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Growing Potato

(Solanum tuberosum)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
      P P              

(Best months for planting Potato in USA - Zone 5a regions)

P = Plant direct in garden where they are to grow.


  • Plant tuber. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 86°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 12 - 16 inches apart
  • Harvest in 15-20 weeks. Dig carefully, avoid damaging the potatoes.
  • Compatible with: Peas, Beans, Brassicas, Sweetcorn, Broad Beans, Nasturtiums, Marigolds
  • Avoid growing with: Cucumber, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Rosemary
  • An 'earthed-up' row
  • Potato flowers

Your comments and tips

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17 Sep 08, Kim Flood (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Do I need to purchase special potato tubers or can I use supermarket potatoes that have developed eyes. What are the ricks with planting old supermarket potatoes (if any).
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21 Sep 08, Mark (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Place 4 sheets wet newspaper on the ground,add one car tyre. Into the tyre place a good handful manure and water well. Cut up your eye potato into pieces (each with an eye) and dry for a few hours. Place pieces directly onto the wet manure and fill tyre with compost or soil. Cover with sugar cane mulch and stand back!!! Plant dwarf bean seeds under the mulch = 2 crops in one, very quickly.
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21 Sep 08, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Kim, in some parts of the country it's illegal to plant potatoes which aren't certified seed, so you might want to check for your region. I've grown ex-supermarket potatoes (especially more 'unusual' varieties, like kippfler) just by covering them with piles of wilted weeds and topping up the cover as the shoots come through, or the car tyre method like Mark describes.
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28 Sep 08, Grahame (Australia - temperate climate)
Mark and Kim, A word of warning on using old car tyres, while it is a great recycling idea there is a fair bit of evidence around to suggest that they leach cadmium, which you don't really want to be digesting. Also I think that cadmium can become quite concentrated in potatoes, so it's kind of a double whammy. If you are using the mounding technique with straw and compost it should be enough to make a wire mesh border to hold everything in and then you can just dismantle it and use it next year.
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29 Sep 08, sammy (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I am currently obsessed with potatoes and cannot believe there is a potato forum thingy! So excited. The two varieties I am most interested in are Nicola and Dutch Cream. I'd love to know when the best time to plant these in Melbourne are, and the best way to grow them organically. Also, with regards to buying them and their appearance, what is the best way to tell them apart? I think it is that Dutch creams are smaller, rounder and redder? Is that right? Finally, I'm doing a bit of a gnocchi test and trying to figure out the best ones for gnocchi - any thoughts?
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31 Oct 12, Dallas (Australia - temperate climate)
sammy when your potatoes have reached a few inches high get a garden how and pull the soil up either of the plants sides that will give the plant the soil to grow in.I would have worked horse or cow manure into the soil before planting the normal guide to plant potatoes is the first week of Aug' that will give you spuds just before Xmas and plant again 1st week of march.It's best not to plant 2 crops in the same soil
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30 Sep 08, Jaci (Australia - temperate climate)
Don't know about the perfect gnocchi potato but I made some recently using Red Desirees. They were perfect. Just make sure that with the cooking time - lift gnocchi out of water after they float to surface (only 2-3 minutes) or they'll lose their soft delicate texture.
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03 Oct 08, Brook (Australia - temperate climate)
Dutch creams are great gnocchi potatoes!
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11 Oct 08, Marion (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
I live in the Hinterland of the Gold Coast and have just harvested my first-ever potatoes! I am so excited. I have never grown veges before. I have had a bumper crop planted about two weeks before the solstice in July.
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15 Oct 08, Marg (Australia - tropical climate)
What is the best to spray on potatoe fungie or blight........I beleive that it comes on the wind and hard to prevent. My pots always seem to get it to some degree......I have been spraying Copper Fungicide powder that you spray for fungies and mangoe trees.
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What is the best to spray on potatoe fungie or blight........I beleive that it comes on the wind and hard to prevent. My pots always seem to get it to some degree......I have been spraying Copper Fungicide powder that you spray for fungies and mangoe trees.

- Marg


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