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Potato Growing Tips, Ideas, Secrets, and Techniques

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Potato Growing Tips, Ideas, and Techniques

Hello gardeners, we are back with a very helpful topic today. The topic is all about potato growing tips, ideas, and techniques. Do you want to grow potatoes and do you want to know all growing tips, ideas, and techniques? Well and then you need to follow this complete article to know about all the tips, ideas, and techniques.

Introduction to Potato Growing

Growing potatoes in your garden can be enjoyable. With the different types and colours available, planting potatoes can be added interest to your garden. Learn how to grow potatoes and when to plant potatoes in your garden with these very simple steps.

When growing potato plants is also called Solanum tuberosum, it is very important to keep in mind that potatoes are cool-weather vegetables. The best time when to plant potatoes is in the early spring season. Planting potatoes two to three weeks before your last freeze date will produce the most sufficient results.

A Step-By-Step for Potato Growing Tips, Ideas, Secrets, and Techniques

Potato Growing Tips, Ideas
Potato Growing Tips, Ideas (Image credit: pixabay)

Potato plants are another type of most essential vegetable everyone uses in the kitchen. Potatoes are very cheap, nutrient, and very easy to cook. They can be used for fancy dishes or simply thrown in the oven with a little butter and salt for an equally fabulous result.

Potato plants are also very easy to grow. They change well to many environments and can be grown outside in the garden or containers and indoors in all types of containers. And since the only way to manage the use of pesticides or other conceivably harmful substances is growing your vegetables, more and more people are thinking about how to grow potatoes. This guide will teach the growing potatoes to you all the basics, so stay tuned.

Life Cycle of the Potato

Life Cycle of the Potato
Life Cycle of the Potato

Stage I – Sprout development

Sprout spreads from eyes on seed tubers and grows upward to appear from the soil. Roots begin to spread at the base of emerging sprouts.

Stage II – Vegetative growth

Leaves and brunch stems develop from the above-ground branching along with appeared sprouts. Roots and stolon’s develop at below-ground branching. Photosynthesis starts.

Stage III – Tuber initiation

Seed tubers form at stolon tips but are not yet substantially enlarging. In most planting, the end of this stage coincides with early flowering.

Stage IV – Tuber bulking

Tuber cells expand with the collection of water, nutrients, and carbohydrates. Tubers become the controlling site for the deposition of carbohydrates and mobile inorganic nutrients.

Stage V – Maturation

Creeping plants turn yellow and lose leaves, photosynthesis decreases, tuber growth slows, and vines in the end die. Tuber dry matter content holds out a maximum and tuber skins set.

Potato Growing Requirements

Potato Growing Requirements
Potato Growing Requirements

Potatoes need a cool but frost-free growing spring season. Grow potatoes all the time summer in cool northern regions. Here potatoes are grownup in fall, winter, and spring in hot summer southern regions.

  • Potato plants as before time as 4 to 6 weeks before the average last ground frost in spring or any time after the soil temperature warms to 4.4°C.
  • Potato plants require 75 to 135 or more cool weather, frost-free days to extend harvest depending on the variety.
  • Harvest late winter or spring season and potatoes are planted before daily temperatures average 27°C
  • Potato plants do not grow well in extreme heat or dry soil. High temperatures can cause grown-up potatoes to discolour inside.

How to Grow Potato from Seed?

Starting Potato from Seed

Starting to grow potatoes is very easy and, on the uncooperative of many other vegetables, you will normally be able to start your potato plants either from true seeds or for seed potatoes. If you want to start from true seeds, you should sow them inside about 4 to 6 weeks before they look forward to the last frost in your area.

  • Potato seeds
  • Seeding trays or containers
  • Soilless growing medium

How to do it:

  • Sow the seeds in the trays or containers and balance them with 1/16-inch of the soilless medium.
  • Place the trays in a warm room. The temperature should be about 27°C.
  • Keep the growing medium remains moist but don’t soak. The seeds will germinate in about 15 days.
  • When the seedlings developed four leaves, transplant them into individual containers filled with potting soil.

Alternatively, you can start your potatoes from seed potatoes. In this case, I strongly advise buying guaranteed seed potatoes from a nursery. Indeed, you can effectively start your potato plants from any type of tuber, but most of the time you will not be able to grow healthy plants from the potatoes imparted from the supermarket.

The reason is very simple. Many of the potatoes sold in stores are treated with a chemical in case of sprouting. Therefore, your potatoes will either rot or will supply unhealthy plants.

Germinating Potato from Seed

They germinate readily and allow a wide range of soil conditions. They do best in a sunny spot with rich well-drained, moderately acidic, sandy loam soil having a pH of around 6. Use seed potatoes acquire from a nursery or garden center for sprouting. Do not use grocery store potatoes as seed potatoes. They are treated to hamper sprouting.

Spread seed potatoes in one layer on a table or floor in a warm, sunny location in the early spring season. Perfectly potato sprouting conditions call for temperatures 27°C and high humidity, but potatoes will sprout essential as long as the temperature always stays above freezing and there’s some humidity in the air. Turn the potatoes daily to supports even sprouting. They should sprout within two to three weeks in a warm sunny location. Plant when the sprouts are about 1 inch long.

Dig a wrinkle in the garden about 5 inches bottom with a digger after the soil has warmed to 10°C. If seed potatoes are between 1- 2 inches in diameter, potato plants them whole with as many sprouts pointing up as suitable. Cut seed potatoes that are larger than 2 inches in diameter in half with a very sharp knife so that there are sprouts on each half, and plant with the sprouts up. Seed tubers 8- 9 inches apart in rows set 30 inches apart. Cover with 2 to 3 inches of loamy soil.

Hill the sprouting potato plants when they come out about 6 inches tall. Use garden loamy soil and the digger to form a mound along the row of potato plants. Repeat in two to three weeks, controlled on the conditions. Hilling will help encourage the plants and support them to form new potatoes close to the surface area.

Top 8 Potato Growing Secrets

In case if you miss this: How To Grow Coriander In Greenhouse.

Potato Growing Secrets
Potato Growing Secrets (pic credit: pixabay)

8 Great secrets for Growing Potatoes

#1 Plant Certified Seed Potatoes: 

When you plant seed potatoes, you are planting a potato supplied by the plant the previous year. Any diseases or insects that the mother plant may have had support over in the seed potato. Planting guaranteed seed potatoes make sure that you are starting with disease-free or insect potatoes.

#2 Chits Your Potatoes:

Give your potato seeds a forefront start by pre-sprouting or chitting them before planting them into the ground.

#3 Grow in Full Sun:

 Grow your potatoes where they will receive a fully sunny spot that is6-8 hours per day planted in acidic, rich well-drained soil.

#4 Plant Potatoes in Early Spring: 

Potatoes present cooler weather. They can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in the early spring season, once the loamy soil temperature reaches 7.2°C. Wet, waterlogged soil will cause the seed potatoes to decay. So depending on how rainy your spring seasons are, it may be recovered to wait until the soil dries out a bit.

#5 Water Consistently:

To maintain compatible moisture level in the potato ground averaging about 1-2 inches 2.5-5 cm of watering per week.

#6 Keep the Tubers Covered:

To protect your potatoes from mould green skin by covering with soil or mulching heavily so that no light comes out of the tubers.

#7 let the Potatoes Grown up Fully for Food Storage: 

You can start harvesting new potatoes as required for meals after the plant blooms. If you are growing potatoes for storage, allow the tubers to constant in the ground to grow up. Cure unwashed potatoes before storing them so the skins treat over and thicken up. Store cured tubers in a dark area in covered boxes or bags with some holes for ventilation. Perfect storage conditions for potatoes are at 7°C and 80-90% relative humidity.

#8 Rotate Your Potato Crop for Healthy Soil:

Potatoes should be alternate in the garden on a 3-year system. This means you should not grow potatoes in the same spot until 3 or 4 years later. Follow potatoes with beans, leafy greens, a cover plant, or another non-Solanaceae family plant.

Fertilizer and Compost for Potatoes

If you plant your potatoes in loamy soil that is well- riched in nutrients, you will as likely not require using fertilizer. However, if you have any uncertainty about your loamy soil characteristics, using a very good fertilizer that can provide nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to your potato plants would be an excellent decision.

If you choose to use fertilizer, you should utilize 1 and a half pounds of goods per 50 square feet of soil before transplanting the potatoes. You should use a 5-10-5 or a 10-10-5 fertilizer blend, to use 5 or 10% of nitrogen, 10% of phosphorus, and 5% of potassium.

To keep the loamy soil nutrient, apply a second round of fertilizer using 1 pound of product for each 50 feet row. You should apply the moreover fertilizer when the potato plants are about 6 inches tall. To apply the fertilizer you should simply sprinkle it on the ground and water it instantly to soak it.

Just as the fertilizer, mulching the potatoes is not essential but it helps the soil keep the moisture. For this reason, it is suggested to cover the soil around the potato plants with 3 or 4 inches of organic mulch, ideally straw mulch.

The mulch will also prevent the seed tubers that grow almost at ground level and that could be damaged by the sun.

Do Potato Plants Need Pruning? One of the main questions newbie gardeners has when starting to grow potatoes is whether the potato plants can well-being from pruning. Well, the truth is that pruning is not essential, especially if you want to grow fully grownup potatoes. But if you want to fasten the maturity of your plants, pruning might help.

So, if you want to harvest your potato plants forward, then you might want to prune your potato plants.

Watering Tips for Growing Potato Plants

Although potato plants are some of the most easy-to-grow vegetables, they are particularly sensitive to loamy soil moisture. To develop well, potatoes require a constant level of moisture around the growing period.

To suggest well and to maintain an appropriate garden, potatoes require about 1 inch of water weekly that, in the case of particularly sandy soil, the water requirement could grow to about 2 inches of watering per week. To determine when the right time to water your plants is, check the soil moisture level with a rod. You would want it to be moist at a bottom of at least 6 inches.

A thing to pay observed to is to avoid growing your potato plants in alternating conditions of dry soil and saturated soil. Both too dry and too humid loamy soils can aware diseases to the tubers or make the plants suggest poor-quality tubers.

For this reason, if the cool weather climate is dry and windy you should increase the water input. On the opposed, you should decrease it in the rainy season.

Potato Growing Tips in Containers

Growing potatoes in containers can make gardening available for the very small space gardener. When your potatoes grow in a container, harvesting is very easier because the seed tubers are in one place. Potatoes can be grown in a potato mount, garbage can, Tupperware bin, or even a gunnysack or wrapping bag. The process is very simple and something the entire family can enjoy from planting to harvesting potato plants.

The best potatoes to use for container gardening are those that grown-up early. You need to pick certified disease-free seed potatoes. The potatoes should be grown up in 70 to 90 days. You can also pick a variety from the supermarket that you enjoy. Be aware that some potatoes take 120 days until harvest, so you require a long growing season for these types of potato plants.

There is an extensive range of potato container garden methods and mediums. Most potatoes are grown in garden soil but any well-drained medium is appropriate. Even vermiculite can be used to grow potatoes in a container. If you are using a rubber or plastic bin, ensure you drill separate drainage holes. Heavy burlap bags make perfect containers because they breathe and drain. Whatever type of container you choose, ensure there is space to build up the soil as the white potato grows. This supports the formation of even more seed tubers in layers.

How to Care for Potatoes at Home?

Growing potatoes in containers or landscape are very easy as you just require little care to maintain and establish the potato plant. Here are some very useful caring tips to when you start growing potato plants at home

  • Ensure the potato eyes are covered with water else it will not spread sprout.
  • You need to hill the potato plants every 2 weeks to prevent them from diseases.
  • Harvest the potato plants only when you find the dead foliage or turns a brown colour or yellow colour.
  • After curing, brush off any soiling available on potatoes and store it in a dry, dark place.
  • When safety gloves and clothes while using fertilizing and harvesting potato plants.
  • Do not cut through an eye or sprout as it is responsible for the germination process.
  • Ensure you use only the rich well-drained fertile soil when you plant potatoes or sprouts.
  • Do not place potatoes near apply as they contain ethylene gas that spoils the potato plants.
  • Hilling should be done ahead the potato plants bloom that is when the plant is about 6 inches tall.
  • To keep the surrounding of your potato plant hygiene just cover the roots and encourage the potato plant.
  • Hilling helps to prevent the potato plants from sunburns that aware potato skin to turn a green color and supply a compound called solanine toxic nature-bitter taste.
  • The spacing tuber should be 20-30cms apart between each sprout or small potato when planted outside or landscape method.

Organic Potato Growing Tips

Organic Potato Growing Tips
Organic Potato Growing Tips

Generally, entertaining the think about of home grown food is given a pass due to the space moment of truth in modern urban lifestyle. Here to grow a great way of organic potatoes, no matter whether you have a very small balcony, rooftop, patio, or terrace. Let’s assure you that the supply would pleasantly shock you with its freshness and taste. Many of us are not even cause of how organic and home-grown vegetables such as potatoes taste their flavour will be entirely different from the stuff that you would get in a store or supermarket. Here is a chance to give your taste sprouts the chance to taste what they were always meant to the sweetness of home grown and organic vegetables.

1.  Use seed potatoes or the survivor from before that examines not edible such as potatoes with the sprouted surface area. Most times normal potatoes that have generally sprouted will do. You can also plant supermarket potatoes. Choose the healthy ones, that is, not secret or rotting.

2.  Store them in a cool, dark, and dry place so that they suggest eye sprouts potato eye is a dimpled spot in the potato from where the sprout appears and grows into a new potato plant. Check your potatoes every day. Once you choose to spot a few sprouts, it means the potatoes are ready for planting. Try to pick potatoes that have more than one eye sprout. The greater the number of sprouts the greater will be the spuds. Perfect, choose potatoes with 2 to 3 buds. Reduce the rest of the eye buds.

3.  Cut very large potatoes with multiple eye sprouts in half in order o get more potato plants. Allow the potato plants to dry for a few days before planting. Make sure both equal parts have at least two sprouts while cutting big potatoes.

4.  Choose a container: Take a medium-sized bucket or container. Technically, choose a container with 10 litres of volume 2.5 gallons and at least 2-4 inches deep. Perfect, they can be grown in any kind of a container such as polyethylene bags, dustbins, sacks, or tires. The container should perfect have enough space as well as drainage holes in the bottom to drain out the extra water.

5.  Planting organic potatoes: potato plants when the loamy soil is enough warm. In a country like India, which has a temperate climate that is very cool, you can just about potato plant them in any season. Fill the pot up to 4-6 inches with warm, humid, moist soil. Place the tubers or potatoes on the uppermost of the soil with the sprouts facing upward. Then cover the tubers with 4 to 5 inches of good quality, nutrient-rich well-drained soil, found so plentiful in these parts.

6.  Choose a fully sunny location. Use soils rich well-drained in organic matter. You can add some organic matter too or compost your vegetable waste at home to supply organic manure to the mixture. Water your potato container regularly to keep the soil evenly moist. Lack of water will kill the potato plants. Keep the temperature very cool.
Use some extra tips and tricks for growing organic potatoes

7.  Growing organic potatoes in containers may require some extra tips and tricks to improve the productivity and flavour of the plant. When the potato plants are 6-8 inches high, mix up the moist soil at the base. Do this every two or three week, till you are left with through the 2 inches at the top. Do not overfill the container. Use organic manure or compost for mixing to make sure the plants get their regular provide of nutrients. You can use fertilizers but it is not covert. Keep it as natural and organic manure as possible. For growing potatoes in small containers, natural manures and compost are enough.

8.  For pests and diseases, avoid water-standing soil and do not wet the foliage too much. Common diseases and pests may affect your container-grown potatoes but you can get rid of them using organic dung or fertilizers.

9.  Harvesting: Do not harvest organic potato plants before leaves turn yellow. Once the blooms look, your organic potatoes are ready to be harvested and adore.

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Author: Jagdish

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