Potato
Vegetable · cool season · also called spud
When to plant
- Sow seeds outdoors about 3 weeks before your average last spring frost.
- Ready to harvest about 90 days after planting.
Plant seed potatoes; hill soil as plants grow.
Frost dates depend on where you live. Enter your ZIP code to get exact dates.
Dates by zone: 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b 10a 10b
Growing basics
Toxic parts. Green skin, sprouts, leaves, and berries are poisonous. Cut away green spots.
Harmful to pets. Leaves, stems, sprouts, and green potatoes are toxic to cats and dogs.
- Sun
- Full sun (6+ hours)
- Spacing
- 12 in
- Soil temperature
- At least 45°F
- Time to harvest
- About 90 days
- Containers
- At least 10 gallons
- Plant family
- Tomato family (nightshades)
- Harvest per plant
- About 3 lb
Companions
Good neighbors: Green beans (bush), Marigold, Horseradish
Keep apart: the tomato family (nightshades). Potatoes share blight with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.
Keep apart: the squash family (cucurbits). Potatoes and squash-family crops compete for water and share pests.
Keep apart: the cabbage family (brassicas). Cabbage-family crops and tomatoes compete and can stunt each other.
Keep apart: Mint. Mint spreads aggressively into neighbors. Keep it in a pot.
Keep apart: Fennel (bulb). Fennel slows the growth of most garden plants. Grow it on its own.
Keep apart: Sunflower. Sunflowers release compounds that can slow potatoes.
Keep apart: Sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke). Sunchokes spread aggressively and shade neighbors.
Varieties to try
- Red Norland 75 days: early red
- Yukon Gold 85 days: yellow, all-purpose
- Kennebec 95 days: white, good keeper
- Russet Burbank 110 days: baking; needs a long season
Pests and problems
Grow it well
Tips
- Hill up potatoes as they grow. When the plants are 6 to 8 inches tall, pull soil or straw up around the stems, leaving the top few leaves showing. Do it again two or three weeks later. New potatoes form along the buried stems, safe from the light.
- Pick big pests by hand. Knock Japanese beetles and potato beetles into a cup of soapy water. Do it in the cool of the morning, when they're slow to fly off.
- Store potatoes cool and dark. Dig them two weeks after the vines die back, so the skins toughen, and let them dry for a week or two out of the sun. Then keep them dark, cool, and dry: light turns them green and bitter.
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