How to Grow the Potato Plant

There’s nothing quite as tasty as a newly harvested cooked potato that you’ve grown in your own garden. One that you planted and then nurtured until the potato plant was ready to have its yield taken from the ground. So do you know how to grow potatoes?

Unless you just want to grow a few pounds to have a couple of meals with fresh garden potatoes, you need a lot of space! Potato plants take a lot of room to grow. Potatoes will grow in most types of soil (with a preference to slightly acidic) as long as it is well-dug, however they don’t like shady areas, and so plant your potatoes in the warmest side of your garden, the area that has a lot of natural sunlight.

Potatoes aren’t grown from seed, but rather seed potatoes. These are available from your garden supplies merchant, or from a seed catalog. Make sure that the seed potatoes you choose are healthy and disease free. Follow the instructions from the seed company, or the advice from the merchant, as to how to care for the seed potato until it’s ready to be planted in the earth.

Caring for the Growing Potatoes

Once planted in the soil, the seed potatoes usually take 13-17 weeks to yield their crop of potatoes. When first planted, keep the area around the seed potatoes well weeded. Whilst the plant greenery that grows above ground is great for producing a natural defense against weeds, it can also create its own problem by producing flowers. Remove the flower heads when they appear otherwise they may start to produce potato seeds which will divert the energy you want going to the growing potatoes. Keep the potatoes well watered. When the plant foliage begins to wilt and then die, your potatoes are ready to harvest.

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