Growing Potatoes

Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Potatoes

Age-Old Wisdom meets Modern Tools

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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.

Planting

When to Plant Potatoes

Potatoes prefer cool weather.

In Northern regions, some gardeners will plant the first crop of early-maturing potatoes in early to mid-April, 6 to 8 weeks before the average last frost date or as soon as the soil can be worked; they can survive some cool weather but the threat of frost is a gamble. If there is a threat of frost at night, temporarily cover any sprouted foliage with mulch or an artificial covering such as old sheets or plastic containers (and be sure to remember to remove the coverings in the morning).

To avoid frost, consider starting potatoes 0 to 2 weeks after your last spring frost. You may plant earlier, as soon as soil can be worked, but be aware that some crops may be ruined by a frost or overly wet soil.
The soil, not the calendar, will tell you when it’s time to plant. The temperature of the soil should—ideally—be at least 50°F (10°C). The soil should also not be so wet that it sticks together and is hard to work. Let it dry out a bit first. Like other seeds, potato seed pieces will rot if planted in ground that’s too wet.

In Southern regions, potatoes can be grown as a winter crop and planting times range from September to February. Where winters are relatively mild, you can plant a fall crop in September. In central Florida, gardeners plant potatoes in January; and in Georgia they plant in February.

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

Preparing the Planting Site

Potatoes grow best in cool, well-drained, loose soil that is about 45° to 55°F (7° to 13°C).
Choose a location that gets full sun—at least 6 hours of sunlight each day.
Grow potatoes in rows spaced about 3 feet apart.
With a hoe or round-point shovel, dig a trench about 6 inches wide and 8 inches deep, tapering the bottom to about 3 inches wide.
Spread and mix in fully-rotted manure or organic compost in the bottom of the trench before planting. (Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.)

Man planting potatoes. Photo by tanyss/Getty Images. — *Preparing seed potatoes for planting. Photo by tanyss/Getty Images.*

How to Plant Potatoes

In each trench, place a seed potato piece (cut side down) every 12 to 14 inches and cover with 3 to 4 inches of soil.
If your garden soil is very rocky, put the seed potato pieces directly on the ground. Sprinkle with a mix of soil and compost. Cover them with straw or leaves, hilling the material up as the potatoes grow.
The best starters are seed potatoes. Do not confuse seed potatoes with potato seeds or grocery produce! Select seed potatoes which have protruding eyes (buds).
Use a clean, sharp paring knife to cut large potatoes into pieces that are roughly the size of a golf ball, making sure that there are at least 2 eyes on each piece. (Potatoes that are smaller than a hen’s egg should be planted whole.)
If you are cutting up potato pieces yourself, do so 1 to 2 days ahead of planting. This will give them the chance to “heal” and form a protective layer over the cut surface, improving both moisture retention and rot resistance.
12 to 16 days after planting, when sprouts appear, use a hoe to gently fill in the trench with another 3 to 4 inches of soil, leaving a few inches of the plants exposed. Repeat in several weeks, leaving the soil mounded up 4 to 5 inches above ground level (this is called “hilling” and is explained more here.).
After the potato plants have emerged, add organic mulch between the rows to conserve moisture, help with weed control, and cool the soil.

Check out this excellent video to see how to plant potatoes.

Care

How to Grow Potatoes

Hilling Potatoes

A critical part of growing potatoes is to not let their tubers (i.e., the potato crop) be exposed to sunlight for too long. Exposed tubers will turn green and produce a toxic compound called solanine, which makes them bitter, inedible, and potentially nausea-inducing.

To combat this, we employ a technique called hilling.

Hilling is simple: As a potato plant grows, it produces a main stem with leaves and flowers aboveground. Meanwhile, underground, tubers form on secondary stems that branch off from the main stem. In order to prevent shallow tubers from being exposed to sunlight and to encourage the plant to keep producing more tubers, a few inches of soil are periodically “hilled” up around the base of the stem. This is typically done three to four times during the season.

Tips for growing and hilling potatoes:

Do the hilling in the morning, when plants are at their tallest. During the heat of the day, plants start drooping.
Maintain even moisture, especially from the time when sprouts appear until several weeks after they blossom. The plants need 1 to 2 inches of water per week. If you water too much right after planting and not enough as the potatoes begin to form, the tubers can become misshapen.
The last hilling should be done before the potato plants bloom, when the aboveground part of the plant is at least a foot tall. Hoe the dirt up around the base of the plant in order to cover the tubers as well as to support the plant.
Practice yearly crop rotation with potatoes.

Pests/Diseases

Potato Scab: Most likely caused by a high soil pH. Remember: Potatoes like acidic soil (do not plant in soil with a pH higher than 5.2). Dust seed potatoes with sulfur before planting. Some readers suggest adding pine straw on top of the potatoes when planting for natural anti-bacterial elements.
Colorado potato beetles need to be hand-picked and predatory birds will often eat them. While they’re in the nymph state, they can be controlled with diatomaceous earth (food grade) which is a non-toxic way to control pests in the garden. If they continue to be a problem, a few sprays of Spinosad, an organic pesticide, will get rid of the beetles. Always use products at dawn or dusk to avoid harming beneficial insects.
Aphids
Flea Beetles
Early/Late Blight

Harvest/Storage

When to Harvest Potatoes

“New potatoes,” which are potatoes that are purposefully harvested early for their smaller size and tender skin, will be ready for harvest 2 to 3 weeks after the plants stop flowering. New potatoes should not be cured and should be eaten within a few days of harvest, as they will not keep for much longer than that.
For mature potatoes, wait 2 to 3 weeks after the plant’s foliage has died back. The tops of the plants need to have completely died before you begin harvesting. Cut browning foliage to the ground and wait 10 to 14 days before harvesting to allow the potatoes to develop a thick enough skin. Don’t wait too long, though, or the potatoes may rot (especially in moisture-laden soil).
Toughen up potatoes for storage before harvest by not watering them much after mid-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 more days.
Potatoes can tolerate light frost, but when the first hard frost is expected, it’s time to get out the shovels and start digging potatoes.

How to Harvest Potatoes

Dig potatoes up on a dry day. Dig up gently, being careful not to damage the tubers. Avoid cutting or bruising potato skin. Damaged potatoes will rot during storage and should be used as soon as possible. The soil should not be compact, so digging should be easy.
If the soil is very wet, let the potatoes air-dry as much as possible before putting them in bags or baskets.
Don’t leave the potatoes that you have dug in the sun for long after they have been dug up from your garden, otherwise your potatoes may turn green. Green potatoes have a bitter taste due to the presence of solanine, and if enough is eaten, can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Small spots can be trimmed off, but if there is significant greening, throw the potato out.

How to Store Potatoes

Allow freshly dug potatoes to sit in a dry, cool place (45-60°F / 7-15°C) for up to two weeks. This allows their skins to cure, which will help them keep for longer.
After curing, make sure you brush off any soil clinging to the potatoes, then store potatoes in a cool, dark place, preferably 45° to 50°F (7° to 10°C), with good ventilation. When properly stored, potatoes will remain fresh for up to a month. Throw away potatoes that are shriveled, green, or have many sprouts.
Do not store potatoes with apples; the apples’ ethylene gas will cause potatoes to spoil.
Never store potatoes in the refrigerator.
Whether you dig your own potatoes or buy them at a store, don’t wash them until right before you use them. Washing potatoes shortens their storage life.
Find more tips on getting potatoes ready for the root cellar.

Recommended Varieties

There are more than 100 varieties of potatoes. Tan-skinned and red-skinned varieties with white flesh are the most common in home gardens.

Early Varieties:

‘Irish Cobbler’: tan skin, irregular shape
‘Norland’: red skin, resistant to potato scab
‘Mountain Rose’: red skin and pink flesh, resistant to some viruses

Mid-Season Varieties

‘Red Pontiac’: red skin, deep eyes
‘Viking’: red skin, very productive
‘Chieftan’: red skin, resistant to potato scab, stores well

Late Varieties

‘Katahdin’: tan skin, resistant to some viruses
‘Kennebec’: tan skin, resistant to some viruses and late blight
‘Elba’: tan skin, large round tubers, resistant to blight and potato scab

Blue Potatoes?

We also love All Blue Potatoes! They’re delicious and, well, they’re truly blue!

See our page on how to choose the best potatoes to grow in your garden for more info!

Wit & Wisdom

Before planning your garden, take a look at our plant companions chart to see which veggies are most compatible with potatoes.
Did you know: Potato promoter Antoine Parmentier convinced Marie Antoinette to wear potato blossoms in her hair.
Grated potatoes are said to soothe sunburnt skin.

“What I say is that if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.”
–A. A. Milne, English writer (1882–1956)

Recipes

Cooking Notes

Check out our recipe archives to find potato recipes that range from plain to fancy!

Reader Comments

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Growing Hamen potatoes from

Growing Hamen potatoes from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. After about 3 weeks, the plants are about 12 inches tall. Any suggestions on when to harvest? Also, if there are several eyes can I cut the potato into quarters for more plants? I was told that you couldn't.

You can harvest new potatoes

You can harvest new potatoes around the time when the plants have just finished flowering. Harvest mature potatoes after the vines start to die back--a few weeks after potato plants start to blossom.

This video shows a good overview of harvesting mature potatoes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If there are several eyes on a seed potato, you can divide it so that each section has 1 or 2 eyes. Small potatoes can be planted whole.

I was wondering what the

I was wondering what the plants looks like when they are ready to be harvested? And for future reference when I should plant? In western Colorado? Thank you!

Hello Like most questions

Hello

Like most questions being asked, I am growing potatoes for the first time. I am using a garbage container and drilled holes at the bottom and side. Anyway, I was wondering, can I use coffee grinds and eggshells in the growing medium for potatoes? As well, if they like acidic soil, would it hurt to give them a very watered down vinegar and water mixture?

Thank you!

Hi, Nos: Congratulations on

Hi, Nos: Congratulations on taking the potato plunge! The main thing you should do is remain calm and simply make sure that your potatoes are growing in rich soil that has a pH of about 5.2 to 5.5. Do a soil test, and slightly amend if necessary. But just sort of randomly adding things to the soil is a recipe for disaster, as they can make the plants susceptible to disease and/or pests, if not downright kill the plants. Coffee grounds are acidic and eggshells very basic, but that doesn't mean that they would necessarily balance each other. Do test and then research what action -- if any -- to take. Remember that potatoes have been doing fine on their own since long before you came on the scene, and just sometimes need careful massaging, not major manipulation. Thanks for asking, and good luck!

Compost mixed with soil works

Compost mixed with soil works well for spuds. Use vinegar on plants you want to kill. Most soils are slightly acid and compost wll safely make your soil more acidic. Tryng too hard can sometimes do more harm than good. Potatoes are not hard to grow and your large container should work great.

Hi! In early march of this

Hi! In early march of this year i just randomly planted some potatoes. I have been watering them regularly and i have also been hilling them. They've grown quite a bit. Today when i went to check on them some of them have fallen and started to wilt and they haven't even have blossoms. I live in the central valley of california, what does this mean and what should i do?

Not all potato plants flower;

Not all potato plants flower; you still might get potatoes under the ground. Check carefully in the soil to see if you feel any potatoes developing.

I'm new to this. Second time

I'm new to this. Second time I've tried to grow potatoes. My first time ( last year ) ended up with a nice green stem and I continued to add soil whenever the leaves were about 6" above the soil. ( growing in a garbage can ) come harvest time ( I thought ) I dumped the entire thing and went looking for 'taters. I found two --- about the size of a Brazil nut, each. Don't know what happened but, whatever... I got some seed potatoes from a nursery this time and they are growing really well. What I don't know is; do I continue to water even after the leaves etc. die back or what. When should I stop watering?

Hi Bob, Potatoes grow best in

Hi Bob,
Potatoes grow best in rich soil. Make sure to add compost or aged manure to the soil. Keep watering as long as the plants are growing. After the potatoes flower and the plants start to die back it's time to stop watering and dig them up.

Hi! I have some potatoes that

Hi! I have some potatoes that we grew last year that have sprouted. Due to the cold wet weather we have been having here (it was 22 degrees with snow on Mothers Day and snow/rain since then), we have not yet planted. Most of the sprouts are now a good 12-15 inches tall. Can we still plant these? Do we just plant them deep? Thanks for your advice!

Leave the sprouts on but

Leave the sprouts on but "wind them up" when you plant the spuds, instead of leaving them at full length.

In late FEB I planted seed

In late FEB I planted seed potatoes in a wood box which I added boards to as the crops grew. I used garden soil from Lowes when it came time for hilling. They were about 4-5 feet tall the last time I hilled them and absolutely beautiful. Only a couple days later, a few of the plants started falling over at dirt level, rotten. The tops were still green, although somewhat wilted. I live in east Texas and we have been getting a good amount of rain these past few weeks. So I don't know if that has contributed to the problem or not. While some of the plants in the box are alive and healthy, I'd like to know what happened to the ones that died? The healthy plants haven't bloomed yet so I'm wondering if there is any chance that the dead ones will bounce back.

Hi, I'm growing potatoes for

Hi, I'm growing potatoes for the first time this season. I was wondering, when it comes time for hilling, could I hill the potatoes with wood ash? My family pulls out the firepit a lot this time of year, and we always end up just dumping out the ash. Could I instead put it to use as a hilling material?
Thanks,
Diego

Wood ash can be very useful,

Wood ash can be very useful, but you want to avoid it in areas where potatoes are to be grown because the alkaline conditions can encourage potato scab. However, you can use your wood ash for many other purposes. Mix into your compost heap and it provides a natural source of potassium and trace elements which is great mulch for most vegetables. It also has a liming effect, so wood ash can remedy excessively acidic soils.

My seed potatoes got a little

My seed potatoes got a little soft while waiting to plant them. Are they still good for planting?

Hi Renola, As long as the

Hi Renola,
As long as the potatoes have eyes or show some sptouts they should be OK to plant. Discard potatoes that show rot.

I planted seed potatoes. The

I planted seed potatoes. The plants went crazy but only 1 flowered and now the plants are wilted and have holes in leaves. We have had a very dry warm winter/spring. Never grown before, how can I tell if things are ok?

We planted potatoes left from

We planted potatoes left from last season. 1/2 or more are coming up as expected. But checking on some that were not sprouting, we found many small potatoes growing off the seed potato? Will these eventually sprout a plant?

What do you mean by the "eye"

What do you mean by the "eye" of the potato? Also, is it alright to plant potatoes in May or June in SJ, California?

The eyes of the potato are

The eyes of the potato are the areas where the buds are, each of which will produce leaf shoots and/or roots. If you've seen a potato sprout while stored in the kitchen, those areas that produce the shoots are called the eyes. For a photo, see:

http://www.countrylivingfamily...

Here is more information on potato eyes:

http://sbs.wsu.edu/herbarium/e...

As to when to plant potatoes in San Jose, it looks like May and possibly early June would be OK, although even earlier would be better. For best advice, we'd recommend that you contact your county's Cooperative Extension. They can tell you the best planting dates, and varieties that might do well in your area for later plantings. For contact information, see:

http://cesantaclara.ucanr.edu/...

You might also be interested in:
http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/PO...

How much should you water the

How much should you water the potatoes when planting?

Hi, Mary: A lot of this

Hi, Mary: A lot of this depends on where you are and how hot it is, but you should plant potatoes in soil that is moist but not too wet. Give them a week and a half or so to get started, watering only lightly if the soil seems to be drying out. Then begin watering well every 3 days or so. Thanks for asking!

Can I plant potatoes in mid

Can I plant potatoes in mid April in north Texas, dfw area?

Hi Kiri, You can plant the

Hi Kiri,
You can plant the potatoes as soon as the ground is soft and not too wet.

I plant a potato last

I plant a potato last February. I plant it on a pot. For now, I don't know when i will harvest the potato? Do potato needs sunlight everyday? I think the pot has a tall of 8-10 inch and its wide is 6-7 inch. Do i need to transfer it on the ground? I need an answer for my potato. THANKS!

hi, Since potatoes are a root

hi,
Since potatoes are a root crop, once they start to get established, trying to transplant your start to the ground may prove difficult, as tuber roots may have already began to develop. In this instance, if your pot is the biodegradable type, pull open various spots on the PEET pot, and plant the whole thing pot and all. If it is a clay or plastic pot, carefully remove the entire dirt and root ball in one piece, and plant it. potatoes are big nitrogen users, so, give a well balanced fertilizer (Miracle grow).
Don't use too much, or burn the plant from fertilizer.

Good luck

I'm 9 and I want to grow a

I'm 9 and I want to grow a potaco in my classroom.Is there any easier way?

Yes there is! Get your seed

Yes there is! Get your seed potatoe and find a tall bin. It could be a trash can. You can even use a big plastic tub. You can place that in the window sill of your classroom and grow a potato right there!

Look for the link to growing

Look for the link to growing a potato in a trash can. It will need lots of sun and water, so best not try in the classroom. Hey! You could be the first person to get a school garden going! Best of luck!