How to Grow Potato
Potato At a Glance
Difficulty
Easy
Category
Vegetable
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Frost Tolerance
Frost Tender
Cold Hardiness
Survives to 0°C
Plant Family
Solanaceae
Growing Season
Cool Season
Plant Lifecycle
Annual
How to Start It
★ Recommended for beginners
Potatoes grow from seed potatoes: small potatoes, or pieces of one, sold to plant. A couple of weeks before planting, set them in a bright, cool spot so short green sprouts form. Cut big ones into pieces with 1 to 2 sprouts or eyes each and let the cuts dry for a day. Around your last spring frost, plant them 10 cm deep, sprouts up, 30 cm apart.
Buy certified seed potatoes, which are checked to be free of disease. Potatoes from the grocery store may carry disease or be treated so they do not sprout well. They grow well in deep pots and grow bags too, which makes them easy to dig.
When To Start
Potato likes cool weather. Sow it in early spring, as soon as the ground can be worked.
We do not have exact sowing dates for this one yet.
When should you plant Potato?
Your planting dates depend on your local climate. Sign up and add your location to unlock personalized dates.
Your Potato Planting Window
Start planting
May 15, 2026
Last chance
Sep 10, 2026
Your Potato Calendar
Set your location to turn these into exact dates and reminders.
Plant seed potatoes 10 cm deep, sprouts up
Around your last frost
Pile soil or straw around your potato stems
4 weeks after your last frost
See if your potatoes are ready to dig
About 100 days after you plant it
Water your new potato plants well while they settle in. Deep and slow is best.
About 1 days after you plant it
Your potatoes should be up by now! Pile soil around the stems as they grow so the new potatoes stay covered.
About 35 days after you plant it
Your potatoes are getting close! New potatoes are often ready around flowering, so gently feel around in the soil.
About 70 days after you plant it
Picking time may be here: check your potato.
About 100 days after you plant it
The Journey Ahead
Potato's Lifecycle
Seedling
Mature Plant
Seed Production
Step 2
Planting & Sprouting
Growing Tips
- 1Plant potatoes in full sun, at least 6 hours a day.
- 2Give them loose soil with plenty of compost, and do not plant them where tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or potatoes grew last year.
- 3Water deeply once a week, and keep the soil evenly damp while the plants flower, since that is when the potatoes form.
- 4When the plants are about 20 cm tall, pile soil or straw around the stems, leaving the top few leaves showing, and repeat every couple of weeks so the potatoes stay buried.
- 5Look for striped Colorado potato beetles and their clusters of orange eggs under the leaves, and pick them off by hand into a bucket of soapy water.
- 6The leaves, stems and any green potatoes are poisonous to people and pets, so keep potatoes covered with soil and never eat green ones.
Seedling Phase
Step 3
Growth & Maturity
~100
Days to Maturity
60 cm
Mature Height
45 cm
Mature Width
Pests to Watch For
Diseases to Watch For
Mature Plant
Step 4
Harvesting
Harvest Window
21 days
When to Pick
New potatoes ~10 wks after planting, around flowering; maincrop once the tops die back
How to Harvest
- 1For small new potatoes, dig gently around the plants 2 to 3 weeks after they flower.
- 2For potatoes to store, wait until the tops have yellowed and died back, then leave them in the ground for 2 more weeks so the skins toughen.
- 3Dig on a dry day with a garden fork, starting about 30 cm from the stem so you do not stab the potatoes.
- 4Let them dry in a dark, airy spot for 1 to 2 weeks without washing them.
- 5Store them in the dark somewhere cool, dry and airy, since light turns them green.
Step 5
Saving Seeds
How to Save Seeds
Potatoes are grown from tubers, so you save potatoes instead of seed. Pick medium, healthy potatoes about the size of an egg from your strongest plants, and only from plants that showed no spots, curled leaves or rot. Store them in a cool, dark, airy place over winter, separate from the ones you eat. Diseases can build up when you replant your own potatoes year after year, so buy fresh certified seed potatoes every few years.
Seed Production
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