How to Grow Potatoes: A Beginner’s Guide
Potatoes are one of the easiest and most rewarding crops you can grow in your garden, and are perfect for beginners. Whether you're working with a large and spacious backyard, or just a few containers on a patio, you can successfully grow your own potatoes. This blog will walk you through when to start, how to plant, and why potatoes are a valuable addition to your garden and your plate.
Why Grow Potatoes?
1. High Yield, Low Effort: Potatoes are known for producing a pretty generous harvest. From just a few seed potatoes, you can grow pounds of food with relatively minimal upkeep.
2. Long Storage Life: Unlike many other vegetables that spoil quickly, potatoes can last for months in the right conditions. This means you can have homegrown food well into cooler months.
3. Nutritional Benefits: Potatoes are packed with nutrients like potassium, vitamin C, and fibre (especially in the skin). They’re also naturally fat-free.
4. Soil Health Booster: Potato plants grow vigorously and can help break up compacted soil with their root systems. Plus, harvesting potatoes is a great opportunity to loosen up your beds for future crops you’d like to plant in the area.
When to Start and Plant Potatoes
Start with Seed Potatoes: Potatoes aren’t started from seeds the way most other vegetables are. Instead, you’ll plant seed potatoes, which are small potato tubers specifically grown to be disease-free and sprout easily when planted.
When to Plant Outside: Plant your chitted or full potato seeds 2–4 weeks before your last frost date, depending on your zone. Potatoes are cool season crops, and prefer to get started early in the spring. The soil should be at least 45°F (7°C) and not too soggy.
Tip: In warmer climates, you can grow potatoes in the fall too—just plant 3–4 months before your first expected frost.
How to Grow Potatoes Step-by-Step
1. Choose a Planting Site: Potatoes prefer full sun and loose, well-draining soil. Avoid spots where you’ve recently grown tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants to reduce disease risk.
2. Prepare the Bed or Container: Loosen the soil and add compost. If you're using a container, make sure it's at least 12–15 inches deep with good drainage.
3. Plant the Seed Potatoes:
Cut large seed potatoes into pieces, making sure each has at least one eye. Let them dry for a day or two to prevent rotting.
Plant them about 4 inches deep, and 12 inches apart, with the eyes facing up.
Space rows 2–3 feet apart.
4. Hill the Plants: As the plants grow, I like to add a mound of soil when the first set of leaves pop up. This protects the developing potatoes from sunlight (which turns them green and toxic) and encourages more tuber growth.
5. Water Consistently: Keep the soil evenly moist but not soggy, especially while the plants are flowering — that’s when tubers are forming.
Harvesting Potatoes
For baby potatoes, harvest a few weeks after flowering starts.
For full-sized potatoes, wait until the foliage yellows and dies back. Use a garden fork to gently dig around the plants.
Let harvested potatoes cure in a dry, dark place for 1–2 weeks to toughen the skin for storage.
A Few Bonus Tips
Containers work great! Grow in buckets, grow bags, or fabric pots. I avoid plastic containers and prefer wood or metal.
Mulch heavily to retain moisture and prevent weeds. I just use compost!
Rotate your crops yearly to keep soil healthy and reduce pests and disease.
Growing potatoes is a really fun experience, and I only just started growing them last year (what took me so long?!). They’re a low maintenance crop, and fun to dig up — if you have kids, I can promise you they’ll love helping you harvest them (mine certainly do). With just a little planning and care, you can enjoy fresh, homegrown potatoes from your garden all season long.
