Growing Potato

Solanum tuberosum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

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

(Best months for growing Potato in USA - Zone 5a regions)

  • P = Plant seed potatoes
  • Plant tuber. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 86°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 12 - 16 inches 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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14 Apr 11, stella (Australia - temperate climate)
i had thrown few potatoes that i didnt use in a make shift compost pot..but now there has been 2 potato plants growing they are like 15cm tall..will i be able to harvest potatoes from there???
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30 Oct 11, Bruce (Australia - arid climate)
Yes
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08 Jan 11, dave (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
my potato vines are growing berrys that look like tiny tomatoes about the size of a marble is this normal ?
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14 Jan 11, Grace (Australia - temperate climate)
Yes this is normal. They are not edible, so pick them off to encourage the plant to dedicate it's energy into producing tubers.
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31 Dec 10, Di Dixon (Australia - temperate climate)
Can you please let me know if English New Jersey Potatoes can be grown here in Australia & if yes where can I get some from? Cheers Di
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24 Oct 11, Julia (Australia - temperate climate)
Di - did you ever grow any New Jersey potatoes? I'm in Sydney and I'd love to try and grow some. Thanks so much.
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08 Nov 10, Jan (Australia - arid climate)
This is my second year at growing potatoes near Kalgoorlie. Although it gets hot quickly as long as you keep the water up to them they seem to thrive. All I added last year was some blood and bone and a bit of hay for mounding them up. I've got heavy red loam ground here and the first year I grew enormous potatoes but many were derformed from the rocks in the ground. This year I decided to build a raised bed and use a mix of the red loam, potting compost and hay. I didnt plant till late September because of late frosts but already plants are really high and flowering. Unfortunately I didnt keep up with mounding them up as quickly as I should have and maybe they will not produce as many spuds because of this. I have read that you have to keep mounding them so that only one inch of stem is out of the ground. If the main stem becomes too long and exposed to the sun it no longer grows side shoots and spuds - is this true?
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04 Sep 10, Mark Thornton (Australia - temperate climate)
We live on the NSW south coast. As we are new to gardening, the question is, Can we produce a year around crop of potatoes? If so, which varieties do you plant when?
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30 Oct 11, Bruce (Australia - temperate climate)
You should be able to grow almost any variety of spuds all year so long as you don't have frosts.
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02 Sep 10, Cygnetian (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Hi, I'm in country Southern Tasmania and have never grown potatoes before. Does anyone know whether the plants need to be fenced off from the wildlife? (Here we have mostly possums and paddemelons.) Thanks!
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Showing 421 - 430 of 563 comments
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I live in Zone 7b in Arkansas. It's been an unusually cool and wet spring / summer. I planted four varieties in a prepared bed. (composted manure was tilled in.) The varieties were Pontiac red, Kenebek, Russet and Yukon Gold in roughly equal amounts, purchased prepackaged at a farm store. The seed potatoes were sown in rows 12 -18 inch spacing on Feb 28 by burying shallow, then covering with several inches of composted manure followed by several inches of straw, two bales on roughly 120 sq feet. I did not document when they sprouted but it seemed weak initially but success rate of sprouts was eventually good. The composted manure is weedy and so was the straw, eventually weed pressure was high so I covered with another layer of composted manure. ( I don't remember the date and the plants were 20 inches or so tall, some in blossom. ) Although at the time of harvest the bed was heavy with weeds again that worked long enough to bring in a harvest on June 4th. While harvesting the soil was still quite moist, only two or three potatoes had rotted and the yield was about 2 to 3 nice sized potatoes per plant with up to three small potatoes per plant too. I followed the harvest with a sweet corn. I contemplated a second potato planting but i think it will be too hot. I'm going to make a deep raised bed from pallets manure and straw out in a shady part of my homestead and try a few to see what happens. Hopefully that helps.

- Ross

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