Are you curious about how to grow potatoes? Potatoes are one of the easiest and most rewarding crops for us home gardeners to grow.
Unlike sweet potatoes, which are grown from slips, whole or cut potatoes are planted in the ground. That one potato will sprout, and grow leaves, roots, and new potato tubers.
Can you imagine? Putting one potato in the ground and pulling out 7 or 8 new potatoes later? It’s just like magic!
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When to Plant Potatoes
Potatoes love growing in the cool season and are one of the earliest crops you can plant in the ground if you live in one of the colder zones. These tubers can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in early spring.
So, if the ground is thawed and isn’t too soggy, then potatoes can be planted. However, if your springs are very rainy and cold, it might be best to wait for the soil to dry out and warm up. Potatoes prefer growing in soil temps that are at least 45°F or 7°C.
While potatoes can tolerate a light frost, you will need to cover them with a frost blanket, straw, or pine needles when they are young.
For gardeners in warmer climates, you may wish to grow potatoes in late summer for harvest in late fall or winter. Potatoes stop setting tubers when soil temperatures are above 75°F or 23°C, so choose a window of time where temps are consistently between 45-75°F or 7-23°C for best tuber production.
Seed Potatoes
Once you’ve nailed down when to plant potatoes, you’ll need to choose your seed potatoes.
There are three different types of white potatoes to choose from:
- new potatoes (early season): Small, tender potatoes harvested early in the growing season (typically 60-70 days)
- maincrop potatoes (mid-to late-season): Produces larger yields and takes longer to grow (80-120 days); great for storage
- fingerling potatoes: Small, elongated, gourmet potatoes that can grow in smaller spaces
Growing a mix of these types of potatoes can give you a spread of harvests throughout the growing season as they will mature at different times.
Buy certified seed potatoes from a garden center or online store. This way you can be sure that they are disease-free.
Although I will say that I have planted potatoes from the grocery store that have sprouted in my pantry and they have done fine, but it never hurts to do things the proper way!
Here are a few online seed companies I can recommend that sell seed potatoes:
I also personally like planting a variety of potato colors, especially a mix of red, white and blue. I plant these early enough to get a small harvest of these potatoes around Independence Day, which is just perfect for the holiday.
Prepare Potatoes for Planting
Once you have your seed potatoes, check to make sure they are firm with no signs of rot or damage. It’s fine to off any parts of the potato that are damaged.
If your seed potatoes are large, cut them into chunks, ensuring each piece has at least one “eye” (a sprout). Allow them to dry, or form a callus on the cut portion, for a day or two before planting to reduce the risk of rot.
Potatoes that are smaller than a golfball can be planted whole.
At this point, you can opt to chit your seed potatoes. “Chitting” (be very careful to say the “ch” part right if you say this out loud!) is the process of pre-sprouting potatoes to get a jumpstart on the growing season. Basically, you’re getting potatoes to start growing before planting them.
I don’t always do this for my potatoes, but if I have them early enough in the season, I prefer to chit them before planting.
All you have to do to chit seed potatoes is to put them in a shallow container like a box or egg carton, with the eyes facing up, and place the container in a cool spot with bright light. I usually put mine on a west-facing windowsill.
Then just wait for the sprouts to appear. This can take a few weeks.
Once the sprouts have grown 1-2 inches long, they are ready to plant.
Prepare Soil for Planting
Potatoes grow best in loose, well-draining soil. If your soil is dense or heavy, broadfork before planting and work some compost or organic matter in to improve fertility and drainage.
My native soil is heavy clay, but I have grown potatoes successfully in the ground, although they don’t seem to get as large as they do in my raised beds and pots.
If you want to grow potatoes in pots, skip ahead to this section.
Planting Potatoes
Once your soil is prepared and the potatoes are ready to be planted, dig a hole about 4 inches deep and place one potato or potato piece in, then cover with soil.
I like to use an auger to dig holes for my potatoes because I usually have a lot of them to plant. If you don’t have an auger, you can also dig a trench with a garden spade to make it easier on yourself.
Space the potatoes about 10-12 inches apart in rows. Label the potatoes so that you know what kinds of potatoes you planted and where.
Once the potatoes are planted, I like to add a layer of mulch on top. As they grow, I usually hill them up and add more mulch.
Hilling Up Potatoes
When plants are about 6-8 inches tall, pull the mulch back and add soil around the base of the plants. This is called “hilling” and will protect the potatoes from sunlight and encourage more tuber production.
Repeat the process every few weeks as the plants grow taller.
Caring for Potato Plants
Potato plants are easy to grow as long as you meet their basic needs. First, potatoes need full sun to grow. Make sure your potatoes are planted in an area that gets 6-8 hours of sunlight per day.
Next, they will need a steady supply of moisture. Water potato plants regularly, but don’t let the soil get soggy. This is especially important if you are growing in heavy clay soil as clay tends to hold on to moisture for longer.
Also, potatoes love growing in cool soil. Mulching with straw or leaves will help keep the soil both cool and moist, and as a result, you won’t have to water quite so often.
Finally, keep an eye out for pests like potato beetles and aphids that will attack the plants and stunt their growth. Remove pests by hand, or keep potato plants covered with insect netting from the very beginning to exclude pests.
Harvesting Potatoes
Young potatoes can be harvested 10-12 weeks after planting. You’ll notice the potato plants flower. Usually a week or two later, you’ll be able to grabble for new potatoes.
Pull the mulch back and gently brush back soil until you find a good-sized tuber. Lift it out of the ground and leave the rest of the plant intact so it can continue to grow.
This is a great way to enjoy a few extra potatoes throughout the growing season even if your potatoes aren’t completely ready for harvest.
For larger potatoes, or storage potatoes, you’ll want to wait until the plants start to yellow and die back. Then use a potato fork or shovel to loosen the soil and dig up the potatoes.
Be careful not to damage them! Damaged potatoes are fine to eat right away, but do not store well.
Curing Potatoes
If you have a large harvest of potatoes and would like to store some to eat later, you’ll need to cure your freshly dug potatoes.
Place the potatoes in a single layer in a dark, cool place (a closet works perfectly!) for 2 weeks to toughen their skins.
After the curing, you can move them into your cellar or wherever you keep storage crops.
How to Grow Potatoes in Containers
Growing potatoes in 10 gallon fabric pots is one of my favorite ways to grow them.
This way I can control the soil type, making sure it’s light and fluffy and drains well, plus I can protect the plants more easily from late frosts since I also like planting potatoes early in the season.
Harvesting from fabric pots is super easy as well. If your native soil isn’t ideal for growing potatoes or you just want to save some space in your main garden, I hope you’ll consider growing them in fabric pots instead!
Planting in Containers
Fill the fabric pot about halfway full of potting mix. Mix in compost if you want, but if you’re using a good quality potting mix, you probably won’t need it.
Place the seed potatoes on top of the soil. For a 10-gallon pot, you can plant 2-3 seed potatoes if they aren’t too big.
Then cover the potatoes with 4 inches of soil.
Place the containers in a spot where the plants will get 6-8 hours of direct sunlight for the best plant growth.
As the plants grow, hill them up by adding more soil to the pot, covering the lower part of the plant and leaving only the top few leaves exposed. Repeat the process every few weeks as the plants grow taller.
Hilling up potatoes will protect them from sunlight and encourage more tuber production.
Caring for Container Potatoes
Apply a balanced organic liquid fertilizer every 4 weeks to maintain plant health and growth.
Fabric pots are more prone to drying out when the weather warms up, so keep an eye on your plants and water them once the top layer of soil is dry. You can also mulch with straw or dead leaves to help retain moisture and keep the soil cool.
Potatoes are ready to harvest once the plants start to yellow an die back. You can also grabble for new potatoes after the plants have flowered and leave the plant and immature tubers to grow and continue developing.
One of the best parts of growing potatoes in fabric pots is that you can dump the entire thing out to harvest your potatoes. There’s no risk of damaging potatoes with a fork or spade because you’ll just be using your hands to dig for the tubers.
I like to empty the pots in my Gorilla cart, pull out the potatoes, then dump the excess soil back into my raised beds or in-ground beds.
Are You Growing Potatoes in Your Garden This Year?
Let me know in the comments below if you plan on growing potatoes in your garden this year and if you plan on using fabric pots.
Growing potatoes is one of my favorite garden vegetables to grow with my kids because they are fun to plant and fun to harvest. That’s why I have it on my list of 10 vegetables to grow in a kid’s garden.
You just never know how many potatoes you’ll get at harvest time! It’s really like buried treasure.
Happy growing!