Roots & tubers
Potatoes
Plant April, hill, harvest summer.
- Outside
- Plant seed potatoes mid Apr
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Even through flowering; ease off as the vines yellow
- Harvest
- New potatoes Jul; storage Aug
Care
- Water
- Keep the bed evenly moist through flowering, a deep soak once or twice a week; that flowering window is when the tubers bulk, and a wet-dry swing now leaves them knobby or hollow. As the foliage yellows, ease right off so the skins firm before you dig.
- Sow
- In mid April, once the soil is 45F, set certified seed pieces cut-side down, each with an eye, 3 to 5 inches deep, a foot apart, in rows 2 to 3 feet apart. As the stems climb, hill loose soil up them a few inches at a time; tubers form all along that buried stem.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting starts the bed. A hungrier root than most, so side-dress with a slow-release organic fertilizer about 6 weeks on, as the tubers begin to form. Keep any liquid light, since lush tops past that point come at the tubers' expense.
- Ready
- Steal new potatoes from July, once the plants have flowered. For storage, hold off until the vines yellow and collapse in August, leave them 2 weeks to set their skins, then lift with a fork, working in from the side of the row so you do not spear the crop.
- Trouble
- Green skin on a tuber: light exposure building bitter solanine, so keep them buried, store them dark, and cut green parts away. Striped beetles stripping the leaves: Colorado potato beetle, pick the adults and crush the orange egg masses underneath. Scabby patches: cosmetic, still fine to eat.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 10–15 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily through summer once the vines fill in; a bag dries far faster than a bed. 60 to 90 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- Set 2 or 3 seed pieces 6 inches deep in a half-filled bag, then top up with soil 4 inches at a time as the vines climb, no hilling needed.
Potatoes take a bed corner or a deep bag: planted in April, hilled or buried deeper as they climb, and lifted whole in summer. Store potatoes are cheap; new potatoes an hour out of the ground are a different food.
Growing
Plant certified seed pieces in mid April, a few inches down and a foot apart, and hill soil up the stems as they rise, since that buried stem is where the crop forms; in a deep bag, half-fill it and top up in stages instead. New potatoes come by July; for storage skins, wait until the tops die back in August, then dig with a fork, or tip a bag onto a tarp and pick the crop off the surface.
Varieties
Red Norland makes the earliest new potatoes; Yukon Gold is the all-purpose standby; German Butterball wins the taste argument and still stores well.
Pests
Colorado potato beetle finds potatoes wherever they grow; knock the striped adults into a can and crush the orange egg masses before the soft larvae strip the plants. Beds cut from old lawn can hide wireworms too, though their tunnels are cosmetic; a deep bag of fresh mix dodges them.
In the kitchen
Boiled the day they surface, with butter and a fistful of dill, they justify the space annually. Anything uneaten cures two weeks in the dark before storage.