Planting Potatoes
Now is the time to plant potatoes! They need a long growing season to mature before the heat sets in. The roots will grow underground for a few weeks before the first sprouts appear, which will (hopefully) be after our last hard frost.
Potatoes are easy to grow. If you aren’t able to get your hands on certified seed potatoes, buy organic potatoes at the grocery store. Pre-sprouting or “chitting” your potatoes will give them a head start for earlier and larger yields. To pre-sprout, lay the potatoes in a shallow box or tray and put them in a sunny, cool spot inside your house. They’ll sprout short, strong shoots that will keep growing after you plant them outside.
Planting
Small potatoes can be planted whole. When cutting larger potatoes, allow for 2 eyes or sprouts on each piece. Let them dry out for 1-2 days, or dust with sulphur; either method helps prevent them from rotting in the cool, moist soil.
It’s generally recommended to plant potatoes 12″ apart in rows 3′ apart, placing them a few inches deep, and then hilling them up with soil as they grow to prevent the tubers from greening. In our gardens, with a highly fertile soil, we’ve found success in planting them 12″ apart in each direction. We plant just under the soil surface, then cover with straw and instead of hilling, we keep adding more straw as the plants grow upward. In June, we push back the straw for an easy harvest. Any method of growing potatoes is a good one if it works for you!
After harvesting, brush any soil from the tubers and let them dry off before storing. For long term storage, keep them in a cool, dark location at 40 to 45 degrees (don’t let them freeze.)
Colorado Potato Beetles are a very common pest on potato plants. Since we started mulching with straw, we almost never see any in our potato patch. To prevent disease, we practice crop rotation and put our focus on making the soil as healthy and fertile as possible with compost and cover crops.