How To Grow Potatoes

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I’ve been really into our garden this year. Most years, I’ve been planting and hoping for the best. And the best hasn’t been that successful. Like when last year, a neighbor tried to teach me how to grow potatoes.

It didn’t work.

She sprinkled them with plant food, plus a few well wishes, and still no potatoes.

This year, though, I tried on my own and actually successfully grew one early in the season. That’s not a bountiful harvest by any means, but it is enough to understand the method — and to blog it, of course. Since then, we’ve had quite a few more, so don’t feel intimidated. Growing potatoes at home is a lot easier than you think!

How To Grow Potatoes

Step 1:
Buy potatoes and completely forget about them. I’m kidding. Kind of.

To start growing potatoes, you’ll need the eye of a potato. The only way you’ll get an eye is if it grows. And the only way it will grow is if you forget you bought potatoes and leave it alone for a long time. Or, you could just set one aside specifically for this. Whatever fits your lifestyle.

Step 2:
Cut about a 1-inch section out around the eye.

Step 3:
Dig a hole, at least two inches deep, in your dirt. I found a lot more success with potatoes in a container than I did planting them in the ground.

Step 4:
Put the potato in the hole, with the eye facing down, and cover the “flesh” completely with dirt.

Step 5:
Water them a lot. Potatoes really like to be hydrated, so be sure to give them water daily or put them in a container where they can drink themselves.

Step 6:
The potatoes will eventually start to sprout leaves from the top. Once they get tall enough, add more soil to your container. You want that to act as a support for the plant and to bury the potatoes down further.

The plant will keep growing and eventually can collapse under the weight of itself. So pick up a tomato twist (yes, tomato with a t, that’s not a typo) and wrap the plant around it. It’ll start growing up there and your plant will stay sturdier. 

Step 7:
The plants will flower, and then die. That’s beautiful and sad. After this, and when the plant itself has started to die, your potatoes are ready for harvest. Dig down as deep as possible and harvest out all the potatoes buried below.

Need more gardening tips?

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