protect them. Cover the area in a few layers of warming fleece or row cover fabric, cover clusters of shoots with pots, or draw up the soil to bury the youngshoots.

Note: In cool growing seasons, potato vines may sport berries. The berries are the fruit. Cut one open and see how it resembles its cousin, the tomato. Potatoberries are poisonousand inedible. Plus, their seeds will not produce potato plants that resemble the parent. Discardthem.

Practice yearly crop rotationwith potatoes in order to avoid pests anddiseases.

There are three classifications for potatoes based on when you harvest (vs. when you plant). If you harvest for storage, be sure to choose the righttype:

1. Early-season potatoes: First to be planted in early spring. Grow quickly (60 to 80 days), ready to harvest by early summer, tender flesh, thinner skin, store up to a fewweeks.
2. Mid-season potatoes (also called Second Earlies): mature in 80 to 100 days, typically lifted up from second half of summer, store up to amonth.
3. Late crops: mature in 100 to 130 days, best for storing, lasting 2 to 3 months in the right conditions; planted in August and harvested infall.

Also, decide on the texture and flavor of your potatoes, and how you’d like to eatthem:

• Dry-fleshed, mealy potatoes like russets and long white potatoes are used for baking, frying, and mashing. As mashed potatoes, they will not be gluey, and they will absorb gravy, butter or sourcream.
• Moist, waxy, round potatoes are great in soups, curries, frittatas, and salads because they don’t fall apart when cooked. You can pan-fry leftover boiled potatoes. When you mash waxy potatoes, they can becomesticky.
• Red-skinned potatoes are often used for boiling or for potatosalads.

Some popular potato varieties, such as ‘Yukon Gold,’ fall somewhere in between truly waxy andmealy.

There are over 100 potato plant varieties! Go beyond the Idaho potato to explore more exotic and delicious options. See our article on choosing the best potato varieties!

EarlyVarieties:

• ‘Irish Cobbler’: tan skin, irregular shape (great heirloom potato for delicious mashedpotatoes!)
• ‘Red Norland’: deep red skin, sweet, delicate flavor, great in potato salads orboiled
• ‘Mountain Rose’: red skin and pink flesh, resistant to someviruses

Mid-SeasonVarieties

• ‘Yukon Gold’: popular, tan skin and buttery-yellow flesh, mid to largesize
• ‘Red Pontiac’: red skin, deep eyes (easiest and most adaptable red potato there is togrow)
• ‘Viking’: red skin, veryproductive
• ‘Chieftan’: red skin, resistant to potato scab, storeswell

LateVarieties

• ‘Katahdin’: tan skin, resistant to someviruses
• ‘Kennebec’: tan skin, resistant to some viruses and lateblight
• ‘Elba’: tan skin, large round tubers, resistant to blight and potatoscab
• All BluePotatoes
• ‘Fingerling Salad’ potatoes

Harvesting potatoes is fun! It’s like unearthing nature’s treasures. Harvest potatoes on dry days. Dig up gently, being careful not to puncture the tubers. Avoid cutting or bruising potato skin. The soil should not be compacted, so digging should be easy. Potatoes can tolerate light frost, but when the first hard frost is expected, it’s time to get out the shovels and start diggingpotatoes.

Harvesting at the right stage keeps tubers from sitting about too long and upping the chances of a slug or disease attack, particularly for maincropspuds.

Earlies are the first to be lifted, usually while the plants are still in flower. Your tubers should be about the size of a hen’s egg or a touch bigger, but it’s up to you how big you want them. Use a fork and work your way in from the edge of the plant, taking care to avoid stabbing into the potatoes themselves. Once you’ve loosened the plants, you can lift them to expose most of the spuds, but be sure to dig around in the soil for any you’vemissed!

Dig up maincrop spuds once the foliage is dying back towards the end of the growing season. I find it easier to cut back the foliage before digging up the potatoes on a dry day. Leave the potatoes on the soil surface for a few hours so the skin can dry off a bit. Don’t leave them there any longer, or they may start to turngreen.

Extra tips for knowing when and how to dig uppotatoes:

• Toughen up potatoes for storage before harvest by not watering them much aftermid-August.
• Dig up a test hill to see how mature the potatoes are. The skins of mature potatoes are thick and firmly attached to the flesh. If the skins are thin and rub off easily, your potatoes are still too new and should be left in the ground for a few moredays.
• If the soil is very wet, let the potatoes air-dry as much as possible before putting them in bags orbaskets.
• Small green spots can be trimmed off, but throw the potato out if there is significantgreening.
• Only store potatoes that are free of bruises, disease, or damage, as you don’t want problems in storage, and check on stored potatoes every few weeks and remove any that are starting tospoil.

How to CurePotatoes

• Once they’ve dried off, pack them up into breathable sacks or just sturdy cardboard boxes to store somewhere dark, cool but frost-free (45° to 60°F / 7° to 15°C) for up to 2 weeks. This allows the potato skin to cure and thus keeplonger.
• Brush off any clinging soil; do not wash the potatoes until ready to eat; washing will shorten theirlife.

How to StorePotatoes

If you happen to have a damp cellar, you’ll all set! Otherwise, consider an extra refrigerator set a few degrees higher than normal with tubers in dark-colored plastic bags that are perforated (with many holes cut in the side) for air movement. Avoid all light to prevent greening. Or, consider an unheated entrance, spare room, closet, attic, cabinet, or insulated garage. To elevate humidity, you could place large pans of water in front of airsource.

Even after harvest, potatoes still use oxygen and give off carbon dioxide, so they must have fresh air and ventilation. Never put potatoes in airtight containers. Use perforated bags, as mentioned above. Do not store potatoes with apples; the fruit’s ethylene gas causesspoilage.

Find more tips on getting potatoes ready for the root cellar.

Catherine Boeckmann