A Few Tips for Growing Potatoes

Each year we plant our potatoes in anticipation of the delicious, creamy, buttery late-summer harvest! Here are a few tips to ensure success!

1. Timing: Wait until the soil is workable—usually mid to late April, maybe early May if it’s been a stubborn spring. The ground shouldn’t be soggy. If you give it a squeeze it should crumble nicely.

2. Chitting Your Seed Potatoes: Essentially waking up before planting. About two to three weeks before they go in the ground, place your seed potatoes in an egg carton or tray, eyes (those sprouty bits) facing up, in a bright, cool place. Not direct sunlight though. You want sturdy, stubby shoots about an inch or so.

3. Preparing the Ground: Potatoes aren’t fussy, but they do like a well-dug bed. Choose a sunny spot, and dig down nice and deep—about a foot or so. Mix in compost. They’re hungry plants.

4. Planting Time: Dig a trench about 4 to 6 inches deep, and space your seed potatoes about 12 inches apart, with rows around 2.5 to 3 feet apart. Make sure the sprouts are facing up. Cover them gently with soil and give them a light watering if it’s dry. Don’t drown them.

5. Hilling Up: As your potatoes start pushing through the soil, you’ll want to hill them up, that is, mound soil around the base of the plants to keep the tubers well covered. Sunlight turns them green and bitter. Further, hilling up allows for a larger harvest. Do this every couple of weeks or so until the plants are a good foot high.

6. Watering and Care: They’ll need a good drink during dry spells—especially when flowering, as that’s when the tubers are forming. Don’t waterlog them. Keep weeds down, and watch for pests.

7. Harvest Time: Early varieties can be lifted about 10–12 weeks after planting, once they start to flower. For maincrop potatoes, wait until the foliage dies back, then leave them a week or two longer for skins to set. Gently dig them out.