You don’t have to be a German to fall in love with potatoes. From a simple meat dish to fries and soups, potatoes can elevate almost all delicacies. You can have double the fun with your cooking skills if you know how to plant potatoes and grow them at home.
So, it’s time to grow potatoes in your backyard, and here is a step-by-step guide for you.
Contents
How To Plant Potatoes And Grow Them?
Growing your own potatoes is easy. Further, if you know the right cultivation technique, you can enjoy the maximum yield.
Here, I will talk about seven of the best ways in which you can plant and grow potatoes.
Grow Potatoes On Straw Mulch If You Want To Do Least Digging
If your garden soil has enough nutrients, you can place potato seeds on them at a distance of 12-18 inches. Now, cover the seed pieces with at least 3-4 inches of loose and seed-free straw.
The process of straw mulching helps to keep weeds away. Straws also maintain the proper moisture balance of the soil.
As the plants start to grow up, you have to mound straw against each plant, and that can be as high as 1 foot.
In time, you will receive a decent yielding of potatoes by following this method.
Dig Hilled Rows To Grow Potatoes At The Cheapest Rate
If your garden has the right soil condition, you can use this dig-hilled-rows method to grow potatoes.
In this method, you will have to dig shallow trenches. The trenches should be straight and at least 2 feet apart.
Do you want to know how far apart to plant potatoes in this method? There should be a minimum gap of 12-18 inches. You must cover the seed potato pieces with at least 3 inches of soil.
As the shoots grow and they become at least 10-12 inches tall, you must collect soil from the spaces between the rows. Use that soil to create a rounded mass against every plant. At this stage, the soil should keep half of the stem covered.
That’s it! Now wait for the time to harvest potatoes.
Raised Beds Help You To Optimize Yields
If you want the highest yield of potatoes in your garden, you can go for the raised beds. Raised beds are like secured platforms created for cultivation when the soil of your garden lacks nutrition.
Once you have made the raised beds, you can fill it up half. Now, place the potato seeds and cover them with 3-inch soil. As the plants grow, you will have to keep filling the raised bed.
Is it the time to harvest? Just remove the sides of the raised beds to collect potatoes.
When you grow potatoes in this way, you get tubes of similar sizes.
Grow Potatoes In Wire Cylinders If You Have A Wet Backyard
Do you have a wet backyard, and you don’t know how to plant potatoes? You can do the same in wire cylinders and grow many potatoes in the garden.
It may be difficult for you to make the wire cylinders. So, get help from a handyman near you. Once the wire cylinders are ready, fill the bottom with soil mix.
Now, place the seed potato pieces and cover them with at least 3-inch soil. Keep filling the cylinders with soil as the plant grows.
Turn the cylinder bags upside down to collect potatoes from the soil.
Use Grow Bags For Planting Potatoes
Do you want to know how to plant sprouted potatoes or seed potato pieces in a grow bag? It’s easy. You have to fill up the bottom of the commercial grow bags with compost and soil mix.
Now, you can place the sprouted potatoes or seed potatoes. Further, cover the potatoes with at least 3 inches of soil mix.
Made of dense and heavy polypropylene, grow bags are great for planting and growing potatoes. They facilitate the growth of the plants with maximum heat absorption.
Further, when you need to collect the potatoes, you can simply turn the bags on one side and dig out the yield.
Grow Potatoes In Garbage Bags
How to grow potatoes when I don’t have grow bags and in-ground planting is not possible? Use garbage bags to have your own potatoes grown in the backyard.
However, you need to make tiny holes in the garbage bags so that the soil receives enough airflow, and proper water drainage is possible.
Also, fill up the garbage bags properly and roll the top down so that the bags remain steady.
There is one advantage of growing potatoes in black garbage bags. The black bags will absorb more heat. As a result, tubular formation will be easier.
The same thing can cause some disadvantages for the growth. Too much heat can reduce the yield.
Grow Potatoes In Wooden Boxes
I have already explained the raised bed method. Growing potatoes in bottomless wooden boxes is very similar to the process. However, here you need to make a wooden box. You can even buy it.
Using a wooden box to grow potatoes is a smart way to avoid the poor soil condition of your garden. Further, whenever necessary, you can add soil and stacks to support the growth and yielding of the plant.
Whenever you need to yield the tubes, you can just tip the box over.
Things You Must Know About Harvesting Potatoes
So, now you know how to plant potatoes. It’s time to learn how and when to harvest potatoes.
Once you plant the potato seed pieces, you will have to wait at least three or four months for harvesting. With changes in weather and soil conditions, the waiting time may also become longer.
However, some types of potatoes, especially the “new potatoes,” are harvested a little before. Early harvesting is essential in these potatoes so that the sugar in them does not get converted to starch.
Nevertheless, if you grow potato plants after three or four months, you will notice the top of the plants becoming dry. This is your signal to start harvesting.
Usually, potato seed pieces are planted between March and May, and harvesting is done three or four months later.
Final Words
Have you learned how to plant potatoes and harvest them from this guide? Try any of the simplest methods I have discussed here to grow your own potatoes with minimal effort and investment.
Do you know any other method of planting and growing potatoes? Don’t forget to share.
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