How To Grow Potatoes

How to grow potatoes and get a huge harvest!  – originally from the Andes Mountains, potatoes have traveled the globe and are a huge hit everywhere. There are thousands of varieties. By growing your own, you have the opportunity to try some of the diverse varieties that are out there. Potatoes are tubers not roots. They grow from the stems. They should not receive light.

Buy Organic Seed

Don’t use the potatoes that you buy in the supermarket as they won’t germinate. Most potatoes are not organic and they receive a chemical, which inhibits sprouting in potatoes. This chemical lasts for months and, even after it wears off, you may still get poor germination. Therefore, buy certified organic seeds.

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Cut and Seal
Cut the potatoes into 1.5” to 2” pieces or in quarters. Make sure you have at least one eye per piece. Allow to cure or dry for a day. A “seal” will form over the cut potato and it will no longer be moist. If you plant them right after you cut them, the potential for disease is great. So waiting that day or two for the wound to heal in the potato can save your seed.

I plant them on a trench and this way as I mound them the mound is mostly below ground. I leave the top 5”-6” of the plant exposed as I continually mound them until the plant gets quite large.

Soil and Planting Tips
Potatoes grow along the stem when they are covered in loose soil. The looseness allows the tubers to form easily. I mix straw with soil in order to get a fluffy mixture. You can just put lots of hay on top and no soil, but I like to cover the hay with soil to make sure they don’t get any light.

Potatoes should not get light when grown, neither in the store nor in your home. The skin, or right under it, will turn green. The green is a toxic chemical that causes food poisoning. Potatoes belong to the Solanaceae or nightshade family, which produce a series of chemicals, when exposed to light.

Growing Potatoes and Harvesting

When growing potatoes is has to be when the weather is cool. They are planted after the temperatures get to be around 50° F consistently in the spring. Once the weather gets hot they stop growing and begin to bloom. Once they bloom they take about three weeks to produce potatoes. You can harvest by digging a little and picking them or wait until the tops begin to dry out completely later in the summer. Once the tops dry out dig them all up and enjoy. The sizes may vary depending on the amount of watering and the variety. I harvest everything the small and large potatoes all the same. This way I prevent insects and diseases for the following seasons.

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