Nothing tastes better than your own home grown potatoes. Every kilo of seed potato produces approximately 10 kilos of eating potato and they are so easy to grow!

Position

Select a sunny, well-drained position. If you have heavy soil or swampy soil, consider making a raised bed. Planting them in a different spot each year will help prevent diseases. Mix in as much compost (such as Green Life Soil Co Vegetable Concentrate) and well-rotted manure (Piggypost is fantastic!) as you can – they love it!

Planting

Turn the ground over thoroughly and create furrows that are 20cm deep and 40cm apart. Sprinkle an organic blood and bone based fertiliser such as Kickalong Organic in the base of the furrows. The garden bed is now ready for your seed potatoes.

Plant your seed potatoes about 20cm apart and cover with 10cm of soil. Make sure they aren’t in direct contact with the fertiliser. Once your potato plants are about 15cm tall, mound some soil around the stem of the plant. Do not bury too much of the plant at any one time as this will inhibit the growth. The larger the mound of dirt you end up with (i.e. the taller your plants) the more potatoes will be able to grow. Lupin Mulch, Triple C Mulch and straw are also fantastic to use to mound up in between each layer of soil. After several months of growth, you should have potato mounds that are about 30cm high.

As the potatoes grow, fertilize them regularly with Kickalong Organic Fertiliser. To achieve even better yields and to help keep your potato plants disease and pest free, regularly apply Seasol.

Keep plants moist while growing but avoid over watering. You will need to water a little more heavily when the plants begin to flower.

Limited space in the garden? You can also grow potatoes in large grow bags, tubs and even chicken wire cages – try experimenting and seeing what works best for you!

Harvest

You can harvest potatoes about 3 months after the plant appears. If you want baby potatoes, you can harvest earlier by digging around the base of the plant to see if they are ready. If you want a higher yield, wait until the plant has died down to the ground.

Using a garden fork, insert it into the base of the mound and lift upwards, bringing the potatoes to the surface. Once the plants are dead and all potatoes have been harvested, store the potatoes in a dark cool spot. They keep better if you don’t wash the dirt off.

NOTE: Make sure your potatoes are covered at all times during the growing process. Any exposure to sunlight can turn them green. Green potatoes are toxic so make sure you throw them out when you are harvesting.

The only thing left to do is to decide how to cook them and then enjoy…

Why not try growing your own potatoes? Shop Seed Potatoes

This is intended as general information only. Please ask one of our horticulturists for specific advice for your situation.