How to Garden Fingerling Potato Sets

Till the potato bed with a hoe, breaking up the top 6 inches of soil. Dig a 4-inch furrow with a spade for each row of potatoes, spacing the furrows 28 inches apart.

Sprinkle fertilizer on top the soil along the rows, placing the fertilizer in the row space between furrows. Use 3 lbs. of 8-16-16 fertilizer per every 100 square feet of fingerling bed. Work the fertilizer into the top 6 inches of soil.

Sow the fingerling seed pieces in the prepared furrows. Fingerling seed doesn't require cutting apart before planting since the seed pieces are small. Space the seed pieces 12 inches apart then fill in the furrow with soil.

Water the potato bed one to two times a week, supplying about an inch of water each time. Keep the soil moist but avoid standing water or soggy soil, which causes the fingerling tubers to rot.

Hill the potatoes once the plants reach 6 inches tall. Pull up soil from between the rows over the plant stems, leaving on the top leaves exposed above the soil. Continue hilling the plants as they grow until the hills are approximately 6 inches tall.

Harvest fingerling potatoes 14 days after the plants begin yellowing and dying back. Loosen the soil on either side of each row with a spading fork, and then dig the small potatoes out of the loosened soil by hand. Avoid digging in the row, since the fingerling potato's thin skin is easily damaged.