How to Grow Delicious Potatoes Right in Your Own Backyard Garden

Potatoes are a good crop because they give a lot if you provide the right conditions. After planting, they don’t need much care until harvest time. Potatoes keep well, so you can enjoy them for months.

Here’s how to grow potatoes at home, from planting, watering, hilling, harvesting, to storing. Potatoes grow well in most U.S. gardening zones. Pick your favorite type of potatoes and start growing.

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Different Types of Potatoes You Can Plant

Three Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Potato Variety to Grow.

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Culinary Quality

When you pick a potato to grow, think about how you will cook it. Some potatoes are better for certain methods because of their starch.

• Waxy potatoes, like red and fingerlings, have less starch and thinner skin. They hold their shape. These potatoes are good for potato salads, boiling, and roasting.
• All-purpose potatoes, like Yukon Gold, white, yellow, blue, and purple, have a mix of textures. They are not too waxy or too starchy. These potatoes work for many dishes.
• Starchy potatoes, like Idaho and russets, are good for baking, mashing, and frying. They are good for soups and casseroles. They break apart when boiled.

Maturation Time

Planting varieties with different maturity times gives you a steady supply of fresh potatoes for several months. Potatoes are in three groups.

• Earlies take 75 to 90 days underground, sometimes fewer. They are usually small, so they take up less space in the garden. They are less likely to get potato blight. Earlies have thin skin, so they don’t store long, only a few weeks. Red Gold is a popular variety.
• Mid-season potatoes, or "second earlies," take 95 to 110 days to mature. They are usually ready by mid-summer and store for about a month. Yukon Gold is the most common variety in this group.
• Late-season potatoes, or "maincrops," are ready in 120 to 160 days. They are usually large with thick skin. They store well, for about 2 to 3 months. Fingerlings are in this group but are small and have thin skin.

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Growth Pattern

A third thing to think about when choosing potatoes is the variety's growth pattern:

• Determinate potatoes are good for container planting. They grow tubers in one layer just below the soil surface. They need a thick layer of mulch to protect the tubers from sunlight.
• Indeterminate potatoes grow tubers vertically. They benefit from hilling to get more potatoes.

How to Grow Potatoes

Potatoes are grown using a "hilling" technique. The seeds are planted deep. As the plant grows, more soil is added around the stems to bury them. This is done step by step.

What You Need

• A garden plot or container that gets full sun
• Loose soil that drains well
• A hand trowel
• Gardening gloves
• Seed potatoes
• Mulch

Step 1: Choose a Seed Potato

Start new potato plants with fresh seed potatoes. They are different from grocery store potatoes. Seed potatoes are disease-free and not treated with chemicals. Plants from seed potatoes give better yields. They are less likely to get sick. They also offer more types of potatoes. You can find seed potatoes at garden centers, farm stores, nurseries, and seed companies.

Step 2: Wait for Cool Weather

Potatoes are cool-weather crops. The best time to plant them is early spring when the soil is ready. They can handle a light frost. Plant them 2 to 3 weeks before the last frost or when the soil is 45°F. Use a soil thermometer for an accurate reading. If there is a late heavy frost, cover the potato plants until it passes.

Step 3: Get the Garden Bed Ready

Potatoes need loose, well-draining, and slightly acidic soil.They are root vegetables that grow deep in the soil.If your soil is clay, mix compost or fertilizer before planting. Clay holds water and becomes hard when dry. This makes it hard for tubers to grow.

Most gardeners plant potatoes directly in the ground.However, they can also grow in raised beds, containers, or grow bags. Potatoes need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. Make sure they are not shaded by fences, trellises, or other plants.

Step 4: Get the Seed Potatoes Ready

When you get your seed potatoes, they might not have sprouts. Put them in a sunny place (indoors or outdoors) where the temperature is between 60 and 70°F. Do this one or two weeks before planting.

If the seed potatoes are smaller than 2 inches, plant them whole. If they are bigger, cut them into 2-inch pieces. Use a sharp, clean knife. Each piece has to have an eye or bud. Let the pieces sit for one or two days before planting.

Step 5: Dig a Trench and Plant

First, Dig a trench 6 to 8 inches deep, then place the seed potatoes in the trench with the cut side facing down and the eyes pointing up. Space them 12 to 15 inches apart, and leave at least 3 feet between each row.

Step 6: Cover the Potatoes and Add Mulch

Cover the seed potatoes with 4 inches of soil. When the seedlings grow, add a layer of mulch. This helps keep moisture in, control weeds, and keep the soil cool.

Step 7: Wait Before Watering

Most newly planted crops need a good watering to help them start growing, but potatoes are different. Seed potatoes can get diseases if they are exposed to too much moisture. It’s best to wait until the potato plants start to sprout above the ground before watering them.

Potato Plant Care

When conditions are ideal, potato plants will grow and produce many large tubers.

Light

In hot weather, a little shade can protect potato plants from excessive sun, especially in the afternoon, and help keep the soil cooler, which potatoes like. However, if the plants get too little light, their photosynthesis slows down. This results in fewer leaves and, as a result, smaller and fewer potatoes.

Soil  

Potatoes grow best in loose, well-drained soil with room for their tubers to grow. Good soil should be slightly acidic, with a pH between 5.8 and 6.5. And soil is dark and rich. It forms small clumps when you touch it.

Clay soil is not good for potatoes. It holds too much water and does not drain well. This can make the soil too wet for the plants. To check if your soil is clay, grab a handful. If it sticks together and you can shape it like clay, it is clay soil.

Water  

Potato plants need 1 to 2 inches of water each week. If you are not sure how much that is, use a rain gauge. It is a small plastic tool you put in the ground. Water your plants as you normally do. Check the gauge to see how much water adds up to 1 to 2 inches.

The best way to water potatoes is with a soaker hose. It lies on the soil and waters the plants. If you do not have one, water the soil and keep the leaves dry. Wet leaves can cause bacteria. Water in the morning if the leaves get wet so they dry by afternoon.

Temperature  

The ideal soil temperature for planting potatoes is between 45 and 50°F. However, potatoes grow best in air temperatures ranging from 60 to 70°F. If temperatures are too high or too low, the plant's growth slows down, and it may not produce tubers.

Potatoes are cool-season plants. They can handle a light frost, which occurs when temperatures drop below freezing. A hard frost later in the season can kill new sprouts. But don’t worry. As the weather warms up, new sprouts will likely appear, and the plant should recover.

Hilling Potatoes

Hilling is a key technique for growing potatoes. It begins when the plant reaches about 6 inches tall. The process involves gradually piling soil around each plant as it continues to grow. The goal is to bury about one-third of the potato plant.

Hilling helps produce more potatoes by encouraging the growth of extra stems. These stems create more spots for potatoes to grow underground. You can continue to mound soil as high as you'd like, but heavy rain or wind may wash the hills away unless you use something to hold them in place, like rocks or bricks. Keep hilling until the plant reaches about a foot tall or starts to bloom.

Hilling also blocks sunlight from reaching the tubers. When potatoes get too much light, they turn green and produce solanine. Solanine is a toxic substance that can make you feel sick. You would have to eat a lot of green potatoes to feel the effects. However, you want to ensure the potatoes you grow are healthy and safe to eat.

When and How to Dig Up Potatoes

Potato plants are usually ready to harvest 70 to 90 days after they sprout, depending on the variety. If you’re unsure of the timing, look for the plants to start wilting or dying back—this is a sign they’re ready to be harvested.

If you don’t want to wait until the full harvest, you can pick baby potatoes (also known as “new potatoes”) 2 to 3 weeks after the plants finish flowering. Gently dig around the plant without damaging it, and take only a few potatoes from the top of the soil—just enough for a quick meal.

To harvest mature potatoes:

1. 1.Wait 2 to 3 weeks after the plant's leaves die, and ensure a few days of dry weather before harvesting. 
2. 2.Use a strong garden fork to gently dig up the potatoes, being careful not to pull the plant by its stem.

After harvesting, set aside the potatoes you’ll eat within the next week or two. For the rest, you'll need to cure them to help them last longer in storage. To do this, gently brush off any dirt, but avoid washing them.

Place the potatoes in a dry, cool, and dark space, such as a garage, covered porch, or basement, for up to 2 weeks. The temperature should be between 45 and 60°F. To improve air circulation and reduce humidity, you might want to set up a fan in the area.

How to Store Potatoes the Right Way

Potatoes can last for months if stored right. They need good ventilation, cool temperature (42 to 55°F), high humidity, and no light. An unheated basement or garage is a good place. If you live in a warm area, use an extra fridge set to a higher temperature for storing potatoes. Warm temperatures can make potatoes sprout and get diseases.

How to Handle Common Potato Pests and Diseases

Once potatoes are established in the garden, they are fairly easy to grow. However, you might run into a few common pests and issues along the way:

• Colorado potato beetles eat potato leaves both as adults and larvae. You can remove them by hand or use BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) spray, available at garden stores, to kill the larvae.
• Flea beetles are small black or brown insects that harm potato leaves. To protect your plants, use row covers at the start of the season when you first notice them. To keep them away in the future, rotate your crops and add plenty of organic matter to the soil.
• Aphids are small insects that damage plants by sucking sap from the leaves and stems. You can control them effectively by using insecticidal soap sprays.
• Scab is a common fungus that harms potato crops and can survive in the soil for years. To prevent it, rotate your crops, keep the soil healthy, and always use certified seed potatoes.
• Blight is a common disease that affects potatoes. To prevent it, rotate your crops, maintain healthy soil, and use certified seed potatoes.