Digging up potatoes at the end of summer is one of the most satisfying gardening tasks there is. From the moment you plant a sprouted piece to your first bite of a potato type you just can’t get at the store, you won’t regret a single square foot you dedicate to growing this overall low-maintenance, beginner-friendly crop.
Here’s everything you need to know on how to plant, hill, and harvest your own delicious organic potatoes.
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QUICK GUIDE TO GROWING POTATOES
Warm-season crop: plants grow over early spring – summer/in between frost dates
- Sun: 6–8 hours daily
- Soil: fertile + well-draining
- Grow in: raised beds, large containers, or ground
- Most important tending task: hilling soil around base of plant to keep roots covered
- Time to harvest: ~75–120 days (variety dependent)
- Harvest tip: stop watering when leaves of plant begin to turn brown
About Potatoes
Potatoes are in the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family alongside garden favorites like tomatoes and peppers.
Potatoes are often considered a root crop, but really, the part we eat is a tuber, essentially the storage unit for the plant. That’s why potatoes are full of nutrients. Potato plants sprout and grow from small potatoes or pieces of larger ones that have “eyes”. From these eyes, new growth emerges, and the plant sends out above-ground and underground stems. New potatoes form at the edge of each underground stem. You can expect to harvest 5 to 6 new tubers for each piece you planted. It’s a great rate of return!
PRE-PLANTING STEPS
1. Order Seed Potatoes
Companies sell out of popular potato varieties quickly, which is why your very first step in growing potatoes is ordering your potatoes ASAP, ideally around the New Year.
Instead of buying seeds, you’ll start with something called seed potatoes. You can try growing potatoes from sprouted potatoes from the store, but you’ll up your chances of success by grabbing certified seed potatoes from a reliable online seed potato supplier, a local nursery, or the farmers’ market. You’ll reduce your likelihood of spreading disease to your garden, while also enjoying way more tasty options that will do well in your climate.
If you buy your seed potatoes from an online company, know that they’ll ship your order to you based on the frost dates for your area. You can expect to grow about 5 to 6 pounds of potatoes for each pound of seed potatoes you plant.
The Best Seed Potato Varieties to Order
I buy my seed potatoes from Renee’s Garden. You can mix and match varieties, and their selections are all resistant to common potato diseases. Here are some of my favorite potato types to grow:
- YELLOW POTATOES – Favorites like Yukon Gem and Huckleberry Gold have buttery-yellow flesh that’s delicious baked, boiled, mashed, or fried.
- RED POTATOES – Red potatoes like Colorado Rose and Dark Red Norland are great for roasting and steaming. These are early to mid-season potatoes, meaning you can harvest them in just 60 to 95 days.
- WHITE POTATOES – White potatoes like Upstate Abundance are super delicious but often hard to find at grocery stores thanks to their easily bruised skins.
- RUSSET POTATOES – Grow Russet Burbanks if you’re a huge fan of baked potatoes. This type is not ideal if you’re growing in containers or have a short growing season.
- FINGERLING POTATOES – Fingerlings are great for roasting and pan-frying. Even though fingerlings are small at just 2 to 4 inches long, they can take at least 100 days to grow. My favorites are AmaRose fingerling potatoes, which are a beautiful burgundy color.
2. Figure Out When to Plant Potatoes
Potatoes are a warm season crop that cannot tolerate frost. Look up your last frost date for your area. Plan on planting your potatoes 2 to 3 weeks before that last frost date in the spring. By then, the soil should be warming up, and if you do get a late-season frost, your seed potatoes will be protected underneath the soil. The warmer the soil, the faster your plants will send up little shoots.
If you live in a warmer climate, you get a second chance to grow potatoes in the fall, before the arrival of cold weather. 👉 I have a whole post about growing potatoes in the fall if you’d like to know more.
Whatever type you’re considering, just look at the days to harvest and make sure you have enough time left before your first frost in the fall. I also recommend sticking with early and mid-season potatoes if you’re growing in a container.
3. Prepare the Potatoes for Planting
Preparing potatoes involves three simple actions over a 2- to 3-week period.
Chit
If you have a long growing season, you can skip this step, but you’ll wait a bit longer for your harvest. Chitting simply means pre-sprouting seed potatoes to give them a head start.
To chit potatoes, spread your seed potatoes out on a tray and set them in a warm spot with bright indirect light (like by a window or on a covered patio) for up to 2 weeks.
Cut
Once your potatoes have some sprouts on them, you can choose to cut them into smaller pieces or leave them whole. I typically cut larger seed potatoes and leave smaller ones whole. The advantage of cutting is ending up with more plants (and therefore more potatoes at harvest), but it’s not a great idea if you have maggots or other pests that might be attracted to the exposed flesh of a cut potato.
If you choose to cut, use a sharp, clean knife to cut your potatoes into pieces at least 1-inch wide or large, making sure to leave at least two “eyes” (or sprouts) on every piece. These eyes will grow into new plants.
Cure
Afterwards, leave the cut pieces in a cool spot for at least 24 hours to callous over before planting. This prevents rot.
Now your pieces are ready for planting!
4. Choose a Sunny Location
Plant your potatoes where they’ll receive 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day. Avoid spots next to your roofline, where eaves or gutters might dump excessive rainwater onto the growing space, which could lead to overly wet soil.
You can grow potatoes in the ground, raised beds, containers, or even large grow bags.
In the Ground
Growing potatoes in the ground is an easy option if you have space in your flower beds. If you have clay-heavy soil, don’t skip on the soil prep before planting (see step 5 below).
Raised Beds
Potatoes are easy to grow in raised beds as long as you can give each plant 18 to 24 inches to spread out. I recommend designating one bed as your potato bed and not planting other veggies there. That way, you don’t have to worry about disturbing them when it’s time to dig up your harvest.
Containers
Container gardening is my favorite method for potatoes. For best results, choose a large container, bucket, or barrel at least 18 inches deep so you can leave some room at the top to mound soil around the potato stems as they grow. Make sure your container has good drainage holes in the bottom so your potatoes don’t rot.
👉Explore our top container picks and more tips to set your container potato garden up for success in our Guide to Growing Potatoes in Containers.
Pro Tip: Move your container to its final location before you fill it with soil and plant it up.
Grow Bags
You can grow potatoes in 15-gallon grow bags. These bags release extra moisture through the fabric sides to prevent overwatering. Find more grow bag options here.
5. Prepare the Planting Area
Potatoes do best in loose, well-drained soil rich in organic matter, though they’re pretty forgiving of their growing medium. The key is to avoid overly wet conditions, which invite fungal diseases like potato blight.
My ideal sandy loam soil for containers and raised beds is a fluffy mix of high-quality potting soil (containers) or topsoil (raised beds) with compost and paver sand. Potatoes grow really well in this blend. I just add a balanced organic fertilizer to the soil before planting.
If you’re growing in the ground, work compost and coarse sand into the top 12 inches of your native soil to add organic matter and control moisture. Break up any large soil clumps and remove rocks from the planting area so your plants can spread easily.
Pro Tip: Avoid nitrogen-heavy fertilizers (the N in the NPK ratio on products). Too much nitrogen can delay root production. In other words, you might end up with large plants but very few actual spuds.
HOW TO PROPERLY PLANT POTATOES (Step by Step)
Now that your seed potatoes are sprouted and your soil is prepped, it’s time to dig in. Follow these steps to plant your potatoes when the time is right:
1. Dig a Trench
Dig a trench about 4 to 6 inches deep in soil that’s nice and loose, meaning you can easily work it with your hands. If the soil could still use some loosening up, dig a trench that’s 12 inches deep and then backfill 6 inches.
2. Place Seed Potatoes in the Trench
Place seed potatoes with the cut side facing down and the eyes pointing up. Space seed pieces about 10 inches apart in large containers, or 12 inches apart in the ground or raised bed.
If you’re planting in a container, keep pieces 3 to 4 inches away from the sides to give them plenty of room to form new tubers.
Note: It’s not the end of the world if you plant potatoes too close together or too near the sides. They’ll just produce smaller potatoes.
3. Cover
Cover seed pieces with about 3 inches of soil. Instead of filling the trench all the way back up right now, you’ll return as the potatoes are growing to cover them up more and more.
4. Water
Water the planting area well to welcome your potatoes to their new underground home.
POTATO GROWING MAINTENANCE
Once they’re growing, potatoes are pretty low-maintenance plants. Be prepared to cover your plants if you’re expecting a late freeze since the potato leaves are not frost tolerant.
Here are your main tending tasks:
Watering Potatoes
Use a rain gauge to monitor your rainfall to know whether your plants have received enough water for the week. Potatoes need consistent moisture in the soil to grow well. In most areas, your plants will need 1 to 2 inches of water per week.
If the potato plants don’t get enough water, the tubers (the part you want to harvest) will shrivel up. If they get too much water, the potatoes can split (not great) or, in the case of too much moisture for a long time, rot underground (really not great).
Pro Tip: If you’re growing potatoes in a raised bed, drip irrigation, like the garden grid system from Garden in Minutes, is an easy way to deliver consistent water.
A few more things to keep in mind:
- It’s better to give potatoes 1 to 2 deep waterings a week than daily shallow watering.
- Wait till the soil feels dry at the top before you water again. The best way to check is to just stick your finger in the soil.
- Aim water at the soil level instead of the leaves.
Fertilizing Potatoes
If you added compost to the planting area, then you don’t need to worry about supplying additional nutrients until your plants are about 6 to 8 inches tall. Then, I like to side-dress with something like MicroLife’s MultiPurpose granules or Fox Farm’s All Purpose Fertilizer. To side-dress, shake the appropriate amount of fertilizer around the stems of the plants and water in. Repeat every 2 to 3 weeks.
If you’re shopping around for fertilizer, avoid something too high in nitrogen. You need a little nitrogen for the leaves to grow, but then you want to focus on potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) for strong root growth. Otherwise, you’ll end up with huge, leafy plants but a disappointing root harvest.
Hilling Potatoes
Hilling is an essential task for potato growing. Don’t worry—it’s super easy. All you have to do is push more soil and compost around the base of each plant, starting as soon as your sprouts are about 4 to 6 inches tall. I like to make a little mound around each stem to give it lots of support.
Repeat this process every couple of weeks until you reach the top of the raised bed or container, or the top of the trench you dug if you’re growing in the ground. Some gardeners go so far as to hill until only the top leaves are exposed during the first hilling.
Hilling ensures there’s plenty of room underground for all the important work to happen. New potatoes will grow along the stems surrounding each original piece planted. If you notice any tubers popping up at the surface, cover them with more soil. Exposure to sunlight can turn potatoes green, and while a little green can be cut away, it’s best to avoid this situation.
Some gardeners apply a breathable mulch like straw after the second hilling. I’m not a fan of large pieces of organic materials in my growing space, so I stick with soil and compost.
Handling Pests and Disease
Aphids can sometimes be an issue when growing potatoes, mostly if your plants are thirsty and stressed. Follow these steps to handle aphids.
Otherwise, the main pest to keep an eye out for is the Colorado potato beetle, which you want to get rid of as soon as possible. Put on a pair of gloves and hand-pick any striped beetles you find. Search underneath the leaves for their egg clusters, as well. These are easily swiped away with your finger.
If the leaves of your plant suddenly turn black or mold, you may have potato blight. In this case, you need to remove any affected plants immediately and toss them in the trash. Blight is, fortunately, uncommon now that so many seed potatoes from reputable sources are bred to be resistant.
Why Is My Potato Plant Flowering?
Potato plants form pretty little white or purple flowers when they’re mature, just like their relatives tomatoes and peppers. These flowers not only attract pollinators, they can actually form little tomato-like fruits, called potato berries (best to avoid eating these).
While the flowers are pretty and great for pollinators, I recommend cutting them off as a way of telling the plant to focus its energy on forming more tubers. Whether you keep them or remove them, they’re a good sign that potatoes are forming underground!
HOW/WHEN TO HARVEST POTATOES
Potatoes need anywhere from 60 to 120 days to mature, depending on the type you’re growing (check your seed info for specifics). You’ll know your plant’s harvest time has come when the leaves turn brown and papery and fall over.
You can harvest all your potatoes at once or leave some in the ground. You just want to harvest all your little treasures before your first hard frost hits.
3 Simple Steps to Harvest Potatoes
When the time has almost come to dig up your buried treasure (at last!), follow these steps:
1. Let Them “Set”
As soon as you notice the leaves dying off, stop watering the plants so the soil will dry and the potato skins can toughen up underground. This is called “setting”, and it’s necessary for long-term storage.
Once a couple weeks have passed since your last watering (or when the ground is dry after rain), dig into the soil and pull up a spud. If the skin is nice and thick and doesn’t rub off easily, the potatoes are ready for harvest.
2. Harvest
Use a shovel or gardening fork to gently loosen the soil around your potatoes. I recommend then just using your hands to lift each potato from the dirt.
If you plan on storing your potatoes, don’t wash them. Just brush the dirt off. Bring them inside quickly. Throw out any green potatoes.
3. Cure
After harvest, set your potatoes in a cool, dark spot for 2 weeks to toughen their skins before storing. Curing ensures you can store your potatoes for longer.
When Can I Harvest New Potatoes?
New potatoes, aka baby potatoes, are thin-skinned and super delicious. I especially love new red and yukon gold potatoes.
To harvest new potatoes, dig carefully into the soil with your hands about 3 weeks after your plants start flowering. Just be gentle handling these babies because they’re delicate. You can harvest a couple of new potatoes from a plant and leave the rest to keep maturing as long as you’re careful with the roots.
New potatoes should be enjoyed asap since their skin is too thin for storage.
How to Store Homegrown Potatoes
If cured properly, potatoes can last much longer than typical garden veggies. Keep them in a cool, dark pantry, away from onions, for up to 6 months.
POTATO GROWING FAQs
How do you grow potatoes from a potato?
If you have a sprouted potato, you can plant it at least 4 to 6 inches deep in well-drained soil. The sprout will send up lots of leaves above ground, while below the surface, the plant will spread out roots in different directions and eventually produce about 5 or 6 new potatoes from that one original potato.
What months can you plant potatoes?
You can begin planting potatoes the month before your last anticipated frost date. In my warm southern climate, that means I can put seed potatoes in the soil as early as February. You can continue planting potatoes through the summer (and maybe even into fall), as long as you have enough days before you’re expecting frost for the potatoes to mature.
Can I just put a potato in the ground?
You can literally just pop a potato in the ground and water it. That being said, your plants will grow faster if you chit (pre-sprout) the potato before sticking it in the soil. Also, if you start with a potato from the grocery store, be aware that it may never sprout and turn into a plant. Farmers spray their crops with sprout inhibitors to keep them from sprouting on store shelves.
How many potatoes will you get if you plant one potato?
You can expect 5 to 6 new potatoes for every potato planted. There’s some variation between potato varieties, of course, with some types yielding more than others.
That’s all there is to growing and harvesting your own potatoes. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below!
