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 10°C and 30°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 30 - 40 cm 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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09 Jan 17, Stephanie Easthope (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
HI Nial It depends on the variety. You can get 'early' or 'main' crops. Early varieties take about 90 days from planting to harvest, although I find I can get a good crop in just 60 days, but I am in Auckland so the temp may help. Main crops can be 120-190 days depending on the variety. If you do a google search on seed potato varieties, there are some nz websites that have tables showing the different types and how long they take to grow. Steph
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17 Jan 17, Sharron (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)
Hi. Do you ever grow 'early' potatoes late? ie just use them whenever you would like a quick crop of potatoes? And what is your favourite for flavour? I'm growing Arran Banner now. I just got a community garden plot in December and I found a bag for peanuts. They are doing well, planted mid December, but they are forming flowers already. Cheers
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20 Jul 09, Sarah (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)
Regarding the earlier comments about frost, i once flatted with a woman who forgot to harvest the container potatoes she was growing before the frosts arrived - and it can get down to -5 here, although -2 or -3 is more usual - and they came away again the next spring. i have no idea how the crop turned out, since i moved out before she dug them up, but it's worth bearing in mind that potatoes are the storage unit for the plant. if your plants get frosted, it just might mean that you have to wait until the next year for your crop.
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20 Jul 09, Sarah (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)
Ivan, if i remember rightly, your potatoes will be ready to be dug up once the leaves start turning yellow. for main crop potatoes - those that grow later in the season, you can wait until the tops die down completely before you dig, and this will help them to keep longer. if your spuds are earlys - growing early in the season, just start digging when the yellowing starts.
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20 Jul 09, Sarah (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)
Lisa, just leave your potatoes in the tyres for their entire growing season - i doubt they like being moved much since they are a root crop. you can increase the size of your crop by adding more tyres on top and filling with soil or potting mix, whatever you're currently using. leave a bit of green growth poking through though - say around 5cm or so. you could easily stack 4 or 5 tyres high.
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02 May 09, Graechel (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)
Re Tamworth potato. Be a devil and try whatever whenever. I use garbage bins suitably placed under tree and to get reasonable sun. Have had decent results from early planting and planted new crop today. It is amazing what will grow where conventional wisdom says "no way". Just don't leave out directly in the frost. Same with pineapple. Go on...have a go.
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26 Dec 08, Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate)
Johnny, as long as you have plenty of earth over the roots, your potatoes will be fine. The idea of covering them as they grow is to increase the number of potatoes on each plant.
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16 Sep 08, Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate)
Steve, it would be best if you use the manure in making compost. It has a high nitrogen content which can damage plants if used direct.
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Showing 61 - 68 of 68 comments
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Technically you don't HAVE TO HILL any variety of potatoes. Here's how it works: you plant the seed potato (which is an extra small potato saved/stored from last year's harvest -- or a piece of a larger potato that you stored/saved from last year) -- the DEPTH THAT you PLANT that SEED POTATO determines your LOWEST POINT -- GENERALLY, and I do mean GENERALLY (like 95% of the potatoes) the potato plant will not create tubers LOWER than the depth you planted the seed potato at (so your seed potato is the BOTTOM of the plants tubers/potatoes). Which is why some people think the very bottom potato always rots, when in reality it is the seed potato and is expected to grow and will appear rotten. Which means if you don't hill up as your potato plant grows and you planted the seed potato shallow, there is not that much ROOM for the potato plant to put it's tubers, and larger tubers will usually "pop" out of the soil and turn green due to sun exposure. If you don't want to hill up, plant your seed potato deeper than recommended -- yes it will be fine -- the reason you plant shallow and mound up is because the potato plant will be able to get leaves into the sun sooner if it's seed potato was planted shallow, which means it will grow quicker because it is collecting light sooner -- then you mound up to offset that you planted the seed potato shallow, but you always leave lots of leaves exposed to the sun so the plant can collect sun and grow. It's a lot of extra work work to mound up soil-- and maybe speeds up the process "brings in the harvest" by 10 days or so.... My experience is planting seed potatoes a foot deep ((30cm) is fine -- yes the plant takes a little longer for it's leaves to surface -- but it's fine and you should not experience any problems - provided the soil is nice and loose. (hopefully that makes senses). I think in the future I will plant two potatoes side by side -- one deep, one using the mound method and record the progress and final outcomes... I have never done a tandem planting -- BUT I HAVE had potatoes spring up from deep down Once as I dug out one of these "self planted potatoes" I realized it was down about 30" (70cm) -- it was in a potato planting tower (old full size garbage can full of 3" holes all over) which I dumped and collect the potatoes from the year before, then just put the soil back, week by week, as I composted kitchen scraps directly into the soil... so no surprise that a potato was so deep -- it grew -- it put out potatoes and it's crop was average good... it spent a lot of energy growing up -- and perhaps I harvested too early based on the other potatoes-- but it made it and did OK, good size potatoes, good quantity. I would not recommend placing your seed potatoes that deep, but a foot (30cm) should be fine.

- Celeste Archer

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