Our Potato Growing Guide covers planting, growing, and harvesting one of our favorite vegetables! Also, see tips on how to store potatoes to keep them fresh—and some homemade potato recipes.
Potatoes can be planted very early in the gardening season—as you soon as the frost is out of the soil and you are able to work the soil!
Folklore offers many “best days” for planting potatoes:
- Old-timers in New England planted their potato crops when they saw dandelions blooming in the open fields.
- The Pennsylvania Dutch considered St. Gertrude’s Day (March 17, aka St. Patrick’s Day) to be their official potato-planting day.
- Many Christians believed that Good Friday was the best day to plant potatoes because the devil holds no power over them at this time.
See more information about planting potatoes below.
Reader Comments
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Mounding potatoes
Can you tell me how long you should continue to mound potatoes. We have been mounding them leaving about 8-10 inches above the dirt. We have done this two or three times this year and they are about above the ground now. We were wondering how long to keep mounding them? Do you continue to mound until the foliage starts to die?
how much to mound?
The point of mounding, or hilling, is to be sure that any potatoes that grow near the surface of the soil do not get exposed to the sun. If they do, they will turn green and not edible. You can stop when the foliage begins to die off.
mounding potatoes
when and how long
side sprouts
Grew potatoes as a child, now doing my own for first time in 25 years. Potatoes doing great but just noticed some side sprouts coming up around the hill. almost like you would see with raspberries. do I let these side sprouts come up or clip them?
potatoes
Let the side sprouts be–they may help produce more potatoes. When the shoots become of suitable length, you might want to partially cover them with soil or mulch just as you do the hilling for the rest of the plant.
Pictures Please
Is it possible to add pictures of how potatoes should look at each stage. I enjoyed reading your article but for those of us amateurs a picture is worth a thousand words :-) I planted my seeds about 11 weeks ago. They leaves look good I hilled a little. When should I pull them up? If I pull them too soon can I pack it back down? This is my first year. I did about 8 plants.
Harvesting Potatoes
We agree that pictures are always a big help. Thanks for the suggestion!
To get the biggest and best potatoes, harvest only after the foliage has started to die back. How long this takes depends on which type of potato you’ve got: early-, mid-, or late-season potatoes. When you see foliage turning yellow, cut it to the ground and wait 10-14 days before harvesting. (This will allow the potatoes to form a good protective layer.)
My son pulled up all my plants.
My sweet 6 year old son went down in our garden today and "weeded" a 40' row of Yukon gold potato plants. He thought that since potatoes grew in the soil, that the top must be weeds. He managed to pull all the plants up and leave some amount of root on most of the plants. My question is: I immediately planted them all back in the ground with in the hour. What is the likelyhood of them surviving and coming producing potatoes?
potato woes
How far along were the plants? It is really hard to know, but worth a try to see if they will grow back. The plants may go through shock, and wilt a bit at first; it may take a little while to recover, if they can. However, it is possible that the leaves can produce food enough to grow new roots. It is important, though, that some of those existing roots are healthy, to draw in water etc. Keep an eye out for any stresses, such as pests and diseases, and maintain good cultural conditions to baby the plants to help them recover, if possible. If the day is especially hot, you might provide a little partial shade (or place under row cover) during the peak of the heat until plants re-establish. Good luck!
Question about comparable potato varieties
Hello! Thanks for the helpful information on your site. If there's one thing from NZ that I miss, it is the melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness that are Jersey Benney new potatoes, grown in the Otago region. They are truly a gift of the earth! I now live in Arkansas and would LOVE to know if there are any potato varieties comparable to the Jersey Benney, here in the US? If so, where can I buy these as seed potatoes? It would be awesome if I could grow some next year.
Thanks again!
Pip
potato options
Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with Jersey Benne, but it appears that it is an early type, with waxy flesh, good for new potatoes, salads, boiling? If so, you might ask your local garden center or county’s cooperative extension for that type of variety that would grow well in Arkansas. For contact info, go to:
http://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services
In general, ‘Yukon Gold’ is a popular yellow potato, but grows a little later than the first or second earlies (midseason). Not quite as waxy, but valued for its flavor. ‘Red Luna’ is said to be flavorful. Other options might be ‘Dark Red Northland’, ‘Red Gold’, or other red potatoes often grown as new potatoes. There are also heirloom varieties that might be fun. Good luck!
Potato bugs
I have a problem with potato bugs. They are not the flea beetle. What can I do other than check every plant every day and remove them by hand?
potato pests
Several bugs enjoy potatoes. Controlling them will depend on the insect. The Colorado potato beetle is one of the most common, and is a yellowish-orange beetle with black stripes. Handpicking is one of the better options; also remove any of the bright yellow eggs that cling in clusters on the undersides of the leaves. Mulching with a thick layer of straw helps reduce populations, as does covering the plants in mid-season with row cover. The beetle can quickly develop resistance to many pesticides. Crop rotation can help future crops. Hope this helps!
Coving potatoes
We have grow potatoes for two year theres a chance for frost were we leave. We cover the potatoes top up with some soil we this hurt the potatoes?
Covering Potatoes during Frost
Covering small (less than 4 inches tall) potato plants with a layer of soil will not harm them, as long as the soil is removed as soon as the danger of a frost has passed. For larger plants, use a clear plastic covering.
Why are my potato plants falling over?
I have large 2 foot beautiful potato plants that I planted from a bag of grocery store potatoes that had got eyes. The plants are extremely healthy looking, but I am having a problem with them falling over. Is this normal, or am I over or under watering?
potato trouble
Potato plants can fall over for various reasons. If, however, they look very healthy, it likely isn’t due to over- or under-watering, nor to disease or extreme temperatures. Sometimes the plants just get leggy, such as if the plants are too crowded, don’t have enough light, received too much nitrogen fertilizer, etc. And, when they reach a certain growth stage, falling over is fairly normal. Be sure to keep hilling them at intervals with mulch (such as straw) or soil, as this helps to give them support and encourages more potatoes to form underground. See the article above for more information. Good luck!
Planting season in Algeria.
What are the best seasons for planting potato in a zone with continental climate?
temperatures for growing potatoes in Botswana
Is it fine to start planting potato seeds in may or june in Botswana?is the winter temperatures in Botswana suitable for growing irish potatoes (using true potato seeds)?
Potatoes
What would cause the bitter taste in a home grown potatoe?
potatoes
Potatoes shouldn’t be exposed to the Sun, which will happen if you don’t hill up/cover them with soil. They’ll get sunburned, in which case they turn green and will taste bitter.
soggy potatoes
HELP! I have been planting potatoes for many years in my container garden; boxes and buckets. The last two years i have harvest potatoes that are so full of water that they can't be fried. When steamed and mashed they come our as if regular mashed potatoes were soaked in water. The also are sort of rubbery and don't mash. They chew like hard pieces of cucumber. I haven't done anything different than years before. I water every other day. I plant early. This never happened before.
soggy potatoes
Well, Jack, it sounds like your plants and so your potatoes are getting too much water. You say you water every other day…but not how much or what you climate is or anything else. That seems like a lot of water. Guidance above to “water regularly” to provide “consistent moisture” is not necessarily a soaking. If you are planting in containers, the water may not be running off as quickly as it might in an in-ground planting, saturating the plants as a result. And about those containers: If you are not rotating the crop/s in them, are you at least rotating the soil?? You don’t say, so we will only suggest that you can not have it both ways: same plants in same soil. That’s all we’ve got on this…except to suggest that if it never happened before, you must have done something differently.
This season, start with fresh soil, fresh seed potatoes, and containers with enough holes to provide good drainage. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
Re:soggy potatoes
Hello. What variety of potatoes are you using? Genetics play a role as well. Some potatoes are naturally high in moisture. These potatoes are best suited for potato salad or home fries. Red skinned or new potatoes are fine examples. Other potatoes are naturally high in starch and are best suited for mashed or French fries. Russet potatoes are a fine example here. Some potatoes are dual purpose like the Yukon Gold. I personally don't think watering is the problem. If you are truly watering too much, then your potato plants would be suffering. Another thing, perhaps you are harvesting too early. But the first thing to confirm is your variety.
potatoes
i like french fries and sweat taters and hash browns and tater tots and bass fishing
potatoes production guidelines
could you please help me with an infor regarding potatoes growth I am in botswana
Irish Potato
I like the piece. I would also want to know how to control the pest. I am based in Nigeria
Row width
How wide should rows be ? I will be planting Irish Cobblers in the next week or so.
I am from Guelph Ontario.
Potatoes
I have grown, from eyes from potatoes, peelings really. I have grown successfully in bags previously....but I put them in the ground this time (built up from compost ) they grew tall...and when I dug them up the had brown blisters more or less all over them, but I peeled them and the inside is beautifully creamy white, and no blemishes, are they safe to eat?
Kind regards, dorothy
Potato harvest
Hi, Dorothy, It sounds like your potatoes have some kind of scab—there are numerous ones related to spuds. It may have been that the pH of your compost was not suitable. Do a pH/soil test to determine it. See this page for recommended pH: http://www.almanac.com/content/ph-preferences Note that pH is only one possible cause.
In the meantime, your potatoes—once peeled—should be perfectly fine to eat. Congratulations on a successful harvest!
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