Growing Potato

Solanum tuberosum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
      P P              

(Best months for growing Potato in USA - Zone 5a regions)

  • P = Plant seed potatoes
  • Plant tuber. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 86°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 12 - 16 inches apart
  • Harvest in 15-20 weeks. Dig carefully, avoid damaging the potatoes.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Peas, Beans, Brassicas, Sweetcorn, Broad Beans, Nasturtiums, Marigolds
  • Avoid growing close to: Cucumber, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Rosemary

Your comments and tips

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03 Feb 13, Derek Cooper (South Africa - Dry summer sub-tropical climate)
I would be grateful if anyone could advise me as to a late planting variety of potatoe available in S.A. It appears that the variety favoured in the USA is Butte. Any advice would be most welcome
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27 Jan 13, Kevin (Australia - temperate climate)
Keep watering them as usual as the longer they grow the more and bigger tubers. Stop watering when the leaves start to die off and go yellow,. ( If you are anywhere near us in Qld you wont be waterinh for awhile)
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25 Jan 13, Donna (USA - Zone 8a climate)
Can sweet potatoes grow successfully in my area?
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21 Jan 13, (Australia - temperate climate)
growing i old tyres I have found to be excellent in small areas. Just add a tyre and soil as the shoot comes through and add soil. To dig all you do is kick the tyres over, take your harvest and save the soil and tyres for your next crop. Yummy spuds the easy way. Peter
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03 Jan 13, alan (Australia - arid climate)
do the plants need to flower to be able to crop ???? Adelaide aus
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07 Dec 12, Zoe (Australia - temperate climate)
My potato plants flowered then carried on growing, do I need to cut back watering so they die off or let them carry on growing? They were planted mid July. Cheers!
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06 Dec 12, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
thats good, dig a bit and see the size of potato might be too early still.
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03 Dec 12, mehmet kolgu (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Hi there I planted keflex potatoes early SEpt. they flowered now they are going yellow and dieing. How do I understand that, that's harvest time regards M
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22 Oct 12, Mlungisi (South Africa - Semi-arid climate)
As from 2010 I have been planting potato seedlings in my backyard garden what I noticed is that they do not flower for pollination to take place but when I harvested them I got big quality tubers. The following year I planted the potato seeding in winter and they thrived well but the same thing of not flowering happened again and the harvest was good. This is surprising me really ,. What could be the reason for these potato plant not flowering but able to form tubers.
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19 Oct 12, Linda Heenan (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Are Agria seed potatoes available in Australia yet? If so, where can I buy some?
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Showing 631 - 640 of 831 comments
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This is my second year at growing potatoes near Kalgoorlie. Although it gets hot quickly as long as you keep the water up to them they seem to thrive. All I added last year was some blood and bone and a bit of hay for mounding them up. I've got heavy red loam ground here and the first year I grew enormous potatoes but many were derformed from the rocks in the ground. This year I decided to build a raised bed and use a mix of the red loam, potting compost and hay. I didnt plant till late September because of late frosts but already plants are really high and flowering. Unfortunately I didnt keep up with mounding them up as quickly as I should have and maybe they will not produce as many spuds because of this. I have read that you have to keep mounding them so that only one inch of stem is out of the ground. If the main stem becomes too long and exposed to the sun it no longer grows side shoots and spuds - is this true?

- Jan

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