Siskiyou Seeds is happy to offer high quality, disease free organic seed potatoes!

What is better than planting, growing and harvesting potatoes? Few things if you ask me. Potatoes offer an excellent choice for an abundant staple crop in your garden. They have beautiful star shaped purple or white flowers and when it comes time to dig them up you are in for a real treat! April and May are excellent times to plant potatoes as the ground is getting warm.

Crop Rotation Notes

Purple potatoes on a wooden surface with one cut open

Potatoes do best if planted after a brassica crop or after a cover crop as they are heavy feeders. You can follow your potatoes with cover crop.

Preparing the Bed

Choose a sunny location in your garden with about 6-8 hours of sunlight. Add some compost and loosen the bed space with a pitch fork. Pull out any rocks to allow the tubers space to grow nice and round. Form rows or mounds depending on your garden design and spacing.

Selecting & Preparing Seed Potatoes

Use certified seed potatoes bought from a reputable supplier. Seed potatoes are disease free and untreated. Potatoes from the store may be treated to impede growth. If the potatoes are large then you can use a paring knife to cut them in half. Make sure to have at least two eyes per potato piece. The eyes are the growth points. Pieces should be about 2 inches wide. You can let the potato pieces cure for a couple days before planting. Our seed potatoes are perfect size for planting and they do not need to be cut.

Planting PotatoesRaw potatoes on a wooden surface with a rustic background

Rows should be about 2.5 feet apart and allow for space to hill the plants. Dig a trench down the middle of your prepared row that is about 4-6 inches deep. Drop the potatoes about one foot apart down the middle of the trench. After you have laid all the potatoes out come back with a shovel, rake or grape hoe and use the tool to pull the sides of the trench down on both sides to cover the potatoes. Tamp down. Potatoes should be about 4 inches deep at this point.

Watering & Ongoing Care

Start by watering the bed lightly. Potatoes will want about 1-2 inches of water per week. Once the green shoots have emerged and are approximately  6-8 inches tall go back with your  tool and pull more soil over the plants. You will be burying some of the green shoots under this soil. Repeat this every couple of weeks as the plants grow. This helps increase yield and keep the potatoes from being exposed to sunlight.

HarvestingThree yellow potatoes with one cut in half on a wooden surface

You can harvest new potatoes 2-3 weeks after the plants have started to flower. The crop is finished and fully mature once the plants have died back and are yellow. Use a pitch fork to loosen the soil around the plant. I generally will dig about one foot out from the plant with my fork and then use my hands to avoid damaging the potatoes. This is the fun part, finding all your lovely potatoes growing in the earth.

Happy Planting!

-Taryn Hunter