How to Grow Potatoes in 5 Initial Steps

Obtain seeds. in contrast to some plants, potatoes may be seeded in 2 alternative ways.

Use seed potatoes. you'll purchase a seed potato through the mail or at your native garden search, otherwise you will use leftover potatoes you bought from the grocery. (These but, won't be certified as illness free- which might produce a perpetual drawback if you intend to lift potatoes within the same place once more, as several diseases will carry over year by year within the soil.). These will help you to lean about how to grow potatoes.

With a pointy, non-serrated knife, slice the potatoes roughly into quarters, ensuring every bit has no quite 3 "eyes" (the tiny pits or indents on the surface). Place within the sun and let it sit for daily or 2, or till you start to note the eyes growing sprouts.

Don't SOAK, as some would possibly suggest! Potatoes don't have any powerful shell to wish softened by soaking as some seeds do and that they have all the wet they have for development within the flesh of the potato itself. Soaking creates additional risk of putrefaction than something it would accomplish! you would like the cut sides to "heal"- kind a dry "skin" over the world to discourage putrefaction in how to grow potatoes.

1. Use potato fruit.

Some potato varieties can grow tiny, highly-toxic inexperienced fruits on top of the bottom that every contain up to three hundred "true" potato seeds. Chop the fruit finely and place the items in an exceedingly dish of water; once a couple of day, the seeds can separate and sink to all-time low.

2. Prepare the Land.

 you'll plant your potatoes in an exceedingly patch of land, otherwise you will place them in an exceedingly planter on your area - giant pots, a stack of tires and previous chimney pots all work well. the foremost necessary factor is ensuring your soil is as weed-free as doable. to boot, you would possibly need to until some compost or manure into the soil to create it nutrient-rich.

3. Plant the potatoes. 

Time your planting in order that it falls every week or 2 before the last frost of the season for your space, that you'll decipher here. The colder nights can kill potential pests, and your potatoes can want additional sunshine because the days get longer. as an example, in coastal Virginia, potatoes planted on St. Patrick's day in March area unit harvested in Gregorian calendar month and it is the best thing in how to grow potatoes.

 place your seed potatoes or potato fruit seeds regarding an in. into the soil, then build a little mound of dirt over them. Potatoes ought to be so much enough apart that, if they grew to a traditional size, they would not run into one another underground. As your stems grow, boost your mound of soil at the base-if your potatoes area unit exposed to daylight whereas growing, they will flip inexperienced and slightly cyanogenic.

4. take care of the plant. 

Nurturing your potato because it grows can guarantee a healthy, edible product come back harvest.

Watering your potatoes on an everyday schedule is important to uniform growth. Once every week ought to be fine throughout summer, as long because it may be a thorough watering, however make love additional usually if necessary. If the leaves of the plant seem like they are wilt, then your potatoes want additional water. use caution to not over water, though, or you may find yourself with black potatoes.

If you notice holes or yellowing in your potato plant's leaves during how to grow potatoes lesson, you would possibly have pests. If you do not need to use a chemical on your potatoes, raise the staff at your native garden buy tips about a way to get eliminate pests naturally.

5. Harvest your potatoes.

Once it's close to the primary frost, harvest and eat. you'll harvest potatoes bit by bit - "young" or "early" potatoes ought to be prepared regarding 7-8 weeks once planting (when the flowers 1st appear). Take many while not propulsion up the stems, and leave others to continue growing into full-sized potatoes. you may apprehend once your potatoes area unit able to harvest once the tracheophyte leaves flip yellow and wither.