How to grow your own potato garden | Live Self Sufficient

How to grow your own potatoes in your garden from seed

Posted by Kevin Quinlan ADD COMMENTS

One of the largest food crops harvested each year, potatoes are an easy to grow option for your garden that provides a great side item for every barbeque or home cooked meal. When deciding to grow your own potatoes something you should keep in mind is that they require full sun to grow so be sure to pick the right spot. They have aggressive roots so be sure to break up the soil and that it is well drained. While these are preferences, potatoes are hardy and are very growable in less then perfect soil.

Once the spring arrives and the ground is no longer frozen, you can get to work on growing your own potatoes. Potatoes are normally grown in rows and planted roughly fifteen inches apart where the rows are spaced two to three feet apart. If you are working with limited space, you can grow them in mounds. Dig roughly four inches wide and about six inches deep along your rows or mound. Place the seeds into your trenches and cover over with three inches of soil. After a few weeks you will note some growth on your potatoes, add a little more soil to the trench at this time. As the plant grows you will continue to add a little soil so that the base of the plant has a mound of soil near the bottom. This is done over a period of time to ensure the potatoes are receiving the right amount of sunlight as it grows. The potatoes require the hill effect around the base in order for the plant to grow properly and the seed to expand with its root systems.

Once planted and soil is occasionally added to help grow the mounding effect around the base of your potato plant, it should be watered often throughout the summer. You should try to water early in the morning to allow for proper drying of the foliage before evening. Watering in the early stages and while flowering are the most critical times, later on, watering becomes less critical and the plant can even survive a short drought.

After your own home grown potatoes have finished flowers, give it about two to three weeks and you can begin to harvest your potatoes. These potatoes would be smaller, baby potatoes, the longer you wait to harvest your crop the larger they will be. To harvest gently loosen the soil, reach below the plant and begin to remove the tubers. Take the largest ones first allowing your smaller ones more time to grow. Keep repeating all summer long and you will have more potatoes all season.