Vegetable / Cool season
Potato
Digging day feels like a treasure hunt
Plant out byApr 6zone 6
- Family
- Nightshade (Solanaceae)
- Sun
- Full sun (6+ h)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Days to harvest
- 60-120 days
- Spacing
- 12 in apart, rows 24 in
- Pot size
- 10 gal pot (fine in pots)
- Frost
- Half-hardy
- Start
- Direct sow
- Water
When to plant
Showing .
Averages for a typical garden in the region. Your local frost dates may differ by 2-3 weeks, check a local source.Too late this year (try fall)
In zone 6, sow or plant outdoors Mar 23 to Apr 6. Average last frost Apr 20, first fall frost Oct 20.
Units
Kids who won't touch a salad will dig potatoes for an hour. Tipping over a plant and finding a pile of tubers in the dirt is the best moment of my garden year. Getting there takes some soil moving, though, and one rule. Keep the tubers buried. Any potato that sees light turns green and builds up solanine, a bitter compound you should not eat. Hilling is how you stop it.
Plant certified seed potatoes about 2 to 4 weeks before your last spring frost, once the soil is near 55 degrees F and has dried out a little. Set them in a trench about 6 inches deep and 10 to 12 inches apart, then cover with a few inches of soil. Fill in the rest of the trench as the shoots come up. When the stems reach 6 to 8 inches, pull soil up around them until only the top leaves show. Do it twice more, a couple of weeks apart.
Young leaves take a light frost, but a hard cold night can burn them back. Colorado potato beetles are the summer job. Check under the leaves for clusters of orange eggs and squash them. When the vines yellow and flop in late summer, the main crop is nearly done. On a patio, a large grow bag or even a trash can with holes works. Start with a few inches of mix, add more as the plant grows, and plan to water every day in hot weather.
Things to consider
- Late blight follows warm, wet weather and spreads fast, leaving dark patches on the leaves. Early varieties are often dug before it arrives, and cutting back sick foliage quickly protects the tubers still in the ground.
- Rotate every year, and keep potatoes out of last year's tomato spot. The two share pests and diseases, and the trouble builds up in soil that grows them again and again in the same spot.
- Store the crop somewhere cool and dark, not in the fridge. Keep it away from apples, which give off a gas that makes potatoes sprout and spoil sooner.
Good neighbours
Keep apart
Pests to watch for
Colorado potato beetle
Questions about growing potato
When can I sneak a few new potatoes?
From about 60 to 70 days, dig gently at the edge of a plant with your fingers. Take a few small ones and leave the rest to size up underground. New potatoes have thin skins and don't keep long, so cook them that week, boiled whole with butter and salt.
What do I do if frost is forecast after shoots are up?
Pull loose soil over the young shoots, or cover them overnight with fleece, a row cover, a bucket or an upturned pot. Take the cover off in the morning once the air warms up. In fall, dig the whole crop before the first hard frost, since frozen tubers turn soft and rot.
Why are my potatoes rough and scabby?
Scab is a soil disease that leaves rough, corky patches on the skin without hurting the flesh. Keep the soil evenly moist once tubers start forming, and skip manure, which makes it worse. Resistant varieties help in beds where it keeps coming back year after year, and scabby potatoes are still fine to eat once peeled.
Save this crop
Pin it to a garden board so it is there when planting time comes round.
Similar crops
Sources
General guidance for home gardens. Frost dates are averages for a zone or region; check a local source (in the US your county extension office) for local timing.