There are two ways to plant potatoes:
- In rows in the ground
- In buckets or deep containers
Here are a few tips for both methods.
When to plant potatoes
We plant our row potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day and container potatoes anytime in the early part of the spring. My grandpa called St. Patty’s Day “potato planting day”. I put them in the ground in homage to him on that day every year. Generally speaking, you can plant your potatoes one week to a month before your last frost date. We are usually out of the woods for a really hard frost or snow by March, but still expect several lighter frosts until mid-April. One great thing about potatoes is that they are protected underground so they can take frost if planted in rows and their leaves that suffer frostbite will usually grow back if it is just a light one. In fact, every spring, I find potato plants that grew from potatoes I missed in the previous year’s harvest.
I hear some people swear by planting potatoes in the fall. I’ve tried a couple of times, but I don’t think we have the right window of moderate weather down here in the south. None of my local friends have had much luck with it either.
Row Planting
You can buy seed potatoes from the store. You can also just use sprouted potatoes from the bottom of your pantry. I love planting purple potatoes because I like an eccentric garden. So I usually have to source them from a local nursery.
- Rather than dig a trench in the ground, I would recommend digging a hole about 6 to 9 inches deep. Space holes about one foot apart.
- Place your seed potato or sprouted potato in there. A lot of people “chit” their potatoes before planting them. I find it makes the process more complicated and they grow just fine if I throw them in there whole. You can get a bigger bank for your potato-buying buck if you want to chit them, but I’m just trying to get them in the ground.
- Bury the potato and then add soil on top of your row to make a little mound. Check out my video on Instagram to get a picture of what it should look like.
- As the plants grow you can add more dirt on top of them and make bigger and bigger hills. You will get more potatoes by doing that. Again, I’m usually just proud of myself for getting them in the ground, so I don’t do that.
- Potatoes will flower and then turn yellow and look sad and ugly. Wait until then to harvest.
- Harvest with children whether you have any or not. It’s so fun for them to find potatoes in the ground.
Container Planting
- Line a container like a bucket or these cloth containers with about 2-3 inches of dirt.
- Throw a couple of potatoes in there. Water them daily until they sprout.
- Once they sprout add more dirt to the container. Add enough that you cover the green sprouts. Keep watering daily.
- The potato will continue to grow past the dirt. Keep adding dirt until you get it to the top.
- Once the leaves die back, empty the bucket on the ground. You will find a bunch of potatoes in there. They aren’t usually huge, but they are a lot of fun to harvest.
