10 tips for growing potatoes in your own garden

Not the dumbest farmer, but the smartest gardener has the biggest potatoes. With these tips, you too will soon have a rich potato harvest.

Potatoes have been at the top of the list of the most popular vegetables for years. But the tubers are not only welcome on the plate, the potato is also still very popular with gardeners. After all, it not only brings healthy food to the table, but can also be cultivated without any problems. With these ten tips we show you how you can grow potatoes in your garden.

Tip 10: Quality is worth it

If you buy cheap, you buy twice - this is probably not the case with any other seed as with the potato, after all the tubers come from a mother plant. If it was already sick or infested with insects, it is almost inevitable that your offspring will also be affected. One affected tuber is often enough to trigger a domino effect: other plants also become infected. In the end, it takes a lot of time and money to save the field from total failure. Instead, you should use certified seeds right from the start. This is controlled and definitely disease-free.

Tip 9: Grant a head start

So that the little tubers have a good start in their life in the garden, it helps to let them push forward in the apartment. To do this, place them in a flat box filled with soil and let them sprout in a bright room at around 15 °C. You can start driving as early as March, after about six weeks the tubers can move into the right bed. Advantage of forcing is not only an earlier harvest date. Since the forked potato also grows in cool weather, it is not so badly affected by late blight. As a result, the yield can increase by up to 20% compared to normally planted potatoes.

Tip 8: The right location

The potatoes prefer it warm, which is why a location with lots of sun is ideal. On the other hand, they are undemanding when it comes to soil conditions. The potato grows in almost any soil, but it does best in sandy and loose loamy soil. When choosing your bed neighbors, however, you should take a closer look. Tomatoes and potatoes should never be next to each other. If you want to have both in the same garden, you should take the wind direction into account, because both plants can be affected by the same species of fungus and infect each other. The potato does not get along well with itself either: at least four years should pass until the same Potatoes can be planted again in a piece of bed, otherwise pathogens that have overwintered in the soil can damage the new plants to destroy.

Tip 7: Now it's time to plantt

As soon as no more night frosts are to be expected, the potatoes can finally be planted. A floor temperature of 9 °C should be assumed as a guideline. If it takes too long to wait for the right weather, you can help a little. If you cover the bed in which the potatoes are to be placed with black garden fleece, the heat is stored and the soil reaches its “operating temperature” sooner. The potatoes are then placed about spade-deep in the planting trenches at intervals of 30 to 40 cm. Potatoes look forward to a handful of compost or extra horn meal in their planting hole as support. The first green should appear after about two to three weeks.

Tip 6: Water regularly

Water is important for the potato. Only with sufficient water supply does the plant form many of the small tubers that later end up in our pot. Nevertheless, one should not overdo it with the water. If waterlogged, the potato becomes susceptible to disease and can begin to rot. About once or twice a week, when the soil around the potato has dried thoroughly, you should water the tuber. You should always water the base and use the morning or evening hours. Wet leaves can be susceptible to diseases and, in the worst case, burn in the blazing midday sun.

tip: Also further measures of potato care can help you get a bigger harvest.

Tip 5: More is more

It is never too early to start fertilizing the potato. Already in the autumn before planting, the bed should be dug up and then covered with manure or compost. In the spring, the last remnants are incorporated so that the soil has a stable nutrient base. Potatoes also tolerate fresh fertilizer during growth. Horn shavings and manure, which are thrown directly onto the ground, have proved their worth. Although synthetic fertilizers are considered to be more nutritious, they can distort the taste and are not exactly conducive to healthy soil life. A primarily organic organic fertilizer like ours is very suitable Plantura organic tomato fertilizer, which is incorporated into the soil when planted. It develops its effect over three months and contains all the nutrients that the potato needs.

Tip 4: pile up

Piling up is probably one of the most important care measures for potatoes. The soil between the rows is pulled towards the perennials as soon as they are about 20 cm high. This will be repeated every two to three weeks from now on. Mounding prevents the potatoes from coming out into the open and showing inedible (and poisonous) green spots. Plus, as the soil piles up, the yield increases as the plant begins to produce more daughter tubers. If you now combine regular earthing up with the removal of weeds, the potato has the ideal conditions to bring a rich harvest.

Tip 3: Harvest time

On average, potatoes take three months to mature. The right time is easy to recognize when the potato cabbage first turns yellow and then brown and finally withers completely. Now the potatoes can be harvested, preferably on a sunny, dry day. To do this, dig up the plant and detach the potato from the sprouts. If the potatoes are ripe, this should be easy and the skin of the tuber should be abrasion-resistant. If you don't want to harvest all the potatoes at once, you can carefully uncover the roots and only remove the largest tubers. The rest disappears underground again and can be harvested at a later date.

Tip 2: Potatoes on the balcony?

The potato is not only suitable for the garden. The plant can also thrive in the tub and the potato harvest is quickly moved to the balcony. To plant the potato, all you need is two flower pots. Cut a window into one, then place it in the other. Now the potatoes are planted in the tub. On the balcony, the potato needs the same care as in the bed, only with the water supply you should pay more attention that there really is no waterlogging. When the potatoes are ripe, they can be easily harvested. To do this, simply pull out the inner flower pot. Through the viewing window you can easily get to the tubers without having to dig up the plant. Detailed instructions with video can be found here.

tip: For cultivation in pots, it is best to use a nutrient-rich vegetable soil such as our pre-fertilized Plantura Organic tomato & vegetable soil without peat.

Tip 1: Off to the basement

The harvest is over, the bellies are full - what to do with all the potatoes that are left over? Potatoes can actually be stored wonderfully. In a dark room, so that they do not form green spots, at 4 to 6 °C the potatoes will keep throughout the winter. However, rotten or injured tubers should definitely be sorted out before storage. These can infect other potatoes and cause them to rot as well. Even under optimal storage conditions, it can happen that individual potatoes start to rot. These should also be sorted out at an early stage, which is why it is advisable to check the potatoes regularly.

Learn more about how you Store potatoes properly, can be found in this special article.