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Growing Potato
Potatoes are staple and versatile vegetable, full of nutrition, and so easy to grow!
First choose seed potatoes that suit your taste and culinary uses (mash, roast, salad, etc) – check out our guide at https://www.wairere.nz/Potato-Types-and-Use
If you want new seasons’
potato from garden to table at Christmas, plant late August or early September;
you can continue to plant seed potato until December, and a later crop in
February to March.
Preparing the site
Potatoes can be grown in bags, sacks, buckets, and a range of containers, or in garden beds. Wherever you grow your potatoes they aren’t super fussy about the soil, the addition of fertilizer will improve yields - good drainage and a weed free area are essential.
If growing in containers, don’t leave them out in the hot summer sun, place in a shaded area where they get good airflow and light, and keep well-watered.
Prepare the garden beds in advance, loosen up the soil and mix in well-rotted compost, animal manure, or Potato Fertiliser (following manufacturer’s instructions). An alternative to garden beds is to grow directly into beds of straw.
Planting
Rotate your potato crops - plant
in a different area in the garden each year.
The edible potato tubers grow underground – to gain higher yields and protect the growing potatoes from greening and insect damage, the process of “hilling” or “mounding” up is recommended.
Form rows about 15cm deep and 60cm apart place sprouted seed potatoes about 25cm apart, sprouts up, and cover carefully with a soil. Water lightly
When the Potato sprouts grow and the leaves above the ground get to around 10cm commence the mounding process – add soil to containers, or in the garden beds mound the soil up around the plants. Water lightly. Continue to mound the potato plants until the mounds are around 20cm tall and the tops are about 30cm tall.
Harvesting
Flowers will appear on the foliage in about 3 to 4 months after planting. Once the flowers are fully open or the foliage begins to wither and die off, it’s time to harvest your crop.
Containers are carefully tipped over or opened so the soil falls away from the newly grown potatoes and from the garden beds, dig the potatoes with a garden fork and use your hands to pick them – damaged potatoes do not store well.
Store potatoes in a brown
paper bag in a cool dark place to retain their freshness and taste.
Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1,
Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: enquiries@wairere.co.nz
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Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: