How to Grow Potatoes - Potato Tower Style
In my opinion, potatoes are one of the funnest things to plant. Bury potatoes and come back at the end of the season to dig up your potato treasure! My first potato planting was around five years ago and that was basically all I did and I was rather impressed with what little effort was needed to yield a crop. Since then, I’ve learnt a lot more about planting potatoes and thought I’d share this with you below for those who are thinking of planting this season as well!
YOU WILL NEED
potatoes
When choosing potato varieties, you might be overwhelmed with all the choice out there! One thing you can consider is how you want to use your potato. Some potatoes are better for making potato chips, whilst other potatoes are better for boiling or mashing. The other thing you could look at to help you choose is to choose potatoes that are ready to harvest at different times (so e.g. one early season potato + one mid season potato + one late season potato) so that you can extend the amount of time you’re harvesting potatoes.
The best practice when it comes to planting potatoes is using seed potatoes. Seed potatoes are potatoes that you buy from nurseries/stores that are specially grown to be used for planting. They are certified disease free, aren’t treated with growth inhibitors and come in a huge range of different varieties. Seed potatoes usually come in 1-1.5kg bags and include quite a number of potatoes so you could purchase a couple of varieties to split between fellow gardener friends!
Now if you can’t find seed potatoes (they often sell out really quick and are seasonal), then the next best option is planting organic potatoes - ones you get from a farmer’s market or organics store. If you can’t find organic potatoes then you might wonder about grocery store potatoes. Grocery store potatoes were the first potatoes I actually planted and mine did fine. However this option is usually not recommended because they’re not certified disease free so if you want to plant these it’s best to plant in an isolated spot (like in a potato bag) in case something goes wrong.
TO CHIT OR NOT TO CHIT?
Chitting is the process of sprouting seed potatoes before you plant them in the ground. You can chit potatoes by exposing them to sunlight indoors which encourages them to shoot. Once shoots emerge, you plant them in the ground to give them a head start to the season. Chitting potatoes could be likened to sowing seeds indoors, waiting for them to grow into seedlings then planting them out vs not chitting potatoes which could be likened to planting seeds directly into the garden patch. I think whether or not you chit potatoes isn’t too big a deal in the grand scheme of things especially if you’re just starting out - you’ll get potatoes either way!
If you have seed potatoes on you before your garden bed is ready, then you can chit them whilst waiting to plant them out. If you’re ready to plant your potatoes out as soon as you get them, then just plant them out and they’ll still grow no worries.
A GARDEN AREA IN A SUNNY LOCATION
Potatoes are best planted in a spot where you can keep adding soil / ‘hilling up’ until the end of the season. They love sunlight so choose a sunny spot - though Australia has plenty of it in general! In this post I’m going to be sharing with you how I plant potatoes in Birdies Heritage timber raised garden beds which you can find in Bunnings in various different sizes. These beds are great for planting potatoes as you can start with 2-3 pieces of timber on each side of the garden bed to maximise access to sunlight, then add on extra pieces of timber as they grow. You can also just plant directly into the ground, or in a fabric planter as well.
SOIL/GROWING MEDIUM
For this project I’m using Osmocote compost and Fine Farms cow manure (you can find both at Bunnings).
STRAW/MULCH
You will also need straw/mulch of some sort - e.g. pea straw, sugar cane mulch, Neutrog’s Who Flung Dung, etc.
HOW TO PLANT POTATOES
WHEN TO PLANT POTATOES: In Melbourne and similar mild temperate regions, you can start planting from late winter to mid-spring.
Step 1: Prepare your garden bed area. If you’re starting on top of weeds or grass, lay clean plastic-tape stripped cardboard on the bottom - this smothers the weeds and kills them and will also decompose naturally over time. Then start with a layer of mulch on top. I’m using pea straw mulch here which I had in the garden shed and wanted to finish off. Then, follow up with a layer of compost and cow manure.
Step 2: Plant your potatoes around 40cm apart and 10cm deep. Lots of websites also usually suggest spacing each row around 60-70cm apart but my plantings are a bit closer because I want to fit more in my garden bed and don’t need to walk through each row or anything. The only downside I could think of is that I will get less yield for each seed potato but since I have plenty of seed potatoes in my bag I think it will be fine for us! For reference, the garden bed below is 160cm x 80cm and I put 8 potatoes in there.
If there are sprouts on your potatoes place those facing up. If you have a really large potato that has multiple sprouts, you can consider cutting this in half with at least 2 sprouts on each half and plant them separately.
Step 3: Cover with soil, then put mulch on top - I’m out of pea straw mulch so am going to try for the first tme, using Neutrog Who Flung Dung which I’ve heard amazing things about! It’s basically mulch that is activated with nutrients, so it has that added benefit of also feeding plants. As well as of course providing the soil with insulation and decreasing water evaporation. Water this all in.
Step 4: Wait until the potato sprouts pop out of the soil. They will be leafy and lush - I’ve included a pic of potatoes from a previous season towards the end of this post so you know what you’re looking out for. Once the stem has grown maybe around 20cm tall, you can go ahead and add on another layer of cow manure / compost + mulch on top to cover all bout the top few leaves on the stem. This process is called hilling and helps increase your potato yield as potatoes grow up the stem and with more of the stem buried underground, you’ll have more potatoes growing! Continue to do this until the end of the season and add more timber pieces up the side of your garden bed to hold in the soil. I chose to plant in these Birdies garden beds as they can stack on top of each other which makes hilling so easy!
SMALL SPACE OPTION
If you don’t have room for garden beds or don’t have room in your garden beds, it’s common to also grow potatoes in fabric planter bags or potato grow bags! Choose a bag on the larger side - somewhere around 50-90 litres works well. I think my bag is around 90 litres. When planting potatoes in a fabric planter, you basically use the exact same method.
To plant potatoes in a fabric planter, you use the same method. Start with some mulch at the bottom followed by compost/cow manure. Plant your potatoes in this then mulch on top. As the plant grows, keep hilling up with compost/cow manure & mulch until you reach the top of the bag.
WHEN TO HARVEST POTATOES
It’s really easy to tell when potatoes are ready to harvest. Basically, at the end of the season all the green above-ground growth that you see below on your potato plants will die down and shrivel up. For those who live in Melbourne or a similar mild temperate climate, this is usually some time in autumn as the weather starts to cool down. When this happens, it’s time to harvest! Dig around your potato beds or empty your grow bag into a wheelbarrow to find all your potatoes! EEEP! It’s that easy!
Happy planting everyone! Looking forward to sharing my potato growing with you this season on Instagram - @connieandluna!
THINKING OF GROWING SOME MORE VEGGIES IN THE GARDEN THIS SUMMER? Some more summer veggies you can grow include tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, beans, corn, pumpkins and more! Check out my Summer Planting Guide for more info.
