How to Grow a Seed Potato

Potatoes are a root vegetable that produce new plants from the potato itself. They require minimal maintenance and produce "new potatoes" in about eight weeks after the first blooms appear. Seed potatoes are best when unblemished and healthy in order to produce a bountiful, disease-free crop. Potatoes should be planted in a sandy loam soil with a pH between 5.5 to 6.0. Well-drained soil with a consistent moisture supply produce a quality tuber.

Seed potatoes
Knife
Shovel
Rake
Hoe

Instructions

- 1
  Plant seed potatoes whole or cut into pieces. Cut pieces need at least one eye in order to produce a new plant. The more eyes on a seed potato planted equals a larger quantity, though smaller sized potatoes, while fewer eyes will produce a crop of larger potatoes.
- 2
  Allow cut pieces of potato to callous for a couple of days before planting. This keeps a soil-borne disease from infecting the planted potatoes.
- 3
  Prepare rows for planting. Rows prepared 3-feet apart allow room for hilling, the process of mounding soil onto the growing potatoes. Seed potatoes need about 12-inches of space between each other.
- 4
  Place the potatoes, both whole or cut, along the rows about 3-inches deep, spaced 1-foot apart. Cover the potatoes with soil and lightly rake over to even out the dirt.
- 5
  Mound dirt up on each side of the potatoes once the plants have reached a height of 1-foot. Hilling, as it is called, helps keep the potatoes underground and away from the surface light that can turn them green. Use a garden hoe to drag and pat the dirt along the rows.

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