Growing Potato

Solanum tuberosum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
                P P P  

(Best months for growing Potato in South Africa - Summer rainfall regions)

  • P = Plant seed potatoes
  • Plant tuber. Best planted at soil temperatures between 10°C and 30°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 30 - 40 cm apart
  • Harvest in 15-20 weeks. Dig carefully, avoid damaging the potatoes.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Peas, Beans, Brassicas, Sweetcorn, Broad Beans, Nasturtiums, Marigolds
  • Avoid growing close to: Cucumber, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Rosemary

Your comments and tips

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09 Feb 23, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)
I forgot to mention -- not all potatoes are suitable for towering -- it is very possible they used all their energy going up -- and did not have enough time left over for tuber formation -- which to me means -- if your going to tower that tall -- once you have the potatoes at full height your still going to need at LEAST a couple of months for the plants to set potatoes. One potato site lists these potatoes as being suitable for towering (they are not the only varieties, but they are the varieties they sell that are suitable for towering -- it has something to do with setting potatoes throughout the season -- kind of like indeterminate tomatoes) -- AmaRosa, Bellanita, French Fingerling, Pink Fir Apple, and Rode Eesteling (my personal favourite). I have only ever towered successfully to about 3.5 feet -- and the containers had 3" holes all around and the potato plants sent leaves out the holes on the sides of the container.
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09 Feb 23, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)
Potatoes need potassium (also called potash). Further, potatoes need potassium at the VERY BEGINNING of their growth cycle -- that is, for some reason potato plants uptake all (or MOST) or their potassium at the VERY beginning of tuber formation. If at the very beginning of tuber formation (probably barely visible to the human eye) -- anyhow, if there is not enough potassium you WILL impact tuber growth. At a minimum you will have HOLLOW HEART -- which is potatoes with an empty middle -- the potato sort of grows like a balloon being blown up -- and the tuber will take from the middle to reinforce the outside walls -- that is why the smaller potatoes will not have hollow heart, but the larger potatoes will -- THAT IS TO SAY: potassium supply will impact not only SIZE of the potatoes but the density.
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06 Feb 23, Rob (USA - Zone 7a climate)
If you grow determinate potato they only grown on one level. There is absolutely no need or reason to keep piling up as the plant grows. Indeterminate potato will grow multi level but also no need to pile up. Not when container grown anyway. There is a gentleman that knows a ton on growing and constantly had tested different things. He has a great playlist on YT and his channel is simplify gardening. He is in Wales UK but really knows his stuff. Also knowing what potatos are early, second early variety helps as to when to get them started etc.
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05 Jan 23, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Probably too much N fertiliser. It is not about growing a tall plant. It is about growing a plant that produces a crop. A good amount of general fert before planting and hill the soil up around the pant when about 12 inches
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24 Nov 23, Christian (USA - Zone 7b climate)
It is because it takes 3 months for Potash to become available in the soil. You always have to plan ahead when you are using Potash or, no matter how much you put on your tater plants they won't be able to access it.
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28 Nov 22, Louise (Australia - temperate climate)
Is it too now too late to plant potatoes on a bag in southern highlands? Cant seem to find seed potatoes will organic do? Thanks
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03 Dec 22, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Check calander at the top of the page
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08 Nov 22, Peter Chapman (Australia - temperate climate)
My potatos have come on very nicely. I just started digging them for new potatoes. Wife did some with parsley garlic and butter - delicious. Now my question is how long can I leave my potatoes in the ground after the tops dry off. We live in a Retirement Village which has lovely large veg plots. We do not have a lot of room to store spuds. Cheers Pete
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10 Nov 22, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
If the soil is fairly dry they could keep for a couple of weeks in the soil. When you dig them up, leave in the sun or a shaded place for 1 or 2 days to toughen the skin a bit then store in a cool dark place.
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06 Sep 22, Neil (Australia - temperate climate)
What are the best eating potato and for storage - Thank you
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Showing 41 - 50 of 818 comments
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Technically you don't HAVE TO HILL any variety of potatoes. Here's how it works: you plant the seed potato (which is an extra small potato saved/stored from last year's harvest -- or a piece of a larger potato that you stored/saved from last year) -- the DEPTH THAT you PLANT that SEED POTATO determines your LOWEST POINT -- GENERALLY, and I do mean GENERALLY (like 95% of the potatoes) the potato plant will not create tubers LOWER than the depth you planted the seed potato at (so your seed potato is the BOTTOM of the plants tubers/potatoes). Which is why some people think the very bottom potato always rots, when in reality it is the seed potato and is expected to grow and will appear rotten. Which means if you don't hill up as your potato plant grows and you planted the seed potato shallow, there is not that much ROOM for the potato plant to put it's tubers, and larger tubers will usually "pop" out of the soil and turn green due to sun exposure. If you don't want to hill up, plant your seed potato deeper than recommended -- yes it will be fine -- the reason you plant shallow and mound up is because the potato plant will be able to get leaves into the sun sooner if it's seed potato was planted shallow, which means it will grow quicker because it is collecting light sooner -- then you mound up to offset that you planted the seed potato shallow, but you always leave lots of leaves exposed to the sun so the plant can collect sun and grow. It's a lot of extra work work to mound up soil-- and maybe speeds up the process "brings in the harvest" by 10 days or so.... My experience is planting seed potatoes a foot deep ((30cm) is fine -- yes the plant takes a little longer for it's leaves to surface -- but it's fine and you should not experience any problems - provided the soil is nice and loose. (hopefully that makes senses). I think in the future I will plant two potatoes side by side -- one deep, one using the mound method and record the progress and final outcomes... I have never done a tandem planting -- BUT I HAVE had potatoes spring up from deep down Once as I dug out one of these "self planted potatoes" I realized it was down about 30" (70cm) -- it was in a potato planting tower (old full size garbage can full of 3" holes all over) which I dumped and collect the potatoes from the year before, then just put the soil back, week by week, as I composted kitchen scraps directly into the soil... so no surprise that a potato was so deep -- it grew -- it put out potatoes and it's crop was average good... it spent a lot of energy growing up -- and perhaps I harvested too early based on the other potatoes-- but it made it and did OK, good size potatoes, good quantity. I would not recommend placing your seed potatoes that deep, but a foot (30cm) should be fine.

- Celeste Archer

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