Potatoes are a cool season crop, and most varieties need between 60 and 120 days to mature, so that means getting them in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked and giving them the time they need to grow. The great thing about potatoes is they can be harvested at any size, so it’s a crop that can do well in a short-season area and can also be grown in places other than big, long in-ground rows. If you have minimal space or you can only garden in grow bags or buckets, you can still grow potatoes.
Today on Just Grow Something we’re talking about just that – what are all the different ways and places we can grow potatoes? They are such a versatile crop it makes sense to tuck some into your garden area no matter what size it is. Let’s dig in!
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Karin Velez [00:00:00]:
Right now is about the time that if you're not already planting potatoes, you will be soon if you are in the northern hemisphere. Potatoes are a cool season crop, and most varieties need between 6 60 a 120 days to mature. So that means getting them in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked, and giving them the time they need to grow. The great thing about potatoes is they can be harvested at any size, so it's a crop that can do well in a short season area, and it can also be grown in places other than big, long in ground rows. If you have minimal space or you can only garden in grow bags or buckets, you can still grow potatoes. Today on Just Grow Something, we're talking about just that. What are all the different ways and places that we can grow potatoes? They are such a versatile crop it makes sense to tuck some into your garden area no matter what the size is.
Karin Velez [00:02:36]:
There's more information on my website if you use the search function, which will include episodes and articles and any videos that I've done. But I have also gone ahead and put together a slightly more comprehensive resource for you in the form of an ebook on successful indoor seed starting. So it goes into more details about the things that I'm getting questions about, like how damp the seed starting medium should be, or when to move the seedlings under the lights, or how close they should be to the lights, all those types of things. So it's completely free, and you can get it by going to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/seedbookseed b o o k, seed book. And hopefully, that will answer some of the additional questions that you may have about starting your own seeds. I know it is super frustrating when you feel like you've done all the things right and followed the instructions, and your little seedlings either die, or they fall over, or they fail to thrive, or get a fungal disease, or whatever. So download the ebook, and if you've got more questions, you know I'm always more than happy to help. Justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/ seedbook, and I will put that link in the episode description.
Karin Velez [00:03:54]:
And along the lines of questions, don't forget about the question of the month. I've gotten some intriguing responses after mentioning last week that I hadn't received any, and so I am anxious to hear from you. The February question of the month is, what is your most successful crop, and why? This could be a specific variety of something, the plant you love the most, the crop that does the best for you, whatever you consider your most successful crop. Send me an email, post it in the Facebook group, send me a DM. This is your final week to get me your answer, and I will share all the responses with you next week. Alright. What kinds of ways can we be planting potatoes? If you want the full details about growing potatoes in one of my more traditional full crop formats with very specific growing details, including info on seed potatoes and how to prep them and the water and nutrients, harvest storage, all of that stuff, then head to episode 135. I will link to that in the show notes.
Karin Velez [00:04:54]:
That's my original full episode on this topic. An edited version was also replayed in December at some point too, so you can likely find it that way. This episode, we are just focusing on the different locations and techniques for growing potatoes. I mentioned in the intro that most potato varieties need between 60 a 120 days to mature. The thing that makes these guys so versatile is you can pick them young for baby potatoes. You can let them mature to very large potatoes that are also suitable for storage, or you can harvest them anywhere in between. So if you live in a short season climate with very few frost free days, you can still grow potatoes. This also means you can grow potatoes just about anywhere.
Karin Velez [00:05:42]:
Regardless of which method you choose, just be sure to pick a sunny location. Potatoes need a minimum of 6 hours of light per day to really develop. 8 hours is better. We'll also talk about some indoor growing methods as well that changes the light requirement just a little bit. But to start with, let's start with the traditional in ground method of growing. For in ground cultivation, you're going want to do a little preparation. Potatoes are tubers, the underground storage organ for a plant, and that means as they develop they will do best with a good amount of organic matter and a good level of fertility. So, work in a good amount of composted manure or high quality compost if needed needed the season before planting.
Karin Velez [00:06:30]:
The soil texture also affects your tuber development. Tight soil means smaller tubers. So, if you have heavy clay soil, the addition of organic matter is going to help. The same thing applies if your soil is extremely sandy. All roads lead to good soil organic matter. When you're ready to plant your potatoes, check your soil temperature. You don't want to plant your potatoes until your soil reaches 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7.2 Celsius or above in the spring. You want them in early enough that they'll put on most of their green growth when your air temperatures are no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 21 Celsius on average.
Karin Velez [00:07:09]:
But you don't want them in too early or they'll sit too long in the soil without sprouting and potentially rot. So when you plant your potatoes, it's going to depend on your region. Cool soil is fine, but cold and wet is not. When putting the potatoes in the ground, plant seed pieces cut side down 10 to 12 inches apart or 25 and a half to 35 and a half centimeters, in trenches that are about 3 feet or just side of a meter apart. If you want lots of little new potatoes or you have limited ground space, you can space them closer together and thin them out as needed. For larger potatoes, space them further apart. Cover the tubers with 4 inches of soil, compost, or straw, and your job is almost done. I say almost done because there's this thing about hilling potatoes.
Karin Velez [00:08:00]:
I was taught that you mounded the soil up around your potato plants to encourage more tubers. Turns out, this is only true if you're working with indeterminate potato plants, and even that's debatable. What it does do though is protect those developing tubers from getting exposed to sunlight, which can result in green potatoes, which can make them inedible. So mounting the soil or pushing compost or straw up around the stem of your developing plant also helps keeping weeds away from the area where those tubers are growing. So if you plant deep enough from the beginning, you may not need to mound around your plants. If you do opt to hill them, start when the plants' stems are about a foot tall, and then you can do it once or twice more during the growing season. At the end of the season, you'll likely have held about 6 to 8 inches of soil in total all along the plants if you do this 3 times. Or do what I do, which is hill them up once and then just let them be.
Karin Velez [00:08:57]:
I do not have time to go back and re hill my potatoes multiple times. And in actuality, in most cases, I just add another layer of straw rather than hilling them up. It's just less work. Speaking of straw, that's another way that you can grow potatoes that does not require you to trench the soil for an in ground bed. Just choose a sunny location and lay down a really thick layer of straw. You want around 6 to 8 inches deep here. Then, place the seed potatoes evenly across the straw bed, about 8 to 12 inches apart, and then press those seed potatoes down into the straw, trying to make contact with the soil below the pile. And then cover the seed potatoes with another layer of straw about 4 to 6 inches deep.
Karin Velez [00:09:39]:
So this is gonna help protect them from sunlight. Water the straw pile thoroughly after you plant, and then that'll settle the straw down around those potatoes, and it's gonna initiate that growth. Now, throughout the growing season, you're gonna wanna maintain a consistent moisture. The straw helps retain moisture, but you wanna check it pretty regularly, especially during dry spells. While the straw does provide some nutrients, because it's going to break down across the season, you would likely are gonna have to supplement with some sort of a balanced fertilizer, usually right at planting time, and then doing another side dressing of compost or an organic fertilizer of some sort mid season is also going to boost that plant growth a little bit. And that's it. That's all it takes. So think about how easy it is to just dig into that pile of straw after the plants start to die back, and just pull out your potatoes.
Karin Velez [00:10:28]:
No digging required. And as a bonus, the soil underneath all that straw will be reaping the benefits of the decomposing matter, and it will be nice and fertile and very likely easy to work with the next season without a whole lot of work. So this is a really good technique that may also serve to prepare a garden bed for you the next year without as much of the backbreaking work. You've heard me talk all about my favorite garden planter boxes from Planter Box Direct. I have 19 of these planters, including 4 that were just delivered that are waiting to be put together, which is super easy. It's just frigid outside. I've tested out other prefab planters, and these are the best value for the money I've come across, which is why I have continued to order from them every single year. They're made in the USA by a small US company using 1 100% USA made steel, and they come in 21 different colors.
Karin Velez [00:12:24]:
What we're looking for when we do potatoes in containers are sturdy, large containers, preferably with something that's around 10 to 15 gallons of volume. This allows enough room for the potato plants to grow and produce those, those tubers. So this includes things like grow bags, or large plastic or ceramic pots or even repurposed barrels, any other container you have on hand. Just be sure you've got drainage. I remember talking way back when with my friend Caitlin from the Rural Woman podcast about her potato tub. This was an old bathtub that she found on the farm, and she used it to grow potatoes. This is a great idea, but there wasn't enough drainage, and many of her beautiful little tubers rotted. So if you repurpose something, remember to drill some sort of drainage hole.
Karin Velez [00:13:15]:
Potatoes thrive in well draining, nutrient rich soil. For the same reason that I don't recommend using straight garden soil for starting seeds in, we don't want to just dig up soil and put that into these containers. It's going to come packed, it will become waterlogged, and this is going to affect the growth of your potatoes. So you can use a nice potting soil, you can mix up equal parts of like a coco coir, compost, and vermiculite for a nice, loose soil structure. You can do a combination of compost and potting soil. Whatever makes a nice, loose texture is what you want. You don't want this medium compacting down into the container. Place your seed potatoes into the container about 4 inches deep, and you want to space them about 6 to 8 inches apart.
Karin Velez [00:14:04]:
How many fit will be based on how wide your container is. As the plant grows, you can gradually add more soil or more straw mulch or something to cover the stems, similar to how we would hill them outside. You want to make sure your container is getting at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight every day. You might be able to move them if necessary, that's one of the benefits of growing in containers, if it's a small enough container. And now, here's where container potatoes might need a little bit more attention. Potatoes need fairly consistent moisture. Usually, in in ground beds, the moisture is being trapped by the soil and whatever mulch we're using. So, watering isn't necessarily needed unless you are in a very, very dry area.
Karin Velez [00:14:51]:
Containers, though, no matter where you are, they tend to dry out much more quickly, and so you're going to water regularly, especially during dry spells. And then, when the plants begin to yellow and die back at the end of the season, it's time to harvest. And easy peasy, all you gotta do is tip over the container, and there you reveal all your happy little potato treasures. It couldn't be easier. Another way to garden with potatoes in small spaces is to use vertical potato towers. So, if you've got limited space, you can think about going up instead of out. So potato towers are not only space efficient, but they also kinda look pretty cool. We're gonna use materials like wire fencing or chicken wire.
Karin Velez [00:15:37]:
You can even use wooden pallets, or any other repurposed materials. The idea is to create a tall structure that allows for layers of soil. So start with a layer of soil at the bottom. Again, we really don't want garden soil here. You could do the garden soil in the very, very bottom of it, then place seed potatoes 6 to 8 inches apart, and then cover with a few inches of something else. Again, a good mix of potting mix and compost, or something that you come up with that is nice and loose and fluffy. As the plants grow, continue to add that soil or some sort of a mulch, leaving a few inches of green growth exposed every time. Again, this is like mounding potatoes out in the ground, but you're using the height of your container to your advantage to give you a nice long stem that encourages more of those tubers to grow.
Karin Velez [00:16:24]:
Watering, feeding, harvesting, these are all the same in towers as it is in containers. If you've created a pretty tall tower, you might want to just unhinge the wire fencing or take apart your tower to let the potatoes just spill out at the end of the season so you can collect them. Either way, it's easier than digging tubers from in the ground. In fact, as I'm talking about all of this, I'm convincing myself to do some different potato growing this year just by talking about it. You can also do potatoes on a balcony or on a patio. Again, choosing large containers or grow bags that have a minimum of that 10 to 15 gallon capacity. I know sometimes this is a little bit more difficult on a balcony or a patio because you only have so much room, and you might wanna be, devoting more of that room to things like peppers tubers, but, you know, if you have to repurpose something like a bucket, or again, plastic or ceramic pots, or fabric row bags that smaller than that, then just do what you can, and you're going to adjust accordingly the number of seed potatoes that you use. Once again, you want a well draining, nutrient rich potting mix.
Karin Velez [00:17:39]:
A mix of peat moss or compost, and vermiculite works also. Fill the container about a third of the way up, and then put the seed potatoes in, spacing them evenly. Again, 6 to 8 inches is what we're going for, so this is the number of seed potatoes that you use is gonna be based on how wide your container is at this point. Then you wanna cover with a few inches of soil, and as the plants grow, continue adding that soil or some mulch to cover those stems. Make sure you're getting at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day, and that's it. Again, at the end of the season, you're going to dump them out. Once again, these are containers, so make sure that you are keeping the soil consistently moist, not waterlogged. Balcony containers can dry out fairly quickly, especially if you are up in an upper level balcony or something, especially in hot weather.
Karin Velez [00:18:24]:
So you're gonna wanna check that soil moisture pretty regularly. And I mentioned growing potatoes indoors. Yes. You can grow potatoes in containers indoors provided that you can provide the necessary conditions for their growth. So once again, the largest container that you can manage, I know this is much harder when you are doing things indoors, especially when you are looking at drainage. So if what you can manage is a 5 gallon bucket with some drain holes in the bottom placed on top of some place for the water to drain, then that's fine. Just don't plant as many seed potatoes in it. Once again, and probably even more specifically here, a loose, well draining potting mix is ideal.
Karin Velez [00:19:10]:
This is a little different than outdoor containers, because trying to avoid too much of an actual soil component in the mix. We want to avoid it staying too waterlogged. We also are trying to avoid things that like to grow in that soil, like fungus gnats, because you're going to be inside. So a very well draining potting mix is probably gonna be your best bet here rather than bringing in compost or any type of garden soil. Plant your potatoes in your container evenly, again, 6 to 8 inches apart. Cover with a few inches of soil. Do the same thing as you would with your outdoor containers. The difference here is going to be the amount of light that they get.
Karin Velez [00:19:50]:
They need plenty of light to grow indoors, more so than the direct light that they would get outside. So, where we normally say 6 to 8 hours of direct light outside, you're gonna look for using your grow lights for about 12 to 14 hours of light per day. You can mitigate some of this by placing your containers near a south facing window, and then just using some supplemental light, or you can just do your indoor grow lights for the full 12 to 14 hours a day. We're looking mainly for vegetative growth here, so lights in the 5000 Kelvin or above range would be fine. If you can use full spectrum bulbs, even better, because the potatoes are going to try to flower, and they need a little bit of a different light range when doing so, but a general daylight bulb is fine if that's all you have. Literally, what you would use for the seed starting is the same thing that you can use for growing your potatoes. You just want the right number of light, hours per day. And then think about where you're gonna put them indoors.
Karin Velez [00:20:49]:
Remember that potatoes prefer cool temperatures, so, ideally, you're looking at an ambient air temperature between 6070 degrees Fahrenheit or 15 to 21 Celsius. This is usually slightly cooler than most people keep their homes, so you're going to avoid placing them in areas where you're gonna get those sort of extreme temperature fluctuations, like, near your air vent for your air conditioning or your heat. Put it in a corner somewhere where it's away from those vents. You can actually put it over in a corner that's closer to a window, so if you open the window and you get some air coming in, that would actually help as well. You do want to keep the soil consistently moist, but not waterlogged. Indoor conditions can be dry, so you are going to want to check the soil moisture regularly. Potatoes can take up quite a bit of space as they grow, so make sure that you have enough room for your containers and the ability for those potatoes to kind of come up and over. Understand that potatoes can have a very distinct earthy smell as they grow.
Karin Velez [00:21:53]:
So some people like the smell, others, you know, consider it a little off putting in close proximity, so just consider this when you are choosing your indoor growing location. Your indoor environment is likely going to have fewer pest and disease issues, but it's still important to keep an eye on your plants for any signs of trouble. And then, again, ventilation. Adequate air circulation is really gonna be important, especially for an indoor plant. So, consider using a fan to kind of help promote airflow around your potato plants. And then, for all of these container options, because we are not growing out in the ground where these plants are going to have ample opportunity to reach out for nutrients, we are going to need to feed them. Potatoes are heavy feeders, so consider using a balanced amendment every few weeks to make sure that they have the nutrients needed for their very vigorous growth. And then finally, let's talk about short season gardening.
Karin Velez [00:22:48]:
If you're in a region with a short growing season, you can still enjoy a beautiful, bountiful potato harvest by just making sure that you are choosing early maturing varieties and using a couple of strategies. So some of those early varieties, things that are known for quick maturity, New Orleans, Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac, these all generally, reach maturity in about 60 to 90 days. If you have a favorite variety, it doesn't mean that you can't grow it. Just know that you're gonna be harvesting them a little bit smaller than what they would look like when they actually reach full maturity. There is nothing wrong with that. Like I said, that's one of the things that makes potatoes such a great short season crop. If you need to get a head start or you just want to, you can actually pre sprout your seed potatoes indoors. Just put them in a cool, bright location a few weeks before your planting date, and this is going to allow them to sprout.
Karin Velez [00:23:39]:
This is also going to encourage faster growth once you get them in the ground or in your containers. You can also consider planting your potatoes in raised beds or in raised planter containers, because this is gonna help to warm the soil a little bit faster, which is really ideal for short growing season. This is also going to provide better drainage, which the potatoes are going to appreciate. And then, of course, using mulch, to help protect the young potato plants. That's also going to retain some of that moisture, but it's also going to help protect from late frosts. And then if you need some additional warmth, you can also consider using row covers to protect your young plants from chilly nights, either early in the season when they're still getting established, or protect them from early frost at the end of the season while the potatoes are still maturing. For everything else, the growing instructions are exactly the same. You're just gonna try to get a head start to get those potatoes in earlier, get them to maturity a little bit faster, and pull them right at the same time that you get your first frost.
Karin Velez [00:24:47]:
Okay. That is a down and dirty episode, and it should give you plenty of the ideas, for how you can grow your own potatoes at home no matter the size space that you are working with. Typically, in my area, the soils are warmed up enough and workable by around St. Patrick's Day towards the end of March, sometime sooner, depending on the amount of rainfall that we're getting. This year has been unseasonably warm, at least thus far, but I know we're still in for colder weather, so we'll just keep testing that soil temperature and wait for mother nature to say go. Until next time, my gardening friends. Keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll talk again soon.