Growing Potato

Solanum tuberosum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

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

(Best months for growing Potato in Australia - cool/mountain 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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27 Sep 21, Renato (Australia - tropical climate)
Can you plant potatoes in the tropics with 30°C temperature and get a good harvest?
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28 Sep 21, Anon (Australia - tropical climate)
It says plant April May - the reason, your are growing into the coolest time of the year and less likely to have massive rainfall then. Also pit them in a raised bed if your ground can be wet a lot. Free draining soil.
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13 Oct 21, Renato (Australia - tropical climate)
What potato variety should I plant the early,mid or late variety and which is the best to plant in tropical climate?
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18 Sep 21, Mike Val. (Australia - temperate climate)
Query re coffee grounds - I have been composting for a few good years now, and I am fairly sure that if coffee grounds are left out on a plastic or concrete surface in sunlight for a month+ it will accelerate its breakdown and can be incorporated into the soil. If you are on good terms with a local cafeteria or coffee shop, their daily throw-out will astound you. Have incorporated this into my composting regime for some years now and grow some impressive veg. The trick is in the dry composting of the grounds before incorporating it into the larger composting mix. Give it a go !
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28 Sep 21, Anon (Australia - tropical climate)
I beg to differ. For anything to breakdown (to decompose) it needs air, water, carbon and nitrogen. Most things have a mix of carbon and nitrogen. Greens more nitrogen and dry things more carbon. You use grindings as a nitrogen source. By placing it out in the sun and drying I would think you are losing some of the nitrogen. It is like fresh manure would have more N than old manure. Placing grindings straight into soil is not recommended, it has to break down first. For good compost you need a big pile 1200-1500mm high, a good mix of N and C and for it to be watered and turned regularly. By doing this you create the heat to activate the bacteria etc to break the ingrediencies down. Compost is a great soil conditioner, it has very limited N P K.
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30 Aug 21, Bonnie Hawks (USA - Zone 6b climate)
Can this area plant. Potatoes/sweet potatoes in the fall?
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01 Sep 21, Melinda Schwab (USA - Zone 8a climate)
Sweet potato farmers here grow sprouts by “bedding” seed potatoes in March. This is done by placing the whole potato in the ground, covering them with a thin layer of soil and plastic. Sprouts will be cut and transplanted from the greenhouse or bedding field to a different field in May or June. It takes approximately 90-120 days without frost to grow a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are ready to dig 90-120 days after sprouts are transplanted. Around here in August the rows are plowed and sweet potatoes are flipped on top of the ground. Most sweet potatoes are cured. Curing changes starches in the sweet potatoes into sugar, making it sweeter and the skin tougher. It takes 4-7 days of 80-85̊ temperature and 80-90% relative humidity to cure sweet potatoes. After being cured, sweet potatoes are stored at temperatures between 55-60º F and 85% relative humidity. This special storage process is why sweet potatoes are available 365 days a year here in USA. Here in North Carolina, USA sweet potatoes are shipped all over the world. It is one of our largest farmed food crops. I hope this helps... ~Melinda
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14 Dec 21, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 7b Mild Temperate climate)
Thank you - excellent information - especially about "bedding" the sweet seed potatoes and cutting the sprouts for transplant!!!
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07 Sep 21, Anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Where I live sub-tropical Australia we are becoming the sweet potato capital of Australia. The sprouts are called ?
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18 Oct 21, Peter Hurley (USA - Zone 4b climate)
Sweet potato sprouts are known as "slips". In the United States sweet potatoes tend to be the reddish type with orange flesh, a good variety is Georgia Jet, Australia may be more familiar with what we would call yams.
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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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This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. Gardenate is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department. The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
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