Growing Potato

Solanum tuberosum : Solanaceae / the nightshade family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
      P P              

(Best months for growing Potato in Australia - tropical regions)

  • P = Plant seed potatoes
  • 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 (can grow beside): Peas, Beans, Brassicas, Sweetcorn, Broad Beans, Nasturtiums, Marigolds
  • Avoid growing close to: Cucumber, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Rosemary

Your comments and tips

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23 Nov 10, Lucky Phil (Australia - temperate climate)
It would be better to fence them off. We have a hen who likes to dig for worms, so we fenced off our potato patch. The possums will probably eat the leaves, and other wildlife may dig the freshly turned soil for worms. We have possum trouble with one of our roses.
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29 Dec 10, Karl (Australia - temperate climate)
I live in country Northeast Tassie and have sucessfully grown potatos without fencing them off from wildlife such as possums an pademelons. In fact spotlighting at night I have never seen any sign of wildlife amongst my spuds, nor any browsing damage done to the foliage. I have noticed that snakes seem to particularly enjoy slithering amongst the crop.
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25 Jul 10, (Australia - temperate climate)
What is the best way to get seed Sweet Potatos. Is it to buy them from Supermarkets and cut them into pieces which contain an eye. I have tried planting same whole in sand, and then in the ground, they both rotted
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16 Sep 10, Lexxie (Australia - temperate climate)
you grow sweet potato not from the tuber, but from the shoots. The best way, let your sweet potato grow 20cm shoots, cut them, keep them in water until you see roots come out. Plant them! You can grow shoots from one tuber almost indefinitively!
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08 Jul 10, julian (Australia - tropical climate)
Which is the best breed of potato for the hot 'tropical or sub-tropical' area. Help me give them the best chance i can.
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05 Jun 10, chris wilson (Australia - temperate climate)
how dose one keep peeled uncooked spugs in the fridge / can they be keeped ln water/ if so for how long/ do you need to put anything in the water/ thanks chris
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06 Jun 10, (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
You can keep raw, peeled potatoes for about a day if they are covered with water and kept cool.
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22 May 10, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Hi There,you can buy seed potatoes in Townsville a a nursery called the Day Dawn Nursery.50 Kokoda Street. I do not have there phone number not to hard to find though.good luck.
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18 May 10, Fritz (Australia - temperate climate)
i bought a whole potato from woolworths, a sebago potato. i placed the whole thing in soil(i rinsed it} and watered it. does anyone know if it will grow and if not how will i have to grow it?
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21 May 10, tony (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
your potato should grow but if you had of cut the same potato into sections that have an eye in each than you would have got many plants of the one potato a tip keep the soil well heaped around each potato this will give lots of potatoes and stop them from greening
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The handbook-which I provided the location to in my prior reply is not very beginner'ish but it is comprehensive covering issues you may never encounter- but you do need the reference material. I have a few thoughts to add. 1. Hilling up while the plant is growing-if you are covering leaves I find this fundamentally wrong. Leaves are specialized and designed to collect light, they are not roots. So I opt to plant my seed potatoes deep enough on day one- however I tend to have the luxury of very well airated, light soil. This means the seed potato has a steady air supply and can sense the heat from the sun even at deeper depths 2. Your seedpotatoes need all their potassium Immediately. Potatoes strangely take up all their potassium that they need really early. -and don't uptake more. If there is not enough potassium in the very early stages your potatoes might have hollow heart (looks like hollow rotting middles). Late application of potassium tends to be useless 3. Potatoes seem to respond really well to the addition of microryzal fungi - in my area we source that under pine trees in a forest- we just take some forest floor duff with a dust pan and add to the potatoe planting soil. To sum up - your seed Potatoes should be about the size of chicken eggs (if larger cut up ensuring an eye on each piece and allow a few days to heal/scab up before planting). You need to chit them(make them sprout-place in dark so they sprout). Plant in soil with Compost, a sorce of potassium and microryzal fungi. If for some reason you cannot source any compost/pottasium/microryzal fungi -plant anyhow potatoes are tough -there is still a good chance they will be Okay -depends on the condition of you soil. In my area I can water deeply once per week. Harvest when about half the leaves have fallen over as if to die. If you harvest sooner you may be compromising on size-because as long as those leaves can collect light they can store the energy in the tubers. Good luck - it is so much easier than it sounds- and all those diseases in the handbook are rare and if the plants are strong (well fed) they can manage just fine, potaoes are pretty tough root crop. In other words- you can grow potatoe.

- Celeste Archer

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