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Potatoes are heavy feeders and require good, fertile soil. It’s also important that the pH of the soil be 6 or above (slightly acid). Alkaline soils foster a fungal disease called potato scab. Spuds grow best in cool temperatures. A general rule of thumb is to plant three to four weeks before your last expected frost date, or to plant when the soil has warmed to 55 degrees.
Plant potatoes in rows that are 30 inches apart. Begin by digging a trench that is eight to ten inches deep and dropping in seed potatoes about a foot apart. You might also sprinkle a little fertilizer in the bottom of the trench. Then, mound about four inches of soil over the seed potatoes, leaving the rest of the soil in between the trenches. When the potatoes’ sprouts reach about six inches tall, mound some more soil around them, covering up half the plant. Do this again when the stems grow another six inches. Potatoes need this cool mound of soil over them in order to sustain growth.
When the weather gets very hot, the shoots above ground will begin to wither and die. When the foliage is completely gone, wait another week or two and then harvest your potatoes.
Even if you don’t have lots of space, you can enjoy an amazing yield of potatoes by growing in a container – half a whiskey barrel, a trash can, whatever. Clean it well and make drainage holes in the bottom. Add about six inches of soil to the bottom and plant a layer of seed potatoes – five or six is the right amount for a whiskey barrel. When the sprouts reach six to eight inches high, shovel more dirt in on top of them, covering three-quarters of the stems. Keep doing this until the container is full. When the shoots die back, tip over the container and see how many potatoes your five have turned into!
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