 |
| Drawing of a potato grow bag |
Saturday, April 12, 2025
If you love potatoes, try growing some of the exotic varieties that are out there, like fingerling or blue potatoes. You can find all kinds of great varieties in today's seed catalogs. Along with the surprising number of different kinds of seed potatoes available, there are also many different ways to grow them without actually planting in the garden! Or you can get inexpensive seed potatoes locally. Early spring is the optimal time to plant.
Seed catalogs are not the only place you can buy seed potatoes. You can get inexpensive seed potatoes at our local Ace Hardware store, Rural King, and Tractor Supply company. You can also get them at big box stores, just make sure the ones you get are firm. I went with Yukon Gold (which is widely available) because it is a good storage potato. I also am trying to start some actual seed from some purple potatoes I grew a few years back. Some seedlings are up. Fingers crossed!
The potato is a native of South America and can be found in the wild from North America to Chile. There is an amazing variety of potatoes grown in South America, many color and sizes. The potato originated from an area in southern Peru/northwest Bolivia. It was cultivated 7000-10000 years ago. It took until the 1700’s for the potato to arrive in the colonies by the way of Irish immigrants.
Tubers are good source of fiber, B vitamins (B6, thiamin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folates), vitamin C, and minerals iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, and copper. Most of the nutrition is in the skin. If you want even more nutrition, try some of the wonderful colors available today.
Potato plants produce tubers along the stem so the more you can build up soil around the stem, the more potatoes you will harvest. Since most of the action of potatoes occur underground, a light, well drained soil will give the highest yield of potatoes. Adding sand and compost can be very beneficial. In our potato boxes, I alternated a layer of raised bed bagged soil and a layer of composting leaves in this year's planting. My husband also put a 1/4" mesh wire sheet across the bottom to keep the voles out.
If gardening in a small space, there are lots of options of potato growing bags on the market now. It follows the same concept as trenching or mounding in a garden bed. They also do well in repurposed whisky barrels. A pot 30”deep and 20” across is best. Fill a third with potting soil, then add soil as the vine grows. We are growing ours in a self-built box that we will add another tier to as the vine grows.
 |
| Potato box |
To give your potatoes plenty of loose, rich soil in a garden bed, dig a trench down about a foot, mix in compost, put mixed soil and compost 4" in bottom of trench and place eyes up in the trench. Adding bone meal gives the tubers the nutrition needed to produce large potatoes. The pH of the soil is optimal in the 5.2-6.0 range but potatoes will grow in any soil. Plant seed potatoes 3” deep and 10-12” apart. When the potatoes have leaves showing, add another 3-4" of soil. Continue to add as potatoes grow until trench is filled. If planting in hard soil, you can mound the earth, mulch or straw around the plant as it grows.
Seed potatoes can be planted 4-6 weeks before the last frost (when the early daffodils bloom). You can plant successively to extend the harvest until the dogwoods bloom. You can continue to plant until May, but may only get fingerling size potatoes before the vines die back in the summer. We are having a very long spring so I planted our seed potatoes this past week. For Yukon Gold potatoes, they recommend 1-2 weeks before the last frost for planting and we did have a frost last week and a potential frost tonight.
Early potatoes can be harvested when the first flowers appear. Dig the potatoes when the foliage has died back in the summer. Do not allow the baby potatoes to be exposed to sunlight. If your potatoes turn green, do not eat them as they are poisonous.
 |
| Seed potatoes in the sun to sprout before planing |
If you are growing in a pot or potato growing bag, you could try using store bought eyes. Let your potatoes age and when they start sprouting, they are ready to cut and plant. Be sure to cut out a sprout, or "eye", to plant. A plant will emerge from each sprouted eye. Cut seed potatoes leaving 1-2 eyes per section. Let cut dry overnight, then plant.
