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 Australia - tropical 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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12 Oct 13, Sarah (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Another first time potato grower here :) I bought some russet Burbank seed potatoes a few weeks back and was silly enough to just follow the directions on the bag label, which said nothing about letting them shoot before planting. I planted them immediately, then a week later realised the error of my ways so gently dug a few up to see what had happened. They had shoots on them about an inch long, so I replanted them, shoot side up and about 10cm of dirt on top. That was two weeks ago, but no shoots have appeared on the surface. How long should it take? I have my "succession batch" on the floor in an open box in my green house, hoping they'll sprout away soon for planting in a month or so. All advice gratefully received :)
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18 Oct 13, Sarah (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Well, a week later and two have sprouted... Two that I DIDN'T dig up to check on. It appears digging up those others, despite being as gentle as I could, wasn't a great idea :-S
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05 Oct 13, glennys (Australia - temperate climate)
Where in qld can I buy kestrel seed potatoes .On a bag of kestrel potatoes I bought from a supermarket said"Not to be used for seed potatoes. WHY ? THANKYOU.
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26 Feb 18, Ray (Australia - temperate climate)
I wondered this, and because I wasn't super happy with the answer here, or on a similar discussion on Reddit, I looked into this more. It turns out that it's to do with Western Australia quarantine rules, which explicitly states that potatoes imported from outside of WA have to be labelled
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25 Oct 13, betty (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
bet you bought them from the south Australian company who is a grower and wants a monopoly so states not for use as seed potatoes. I find they are a very good potato if left to sprout seed and are a heavy cropper.
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25 Oct 13, brian (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
the company that markets the kestrel potato bag is from south Australia and the reason for stating not for planting is to stop you growing them. I purchased the very same bag and waited until the potatoes sprouted and then planted without any problems whatsoever
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22 Sep 13, sarah (Australia - temperate climate)
Im a little late planting my spuds and im a first time grower. Im just wondering if I should water once they are in the ground or wait. Also how much water? Im really confused on this one. Thanks.
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20 Sep 13, Bill (Australia - temperate climate)
I have tried to grow potatoes several times, not very successfully, my leaves grow up to almost a meter in height, but there are very few tubers underneath. Also my potatoes do not seem to flower, and the leaves get attacked by some insects or bugs. I used a very rich soil and mulch; is there too much nitrogen?
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14 Sep 13, Dennis (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi, the potatoes were planted around three weeks ago, but have noted that they have been attacked by ??? which has eating the young leaves, there are also holes now in the bigger leaves. Any suggestions, also they have left holes in the broccoli leaves. Regards Dennis Western Aussie
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19 Oct 13, Jan (Australia - temperate climate)
I lost all my potatoes to slaters last year. They decimated the leaves. I think they must have been attracted to the mulch I used but decided that the green tops were much more flavoursome. We have heard that they have become a problem in WA. We are in the south west.
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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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