I asked my daughter what she wants to grow in her garden bed this year. She said fifteen potato plants.
Well, glad I’ve got those true seeds!
I showed her the video with Julia and Joseph about growing potatoes from true seeds, and now she’s all jazzed about finding out what we’ll get.
I’ve never grown potatoes before, not even from tubers. What should I expect? How far apart should I plant them, what sort of germination rate should I expect, when should I plant them, at what point should I thin the weak ones out, etc.?
Also, would they prefer full sun or partial shade in a very hot, dry summer climate? My daughter also wants to grow a banana plant in her garden bed (laugh), so it would be helpful to know if I should put it on the south or north side of her potatoes.
– I’ve never grown potatoes before, not even from tubers. What should I expect? –
I’d suggest reading over the Cultivariable page.
– How far apart should I plant them –
I’m going to plant mine about a foot apart. They can have long stolons (the roots that grow the tubers) so the potatoes can be over under neighboring plants if so, but a foot seems to be the general recommendation. If you are growing them with minimal watering you may want wider spacing. It’s ideal if you can hill them up a couple times early in the season then let the plants sprawl and cover the ground to shade it out and really helps keep weeds down.
– what sort of germination rate should I expect –
Where did you get the seed? Germination rates vary alot. The seed has dormancy just like the tubers. So mostly they germinate better after a year. And they don’t sprout all together, you’ll have some at 10 days and then one here and there for up to a couple months. Most people seem to give them a deadline of two or three weeks, trying to cull out the delaying ones.
– when should I plant them, at what point should I thin the weak ones out –
6-8 weeks before last frost. No earlier. Started too early and the young plant usually gets stressed and will make tiny micro tubers and die back. Even if you plant it out it’ll die back because tuberisation has happened. If you use Facebook get in the Kenosha potato project group. Very helpful.
You can seed many in each cell or seed alot in a small pot. The sprouts are teeny tiny! It takes a full month or so for them to get their 2nd set of true leaves. At this point you can break up the seedlings and pot them up to individual cells and decide what to keep.
Bury them like tomatoes, leave only the top set of leaves showing. They root all the way up. Only the early developing sets of roots will have some that will be stolons for growing tubers on so this also is to encourage them to have more stolons and be capable of growing more tubers.
Very suggested if you can get the cells that are 1x1 inch or bigger to up pot the seedlings in. Gives them more space and they will be less likely to tuberise early.
They don’t like to be wet. They’ll mold easier than most veg seedlings. Moisten soil but don’t keep them wet or cover with plastic or a dome.
When deciding on seedlings keep ones with good roots. Thicker stems seems to correlate with productivity. Short compact plant with good roots is good. Tall stemmy plant like a tomato is not what you want.
Seedlings with blue (anthocyanin) have the blue gene(s) and are more likely to have blue skin and/or tubers.
– Also, would they prefer full sun or partial shade in a very hot, dry summer climate? –
From what I can tell so far they prefer full sun. But they also don’t like high heat. So from my reading I’m thinking they’ll appreciate some dappled shade during the hottest time of day in summer. I haven’t seen anything on what is the optimal temperature range for potato growing yet.
I really suspect potatoes from seed will have much more resilience to dealing with them than seed potatoes from commercially developed varieties.
Oh, duh, I should’ve thought to look up Cultivariable’s advice on growing potatoes! Thank you.
I got the potato seed from one of the Going to Seed packets! So you guys who sent in potato seeds, what kind of germination rate do you get?
Wow, 6-8 weeks before the last frost! That’s earlier than I expected! I’m very glad I asked.
This is all very helpful advice, Kadence. Thank you!
Would it be possible for me to direct seed them? I can try transplants, but all the space under my grow light is currently taken up with banana seeds, so if I can direct seed, it would be nice.
@KadenceLunemann I see you are in Ohio, so I expect your climate is very similar to mine here in Indiana. I think you are right in the idea that they need some protection from the intense heat and dry periods we get now days. I used to grow lots of potatoes but have largely phased them out because of the changed climate. When I grew from TPS I found them easy to sprout and transplant and they also did well direct seeded. In the end, they produced almost nothing before drying out in the heat.
I miss growing potatoes and what to try again when my space and time frees up from some other projects. I’m going to use a lot of mulch and figure a way to shade them from the mid-day sun.
Dappled shade sounds ideal, since my daughter’s garden bed has a lot of partial shade and only a little full sun. Cool! She can put the potatoes in partial shade and the banana plant in full sun!
I got the potato mix from going to seed as well. Not doing them this year bc I have quite a bit to work with.
Everything so far says tps direct seeded will be extremely difficult. They are so tiny and slow to get going and they can’t handle much competition.
That said I’m going to try winter sowing some. And I’d like to try direct seeding in the future. Bc I have seen people in the groups say they have had volunteers. However they grow alot of potatoes and don’t know if it’s a missed tuber or micro tuber or a seed.
I will have a better idea after growing tps this year but my initial thoughts are to dedicate a bed to direct seeded tps. Plant it with oats, which are a common nurse crop at scale, at a wide row spacing with tps between.
Thanks. Ya I’ve been curious since I’ve seen you post that you didn’t have any luck with them. I think you may get more rain than me. We’ll see. Luckily I have lots of space to trial lots of things. I’d definitely be happy to send you some tubers to try when I find some that do good here. I know you’re sweet potato posts keep making me want to try to squeeze one in somewhere just to try too lol.
Oh, I know. I love sweet potatoes, I bet they’ll do great in my climate, and I love the idea of being able to consistently grow them from seed. I’d much rather be growing those than potatoes!
But I get to decide what goes in my garden beds (sweet potatoes will definitely be in them this year), and my kids get to decide what goes in their garden beds. My role is simply to facilitate and help them succeed.
They are so tiny and slow to get going and they can’t handle much competition.
They’re gonna hate our bindweed.
Okay, sounds like I should probably start a bunch as transplants, and also try some direct-seeded, just in case the latter succeeds. Do you think winter sowing some true potato seeds under an unheated portable greenhouse would work?
I’d imagine they’ll be better off than ones seeded not under a greenhouse… lol This is going to be my first year with them so this is all “reading knowing” so far not “experience knowing”. So we’ll have to find out. I don’t think people are doing enough of it to find out. Or if there is someone they aren’t talking about it.
Yeah, that makes sense. I know exactly what you mean about book knowledge versus experience. It’s really easy to think you know what you’re doing until you actually start trying it, and then you’ll be like, “Whoa, I never even thought about this detail!”
Especially when there are highly subjective and localized factors at play, like which flavors you consider good, or what kind of climate you have.
I agree with more tubers at least for her-- like mostly tubers! Because your summer sounds HOT and TPS might just struggle and then have zero tubers and she won’t want to try that again What would be cool is if I send you a bag of an assortment of cool looking microtubers of all colors and shapes. Then you get the best of all the worlds. When is your last frost date?
Ooh! That’s an awesome idea, Julia! Thank you! My daughter would be totally stoked. She’s excited about the idea of a bunch of interesting colors and shapes.
My average last frost date is April 15. Last year, the actual last frost was May 15, to my annoyance . . . but the three frosts in between April 10 and May 15 were all super light. If that happens again, I’m guessing anything that’s supposed to be planted well before the last frost date won’t notice.
