Garden 
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The short answer: to grow potatoes, plant seed potato pieces (each with 1 to 2 eyes) about 4 inches deep and 12 inches apart in loose, slightly acidic soil, 2 to 4 weeks before your last spring frost once soil reaches 45°F. As the shoots grow, mound soil over the stems repeatedly — this is called hilling — to keep tubers covered and prevent greening. Water steadily during flowering, then harvest new potatoes at 7 to 8 weeks or storage potatoes once the tops die back at 90 to 120 days.
Potatoes are one of the highest-return crops you can grow: a pound of seed potatoes routinely returns 8 to 10 pounds. Most failures come from just three mistakes — planting into cold wet soil, skipping the hilling, or letting the bed dry out while tubers are bulking. Get those right and the rest is straightforward.
Start with certified seed potatoes and chit them
Buy certified seed potatoes, not grocery-store tubers. Certification means they have been inspected for the diseases that ruin a crop — late blight, scab, and ring rot — and they have not been sprayed with the sprout inhibitor that keeps supermarket potatoes dormant. A pound of seed potatoes plants roughly a 5 to 8 foot row.
Chitting (pre-sprouting) gives you a 2 to 3 week head start, which matters most in short-season northern zones. Two to four weeks before planting, stand the seed potatoes eye-end up in an egg carton or open tray in a cool, bright spot around 50 to 60°F. You want short, stubby green-purple sprouts about 1/2 to 1 inch long — not the long white spindly shoots that form in a dark cupboard. Early varieties benefit most; maincrop potatoes are more forgiving if you skip it.
Two days before planting, cut larger seed potatoes into chunks roughly the size of an egg, each with at least one or two eyes. Let the cut faces dry and callus for 1 to 2 days in a dry spot — this cork layer resists rot in cold soil. Seed potatoes smaller than a hen's egg go in whole.
When and where to plant
Potatoes like cool growing conditions and set tubers best when soil is 60 to 70°F. Plant 2 to 4 weeks before your last spring frost, once soil has warmed to at least 45°F and is workable, not soggy. Emerging shoots tolerate light frost, and if a hard freeze threatens after they are up, mound soil or straw over them overnight.
| USDA zone | Typical planting window | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3–4 | Late April to late May | Chit first; short season favors early varieties |
| 5–6 | Late March to April | The classic "plant on St. Patrick's Day" advice fits here |
| 7–8 | February to March | Aim to bulk tubers before summer heat |
| 9–10 | January to February (and a fall crop) | Grow in the cool season; summer soil is too hot |
Choose a spot with at least 6 hours of full sun and loose, well-drained soil. Potatoes prefer slightly acidic soil, pH 5.0 to 6.0; that acidity also suppresses scab. Do not lime a potato bed, and avoid planting where tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant grew last year, since they share soilborne diseases. Never plant into fresh manure, which encourages scab.
Planting depth and spacing
Dig a trench about 6 inches deep and place seed pieces cut-side down, sprouts up, 12 inches apart, with rows 30 to 36 inches apart. Cover with about 4 inches of soil, leaving the trench partly open — you will fill it in and mound higher as the plants grow. Wider spacing produces fewer but larger potatoes; tighter spacing (10 inches) gives more, smaller tubers, useful if you want new potatoes.
Sprouts emerge in 2 to 4 weeks depending on soil temperature. Do not water heavily right after planting into cold soil — seed pieces sitting wet and cold are the most common cause of rot before emergence.
Hilling — the step most people underdo
Hilling is the single most important ongoing task. New tubers form on underground stems above the seed piece, and any tuber that reaches sunlight turns green and inedible. Mounding soil keeps them buried and gives the plant more stem to set tubers along, which directly raises yield.
- First hill when shoots are 6 to 8 inches tall: pull soil up around the stems, leaving the top 3 to 4 inches of leaves exposed.
- Hill again every 2 to 3 weeks, adding 3 to 4 inches each time, until the mound is 8 to 12 inches high or the plants close over and shade the row.
- Use loose material — soil, aged compost, or straw. Straw hilling is popular in raised beds because harvest is as easy as pulling it back.
If you garden in containers or grow bags, the same principle applies: start with 4 to 6 inches of mix, then add more as the plant grows until the bag is nearly full. A quality mulch also helps hold moisture and keep the root zone cool — see our picks for the best mulch for a vegetable garden.
Watering and feeding
Potatoes need 1 to 2 inches of water per week, and the critical window is from when they flower until the foliage begins to die back — this is when tubers are bulking, and inconsistent water now causes knobby, hollow, or cracked potatoes. Water deeply and evenly; do not let the bed swing between bone-dry and saturated. Once the tops start yellowing, stop watering to let the skins firm up.
Potatoes are moderate feeders that want more potassium and phosphorus than nitrogen. Too much nitrogen produces lush tops and few tubers. Work a balanced or slightly low-nitrogen fertilizer in at planting, and side-dress lightly at first hilling. For fertilizer options that suit root crops, our best vegetable garden fertilizer roundup covers the field. Consistent watering is worth reviewing alongside how often to water a vegetable garden.
Common pests and problems
| Problem | Sign | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado potato beetle | Yellow-orange striped beetles and fat red larvae stripping leaves | Hand-pick daily, crush the orange egg clusters under leaves; row cover early |
| Late blight | Dark water-soaked leaf spots, white mold underneath in humid weather | Remove infected plants; never compost them; choose resistant varieties |
| Scab | Rough corky patches on tuber skin | Keep pH below 5.5, keep soil evenly moist, avoid fresh manure |
| Green tubers | Green flesh under the skin | Hill deeper; cut green portions away as they contain solanine |
| Hollow heart | Cavity in the center of large tubers | Water evenly; avoid over-fertilizing that forces rapid growth |
Rotate potatoes to a new bed each year on a 3-year cycle to break disease and pest cycles, and never leave volunteer potatoes from last season in the bed, as they harbor problems.
Harvesting and curing
You get two harvests from one crop. New potatoes — small, thin-skinned, and best eaten fresh — are ready about 7 to 8 weeks after planting, once the plants flower. Reach into the hill and pull a few by hand, leaving the rest to keep growing.
Storage potatoes are ready when the foliage yellows and dies back on its own, typically 90 to 120 days after planting. Leave the tubers in the ground for another 2 weeks after the tops die to let the skins toughen, which is what makes them store. Choose a dry day, loosen the soil with a fork well away from the plant to avoid spearing tubers, and lift by hand.
Do not wash storage potatoes. Brush off loose soil and cure them for 10 to 14 days in a dark, humid spot at 45 to 60°F to heal minor nicks, then store in the dark at 40 to 45°F. Set aside any speared, bruised, or green ones to eat first, since they will not keep.
Choosing a variety
Match the variety to your season length and how you plan to eat them:
- Early (60–80 days): Yukon Gold, Red Norland, Caribe — fast, ideal for short seasons and new potatoes.
- Maincrop (90–120 days): Kennebec, Russet Burbank, German Butterball — higher yields and the best keepers for winter storage.
- Waxy vs floury: waxy reds and fingerlings hold shape for boiling and salads; floury russets are best for baking and fries.
Fingerlings and colorful heirlooms like Purple Majesty grow the same way and are worth the space for flavor. Whatever you choose, buy certified seed and rotate the bed each year.
Growing potatoes in containers and bags
No garden bed? Potatoes grow well in containers, and it is the easiest way to avoid the scab, rot, and pest problems of tired soil. Use a 10 gallon or larger fabric grow bag, a trash can with drainage holes drilled in the bottom, or a purpose-made potato bag. Fabric bags are the favorite because they drain freely and you can roll the sides down for planting, then up as you hill.
- Start with 4 to 6 inches of potting mix mixed with compost, and place 2 or 3 seed pieces on top.
- Cover with 3 inches of mix and water in.
- Hill by adding mix as the shoots grow, burying the lower stems each time until the container is nearly full.
- Water often — containers dry out fast, and potatoes bulking in a bag need consistent moisture more than in the ground.
Harvest is the best part: at the end of the season, tip the whole bag onto a tarp and sort the tubers out by hand, no digging or spearing. Expect a smaller yield per plant than in-ground, but a clean, easy crop from a patio or balcony. Early and second-early varieties suit containers best because they finish before the confined roots run out of steam.
The mistakes that cost you a crop
| Mistake | Result | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Planting into cold, wet soil | Seed pieces rot before sprouting | Wait for 45°F soil; let cut faces callus first |
| Skipping or underdoing hilling | Green, inedible tubers; low yield | Hill every 2–3 weeks to 8–12 in high |
| Letting the bed dry during bulking | Knobby, hollow, cracked potatoes | 1–2 in water/week from flowering on |
| Too much nitrogen | Lush tops, few tubers | Use a low-nitrogen feed |
| Replanting the same bed yearly | Scab and disease build up | Rotate on a 3-year cycle |
Once your potatoes are established, the same cool-season, steady-water logic carries over to the rest of the garden. For more staples, see how to grow green beans and how to grow squash, and browse the full seeds and vegetable growing hub. Every product we point to is chosen the same way — from owner-review consensus, never first-hand testing, as we explain in how we rank.