- Tip 10: Quality pays off
- Tip 9: Grant a head start
- Tip 8: The right location
- Tip 7: Plant nowt
- Tip 6: Water regularly
- Tip 5: More is more
- Tip 4: Pile up
- Tip 3: Harvest time
- Tip 2: Potatoes on the balcony?
- Tip 1: Down to the basement
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It's not the dumbest farmer who has the biggest potatoes, but the smartest gardener. With these tips, you too will soon have a rich potato harvest.
Potatoes have been at the top of the list of the most popular vegetables for years. But the tubers are not only welcome on the plate, the potato is also still very popular with gardeners. After all, it not only brings he althy food to the table, but can also be cultivated without any problems. With these ten tips we show you how you too can grow potatoes in your garden.
Tip 10: Quality pays off
Who buys cheap, buys twice - this is probably not the case with any other seed as with the potato, after all the tubers come from a mother plant. If it was already sick or infested with insects, it is almost inevitable that your offspring will also be affected. One affected tuber is often enough to trigger a domino effect: other plants also become infected. In the end, it takes a lot of time and money to save the field from total failure. Instead, you should use certified seeds right from the start. This is controlled and definitely disease-free.
Tip 9: Grant a head start
In order for the little tubers to have a good start in their life in the garden, it helps to let them push forward in the apartment. To do this, place them in a flat box filled with soil and let them sprout in a bright room at around 15 °C. You can start driving as early as March, after about six weeks the tubers can move into the right bed. Advantage of forcing is not only an earlier harvest date. Since the forked potato also grows in cool weather, it is not so badly affected by late blight. As a result, the yield can increase by up to 20% compared to normally planted potatoes.
Tip 8: The right location
Potatoes like it warm, which is why a location with lots of sun is idealis. On the other hand, they are undemanding when it comes to soil conditions. The potato grows in almost any soil, but it does best in sandy and loose loamy soil. When choosing your bed neighbors, however, you should take a closer look. Tomatoes and potatoes should never be next to each other. If you want to have both in the same garden, you should take the wind direction into account, because both plants can be affected by the same species of fungus and infect each other. The potato does not get along well with itself either: at least four years should elapse before potatoes are planted again on the same piece of bed, otherwise pathogens that have overwintered in the soil can destroy the new plants.
Tip 7: Plant nowt
As soon as there are no more night frosts to be expected, the potatoes can finally be planted. A floor temperature of 9 °C should be assumed as a guideline. If it takes too long to wait for the right weather, you can help a little. If you cover the bed in which the potatoes are to be placed with black garden fleece, the heat is stored and the soil reaches its “operating temperature” sooner. The potatoes are then placed about spade-deep in the planting trenches at intervals of 30 to 40 cm. Potatoes look forward to a handful of compost or extra horn meal in their planting hole as support. After about two to three weeks you should see the first green.
Tip 6: Water regularly
Water is important for the potato. Only with sufficient water supply does the plant form many of the small tubers that later end up in our pot. Nevertheless, one should not overdo it with the water. If waterlogged, the potato becomes susceptible to disease and can begin to rot. About once or twice a week, when the soil around the potato has dried thoroughly, you should water the tuber. You should always water the base and use the morning or evening hours. Wet leaves can be susceptible to diseases and, in the worst case, burn in the blazing midday sun.
Tip: Other potato care measures can also help you to achieve a larger harvest.
Tip 5: More is more
With the fertilizer for the potato cancannot be started soon enough. Already in the autumn before planting, the bed should be dug up and then covered with manure or compost. In the spring, the last remnants are incorporated so that the soil has a stable nutrient basis. Potatoes also tolerate fresh fertilizer during growth. Horn shavings and manure, which are thrown directly onto the ground, have proved their worth. Although synthetic fertilizers are considered to be more nutritious, they can distort the taste and are not exactly conducive to he althy soil life. A primarily organic organic fertilizer such as our Plantura organic tomato fertilizer, which is worked into the soil when planting, is very suitable. It takes effect over three months and contains all the nutrients that the potato needs.
Tip 4: Pile up
Mounding up is probably one of the most important care measures for potatoes. The soil between the rows is pulled towards the perennials as soon as they are about 20 cm high. This will be repeated every two to three weeks from now on. Mounding prevents the potatoes from coming out into the open and showing inedible (and poisonous) green spots. Plus, as the soil piles up, the yield increases as the plant begins to produce more daughter tubers. If you combine regular piling up with the removal of weeds, the potato has the ideal conditions to bring a rich harvest.
Tip 3: Harvest time
On average, potatoes take three months to ripen. The right time is easy to recognize when the potato cabbage first turns yellow and then brown and finally withers completely. Now the potatoes can be harvested, preferably on a sunny, dry day. To do this, dig up the plant and detach the potato from the sprouts. If the potatoes are ripe, this should be easy and the skin of the tuber should be abrasion-resistant. If you don't want to harvest all the potatoes at once, you can carefully uncover the roots and only remove the largest tubers. The rest disappears underground again and can be harvested at a later date.
Tip 2: Potatoes on the balcony?
Potatoes are not only suitable for the garden. The plant can also thrive in the tub and the potato harvest is quickly moved to the balcony. About the potatoplanting, all you need is two flower pots. Cut a window into one, then place it in the other. Now the potatoes are planted in the bucket. On the balcony, the potato needs the same care as in the bed, only with the water supply you should pay more attention that there really is no waterlogging. When the potatoes are ripe, they can be easily harvested. To do this, simply pull out the inner flower pot. Through the viewing window you can easily get to the tubers without having to dig up the plant. Detailed instructions with video can be found here.
Tip: For cultivation in pots, it is best to use a nutrient-rich vegetable soil such as our pre-fertilized Plantura organic tomato & vegetable soil without peat.
Tip 1: Down to the basement
The harvest is over, the bellies are full - what to do with all the potatoes that are left over? Potatoes can actually be stored wonderfully. In a dark room, so that they do not form green spots, at 4 to 6 °C, the potatoes will keep throughout the winter. However, rotten or injured tubers should definitely be sorted out before storage. These can infect other potatoes and cause them to rot as well. Even under optimal storage conditions, it can happen that individual potatoes start to rot. These should also be sorted out at an early stage, which is why it is advisable to check the potatoes regularly.
You can find more information on how to store potatoes correctly in this special article.