Growing Potato

Solanum tuberosum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
P                 P P P

(Best months for growing Potato in New Zealand - cool/mountain regions)

  • P = Plant seed potatoes
  • Plant tuber. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 86°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 12 - 16 inches apart
  • Harvest in 15-20 weeks. Dig carefully, avoid damaging the potatoes.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Peas, Beans, Brassicas, Sweetcorn, Broad Beans, Nasturtiums, Marigolds
  • Avoid growing close to: Cucumber, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Rosemary

Your comments and tips

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27 Sep 21, Renato (Australia - tropical climate)
Can you plant potatoes in the tropics with 30°C temperature and get a good harvest?
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28 Sep 21, Anon (Australia - tropical climate)
It says plant April May - the reason, your are growing into the coolest time of the year and less likely to have massive rainfall then. Also pit them in a raised bed if your ground can be wet a lot. Free draining soil.
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13 Oct 21, Renato (Australia - tropical climate)
What potato variety should I plant the early,mid or late variety and which is the best to plant in tropical climate?
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18 Sep 21, Mike Val. (Australia - temperate climate)
Query re coffee grounds - I have been composting for a few good years now, and I am fairly sure that if coffee grounds are left out on a plastic or concrete surface in sunlight for a month+ it will accelerate its breakdown and can be incorporated into the soil. If you are on good terms with a local cafeteria or coffee shop, their daily throw-out will astound you. Have incorporated this into my composting regime for some years now and grow some impressive veg. The trick is in the dry composting of the grounds before incorporating it into the larger composting mix. Give it a go !
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28 Sep 21, Anon (Australia - tropical climate)
I beg to differ. For anything to breakdown (to decompose) it needs air, water, carbon and nitrogen. Most things have a mix of carbon and nitrogen. Greens more nitrogen and dry things more carbon. You use grindings as a nitrogen source. By placing it out in the sun and drying I would think you are losing some of the nitrogen. It is like fresh manure would have more N than old manure. Placing grindings straight into soil is not recommended, it has to break down first. For good compost you need a big pile 1200-1500mm high, a good mix of N and C and for it to be watered and turned regularly. By doing this you create the heat to activate the bacteria etc to break the ingrediencies down. Compost is a great soil conditioner, it has very limited N P K.
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30 Aug 21, Bonnie Hawks (USA - Zone 6b climate)
Can this area plant. Potatoes/sweet potatoes in the fall?
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01 Sep 21, Melinda Schwab (USA - Zone 8a climate)
Sweet potato farmers here grow sprouts by “bedding” seed potatoes in March. This is done by placing the whole potato in the ground, covering them with a thin layer of soil and plastic. Sprouts will be cut and transplanted from the greenhouse or bedding field to a different field in May or June. It takes approximately 90-120 days without frost to grow a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are ready to dig 90-120 days after sprouts are transplanted. Around here in August the rows are plowed and sweet potatoes are flipped on top of the ground. Most sweet potatoes are cured. Curing changes starches in the sweet potatoes into sugar, making it sweeter and the skin tougher. It takes 4-7 days of 80-85̊ temperature and 80-90% relative humidity to cure sweet potatoes. After being cured, sweet potatoes are stored at temperatures between 55-60º F and 85% relative humidity. This special storage process is why sweet potatoes are available 365 days a year here in USA. Here in North Carolina, USA sweet potatoes are shipped all over the world. It is one of our largest farmed food crops. I hope this helps... ~Melinda
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14 Dec 21, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 7b Mild Temperate climate)
Thank you - excellent information - especially about "bedding" the sweet seed potatoes and cutting the sprouts for transplant!!!
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07 Sep 21, Anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Where I live sub-tropical Australia we are becoming the sweet potato capital of Australia. The sprouts are called ?
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18 Oct 21, Peter Hurley (USA - Zone 4b climate)
Sweet potato sprouts are known as "slips". In the United States sweet potatoes tend to be the reddish type with orange flesh, a good variety is Georgia Jet, Australia may be more familiar with what we would call yams.
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I heard that the potato will stop sending nutrients to the tubers if the stalks are bent. One of the most successful potato harvests I have ever seen was a large container grown project where he used several layers (think of a layer cake) of horizontal plastic fencing and t-posts at each corner to hold the horizontal fencing to keep the stalks from bending at all and support them as they grew. They were able to get an absolutely massive yield with that method although he was sick all summer and didn't care for them or water them at all. I am not sure that the container growing was as pivotal in the results as just keeping the stalks from bending over. I have container grown before and will try it again this spring as well as ground growing using his methods to keep the stalks upright. I think another often overlooked issue is either too much or too little phosphorus and potash in 10-10-10 fertilizer. I think 'balanced' fertilizers can present real problems for root crops since they don't need or want balanced inputs. You will always have too much of something and too little of the other. Also there is a time delay on phosphorus while it stays in the upper part of the soil, so you can apply phosphorus to increase tuber formation, but it takes 3 months to disperse into the soil, while nitrogen sinks like a stone through soil an becomes almost immediately bio-unavailable (or runs off into the environment via water). So if you are using 10-10-10 you are going to end up poisoning your plants in order to get one or another nutrients available in the correct quantity. Plus factor in the time delay to bioavailability. I think it is better to thoroughly prepare soil before you put your garden to bed in the winter than prepare it in the spring (actually I have revived some fruit trees that were very old and no longer producing by fall fertilizing; I got almost $700 worth of organic pears and even more than this in apples last year through fall fertilizing). I also heard (and studied it last year in my own garden) that potatoes grow between the seed potato and the surface. If you bury them deep you will increase yields as there is more space for them to grow above the seed potato. But if you plant them shallow, they have a very narrow area to make potatoes in, significantly reducing production. This means in container gardening you need to put them at the very bottom of a 1'-6" (0.45 meters) tall container to get a full yield. I tried this method last year and doubled my production. I was putting them very close to the surface before last year. Also, potatoes need cool roots and won't produce anything at all if their roots are too hot in the container during the summer. Afternoon/evening shade is a must in Southern US zones or other hot environments. Or you could insulate or shade the container.

- Christian

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This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. GardenGrow is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department. The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
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