Potato Essentials

Food Gardening Guide → Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes / Getting Started

• By TBGDN

• Buy seed potatoes of early varieties for planting as soon as soil can be worked in the spring.
• In the North, plant seed potatoes of later varieties from mid-May to early mid-June, 4 to 5 weeks after planting early varieties. In the South, plant seed potatoes of late varieties 1 to 2 weeks after early varieties.

• Cut seed potatoes into small pieces with two to three eyes per piece a few days before planting.

• Dig trenches 6 inches wide, 8 inches deep, and 30 to 36 inches apart. Spread 5-10-10 at a rate of 1 pound per 25 feet or its equivalent along the bottom of the trench and cover with 2 inches of soil.
• Plant small whole seed potatoes or cut seed pieces 10 to 15 inches apart in the trench and cover with about 4 inches of soil.

• Protect emerging plants with soil or other cover in case of a hard late spring frost.
• Hill the soil up against the plants about a week after leaves emerge from soil. Repeat 2 to 3 weeks later.
• Side-dress when you hill for the second time with compost, seaweed, or fish emulsion, or about 1 pound of 5-10-10 per 25-foot row.
• Be sure to provide adequate water 6 to 10 weeks after planting, when the potatoes start to form.
• See our article Summer's Bad Guys by Charlie Nardozzi for controls of common potato pests such as Colorado potato beetle, European corn borer, and leafhoppers.

• Harvest small, new potatoes about 10 weeks after planting.
• Harvest storage potatoes after the vines have died and tubers have developed tough outer skins. In the North, harvest before fall frosts arrive.