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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17 Oct 08, David (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
For Sammy If you are in Victoria Toolangi Delights are the best for gnocchi. A dry textured potato is best and these are great, also purple congo or sapphire are great, they are dry, have purple flesh and make a great purple gnocchi. Dutch creams and Nicola are very similar, Nicola are a bit harder when cooked and Dutch Creams are a bit sweeter, to look at there is no real difference. Check out spunkyspuds.wetpaint.com
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02 Sep 10, Karen Weaver (Australia - temperate climate)
question - where can i get Purple Congo Potato seeds or seedlings in WA?
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17 Oct 08, David (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Dont use tyres to put around your potato plants as potatoes are great absorbers of cadmium which is released from the rubber. You can use a light strong wire mesh instead and achieve the same thing.
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16 Oct 08, Geoff Brooks (Australia - temperate climate)
Where can I buy "Jersey Bennes" potatoes for my vegie patch?; this is a UK gourmet variety grown in the Island of Jersey. From web searches it is grown in New Zealand but I cannot find any listed here in Oz.
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15 Oct 08, Marg (Australia - tropical climate)
What is the best to spray on potatoe fungie or blight........I beleive that it comes on the wind and hard to prevent. My pots always seem to get it to some degree......I have been spraying Copper Fungicide powder that you spray for fungies and mangoe trees.
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11 Oct 08, Marion (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
I live in the Hinterland of the Gold Coast and have just harvested my first-ever potatoes! I am so excited. I have never grown veges before. I have had a bumper crop planted about two weeks before the solstice in July.
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03 Oct 08, Brook (Australia - temperate climate)
Dutch creams are great gnocchi potatoes!
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30 Sep 08, Jaci (Australia - temperate climate)
Don't know about the perfect gnocchi potato but I made some recently using Red Desirees. They were perfect. Just make sure that with the cooking time - lift gnocchi out of water after they float to surface (only 2-3 minutes) or they'll lose their soft delicate texture.
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29 Sep 08, sammy (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I am currently obsessed with potatoes and cannot believe there is a potato forum thingy! So excited. The two varieties I am most interested in are Nicola and Dutch Cream. I'd love to know when the best time to plant these in Melbourne are, and the best way to grow them organically. Also, with regards to buying them and their appearance, what is the best way to tell them apart? I think it is that Dutch creams are smaller, rounder and redder? Is that right? Finally, I'm doing a bit of a gnocchi test and trying to figure out the best ones for gnocchi - any thoughts?
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31 Oct 12, Dallas (Australia - temperate climate)
sammy when your potatoes have reached a few inches high get a garden how and pull the soil up either of the plants sides that will give the plant the soil to grow in.I would have worked horse or cow manure into the soil before planting the normal guide to plant potatoes is the first week of Aug' that will give you spuds just before Xmas and plant again 1st week of march.It's best not to plant 2 crops in the same soil
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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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