The world is changing. We can see it in the grocery store and feel it in the air. Shortages are still a thing, and the prices on the available things are outrageous! Being a forward-looking person who’s trying to adapt to the new normal, you’ve decided to grow at least some of your own food. Congratulations! Every bite that you can grow can only help. The food will taste better and is likely to be more nutritious. And growing potatoes can be one of the best choices for your garden!
While food from the garden isn’t free, trading time and effort is quite likely a benefit to your finances. There are a number of ways to garden in the city. There are a ton of resources on this site discussing everything from water efficiency to kitchen scrap gardening to community garden plots to gardening in arid environments and apartments. The Search feature will be very helpful here.
But what about growing specific items? Vegetables are much like people in the sense that they prefer different conditions in order to be happy and produce food. In this article, I’ll discuss growing potatoes. They’re awesome for preppers because you get a lot of caloric bang for your buck.
Selecting what kind of potatoes to grow
Potatoes come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. Red, white, blue, purple, waxy, and fingerling to name a few. These don’t lend themselves well to hydroponics because the tuber will often shatter the reservoir or sit in the nutrient solution, becoming wet and mushy. They can, however, be grown both in the ground and in containers. I’ve grown them successfully both ways. I’ve also learned a few lessons the hard way, which I’ll share.
Did you know that potatoes come in both determinant and indeterminate varieties? I didn’t for many years, and this information isn’t listed on the bag tag, at least not where I buy them. So what’s the difference and why does it matter? SF Gate explains:
“Determinate potatoes are considered fast-growing and produce tubers at the soil depth just above where the seed was planted. Indeterminate potatoes are classified as slow-growing and produce tubers all along the stem where soil exists. Indeterminate potato varieties are preferred for bag growing so the yield is worth the the effort.”
Potatoes are also classified as early, mid-season, and late growers. This matters if you have a short growing season, as I do in Zone 5B. Determinant varieties tend to work well for me and that’s what my local garden center stocks. Those with longer growing seasons might find indeterminate varieties in their local garden center. This year I’m growing mine in raised beds exclusively, so the spreading growth habit will work well. I’ve grown determinants in bags and it’ll work, just not as well because there won’t be any tubers growing along the entire space of the vine.
Last year I doubled my investment, getting 2 pounds of potatoes for 1 pound of seed. This really isn’t the best yield. I’ll typically get 30 pounds of potatoes for 5 pounds of seed in my raised beds, which is much better! Between the low yield and the high price of potting soil, I decided to forgo container potatoes entirely. Raised beds it is! Consider this in your selection.
How does one determine which the available varieties are? You’ll have to look each one up. I kid you not, I’ve stood in the store looking up every available variety! Here’s a good list, but it’s not all-inclusive.
Another good reason for researching varieties is disease. Potatoes are susceptible to a great many things, from early/late blights to scab to dry rot to pink rot, canker, and mosaic virus. Some varieties are resistant to some of these diseases, others are susceptible. While resistance doesn’t mean your potatoes won’t get the disease, at least resistance will help.
While choosing my new varieties, I also considered this factor and declined the varieties that were susceptible in favor of resistance. If I’m stuck buying new seed, I want to get good seed! Also, buying certified seed potatoes ensures that the seed won’t be diseased when you get it. Many organisms can overwinter in the tuber, thus ensuring problems will happen. Buying certified seed means starting out clean. Clean is good. That won’t stop your average chipmunk, but at least it’s a good start.
Ideal conditions for growing potatoes
Another factor in growing potatoes is temperature, both soil and air. Potatoes are frost-tolerant, meaning that air temperatures in the 40s won’t bother them. A hard freeze will kill them, however, which is defined as temperatures below 30F.
Soil temperature is a HUGE factor! The soil temperature must be at least 50F at planting, and it needs to stay that way. Otherwise, the plants will be stunted if they grow at all. I learned the hard way that 48F won’t cut it! I’ve also learned the hard way that if the soil temperatures drop after planting, the seed is very likely to rot.
Potatoes are heavy feeders, meaning they take a great deal of nutrition from the soil. Therefore, fertilizer is a necessity. But how much and of what? A good soil test, such as Soil Savvy, will tell you how your soil is down to the micronutrients. Your local Extension office may offer soil testing but that’s usually for NPK and pH, which is important but not the entire story. RapiTests can give a general idea but aren’t as accurate as lab testing. Fertilizing willy-nilly isn’t good because the plants will use some nutrients, such as nitrogen, more quickly than others, such as phosphorus. To complicate matters even further, the plants won’t just use the nutrients they need and leave the rest.
One year I added too much nitrogen to my potato beds. I had the most lovely plants, green and lush! However, when I went to dig my treasures, there was not one tuber to be found. Upon doing some research I discovered that too much nitrogen will do that when you’re growing potatoes. Lesson learned. Now I soil test every year, either a RapiTest or lab test, and fertilize accordingly. The latter really only needs to be done every 3-5 years, especially given the expense. I fertilize every month during the growing season accordingly.
My own compost will only help! Last year I purchased compost locally, which turned out to be surprisingly nutrient-poor. I expected better for what I paid, but I have what I have, and I need to act accordingly. Azomite is a good choice for remineralizing soil. Milorganite is very high in nitrogen, while Azomite contains all of the necessary micronutrients and then some.
This year’s mishap
I planted my seed this year during a lovely week. The soil temperature 6” down, where the potatoes are planted, was 56F. The weather forecast called for two days of cool and rainy weather, so I thought things would be fine. Those two days turned into two weeks! Things were NOT fine. I found one seed potato on top, rotted, mushy, and chewed. I was off to the garden center for fresh seed soon after!
This was my own saved seed too. I shudder to imagine what might have happened had I not been able to obtain more! I have a few gardener neighbors & friends and might have been able to trade for more seed. Or not. I’ve found buying online is outrageous, although I do get a small amount of the more exotic varieties I’m partial to that way. Buying locally will get you solid varieties that do well in your area for a much more reasonable price. Additionally, you’ll shorten your supply chain and support your local economy. I prefer these things.
How to plant seed potatoes
So how is seed potato planted? Dig a hole 6” deep, put your seed in, and cover, making sure the potato is in contact with dirt. If you’ve cut up your seed to make it go further, each piece needs to have at least 1-2 eyes. It also helps to let pieces sit for a few days so the cut edge develops a skin, which acts as a barrier to disease.
Since I use a drip system, I lay the hose on planting day and plant between, then bury the hose. Burying the hose saves water and helps ensure the water is going to the roots, rather than evaporating. Your plants should emerge in a few weeks. Use the finger test to determine watering schedule and fertilize once per month at most. Flowers don’t need to be pollinated in order to produce tubers, and the fruits they produce are toxic. Don’t eat them.
When to harvest your potatoes
Potatoes are harvested in fall by digging. The plants will look as though they’re dying back, becoming yellow/brown with the leaves dying. I cut my plants back, then dig by hand to avoid damaging the tuber. Farmers do this differently because their fields are huge.
My potato area consists of two raised beds, 4’x4’ each. I view this as digging for treasure and find it rather enjoyable. Dig all through the area and a few inches down to get all of your harvests. I weigh mine by standing on my bathroom scale with a bag full, then subtract my own weight to get the weight of the potatoes. Store in a cool, dry area, and be sure to save some seed for next year!
Have you had good luck growing potatoes?
Do you grow your own potatoes? How do you grow them? Do you save seed? Do you have any cautionary tales or advice?
Let’s talk taters in the comments section.
About Amy Allen
Amy Allen is a professional bookworm and student of Life, the Universe, and Everything. She’s also a Master Gardener with a BS in biology, and has been growing food on her small urban lot since 2010.
Growing potatoes is about food and water and I have found over the years that incorrect watering can do more damage than incorrect feeding. I use raised boxes. They are 30″ x 40″ x 18″ deep and sit on well drained soil. I have the boxes arranged in my garden area to block water runoff by staggering the layout but it allows water to flow where I want it. Accomplishes the goal of preventing runoff during hard rain and making best use of watering.
All my plantings are in similar raised boxes. The arrangement of the boxes in the garden allows me to put water at the roots of the plants, allowing me to leave the leaves and produce dry. The top of the box is covered with straw and peat moss to keep the plants covered and prevent drying out.
Last year I used three pounds of seed potatoes and took out 31 pounds of potatoes that we enjoyed for much of the fall and I still have my seed stock for this year. This was after over fertilizing with too much nitrogen too.
In the fall after harvesting my spuds I turn the soil in the boxes and add compost in the form of mostly leaf mulch and that combined with the straw and peat that was added to help grow renews the soil for the following year.
I plant one box at a time in two seek intervals starting as early in the year as possible. Seems to work for me. Love my spuds.
Thanks for your insight! Your raised bed system sounds intriguing. Is that a terrace system?
What fertilizer do you use monthly? Thank you!
Slightly. The ground has a gentle slope but the garden is positioned so that the patio drains into it. (I didn’t build it.) Washout was a problem at first and then I came up with the boxes. Nothing leaves the garden area anymore. Water is absorbed as it moves down the slope and all the plants benefit from the root feeding as all the “crops” are above the ground level.
I am starting my third year of potato planting. This is the first year that I will be planting from my own saved seed. I had a hard time finding seed potatoes locally, so I did buy them online, and paid a heavy price for shipping to do so, so I am excited see how I do with my own seed potatoes saved from last years harvest. I stored them in the root cellar, and they lasted well buy have developed long stems which I am hoping will give them a head start when I plant them this weekend (Arizona zone 7B, above 5,000 feet, so average last frost date is May 15). The other tip I have heard, for those of us planting in the ground, is to be sure to rotate to a new garden spot every year, and not to follow tomatoes either, as they are both heavy feeders. I am a huge fan of azomite – it has helped my fruit trees and bushes also. Last year, I had a HUGE potato harvest and shared many, blanched and froze chunks for roasted potatoes, and ate a LOT of potatoes all winter long. I am going to plant a few less this year and hope I still get a good harvest, but not quite so many extra. Planting potatoes is hard work (planting and harvesting) in our high clay soil, although this is my 5th year using this plot for gardening so the amendments I have added year over year are certainly helping. I appreciate your tips and insights and am excited to see if I can start being self-sustaining with seed my potatoes from now on. I saved Caribou Russet, Red Pontiac, and Kennebec White for my varieties and they did well here. I also grew Yukon Gold last year, and had a good harvest, but they don’t store as well, so I wasn’t able to get them to make it over winter to be seed potatoes for this year. If anyone knows any secrets on how to best store potatoes for seed, I would love to hear their wisdom!
Tomatoes and potatoes are also of the same taxonomic family and therefore subject to some of the same diseases and other pests. Crop rotation is good if you’ve got the space! Good luck!
MM AZ .. ? 5’K elevation zone 7B.. Sounds like Payson:) We’re on our second year planting veggies & just planted our ?. The green shoots recently have grown to foot plus so we’re ready to move them to above ground no dig square planters, that has cardboard & shredded paper as base then a mix of mulch, compost, garden soil and some manure. This prep mix worked very well for our new fruit trees & fall veggies in big round above ground corrugated planters. Haven’t applied any fertilizer or bug killer yet.? crossed!
I’m in south Florida and used to grow sweet potatoes in a large container on the ground right outside my screened porch. The potatoes grew well from eyes taken from purchased potatoes, but I didn’t harvest them quickly enough (?) and the ants attacked my tubers. I will try again using potato growing bags (available on Amazon), keeping them off the ground and inside my screened porch. Love mashed sweet potatoes with butter, cinnamon and honey!
Question: Are russet potatoes and/or other varieties GMO? I notice the new labeling of “contains bioengineered foods” on items containing potatoes.
That depends on the variety of russet you’re using. As far as I know, the only GMO potato on the market right now is the White Russet. It doesn’t hurt to check though! As I noted in my article, I’ve been known to research every available variety in the store.
I do the ” poor man who ignores his garden” method and just buy older bags of decompensated potatoes, full of eyes,at the supermarket, all shapes, colors and sizes, then drop them in a rudimentary trench, whole, not cut up, with chicken manure and various “in the process of composting” scraps, stale bread, old meat, you name it, in a layer underneath the chicken manure. I then cover with my average “bank-run gravel” garden soil and barely water them all summer as too much to do, but they come out like gangbusters and i have more potatoes than I need. I re-fertilize the garden in the fall with brown paper bags and boxes. I do this every year in the SAME SPOT and never had a problem with diseases. Then start again the following season, five years in a row now.
If that works for you, go for it! I’m glad you’re successful although I’m surprised the meat in your compost doesn’t bring rodents. Thanks for your comment!
No rodents. I have an electric fence around perimeter with 3 strands very close to the ground and a normal welded wire fence beyond that so a doulbe whammy enclosure. so nothing seems to get in. I find that less work brings more plant production. I compost everything below ground including bones and whole fruit.
My parents were great gardeners and I remember them fighting potato bugs munching on the plants by picking hundreds off by hand instead of spraying pesticide. Any pointers on those darn bugs?
Where can you buy the actual seeds for potatoes???
I would not use Milorganite. That is sewage sludge from Milwaukee (see Mike Adam’s video “Biosludged”). I’m not against using human manure but the way most humans consume junk and take pharmaceutical drugs I would not use it. Also, potatoes are suscepitable to pests such as the Colorado potato beetle. So far, we’ve kept these in check by squashing them and and their eggs (thankfully they are brightly colored) and using Neem oil. Any other suggestions appreciated.