Potato Patch Size

Good Morning,

I have experimented with growing potato plants the last two years to figure out what works best for me. I have tried the grow bags as well as growing them in a raised bed system. I have found that putting them in the raised beds have better yields for myself.

Now the million dollar question...

How big is your potato patch?

I've read quite a few conflicting size estimates for how much space to plant spuds, and I'm thinking of creating that space this upcoming spring. How much garden space do you dedicate to potatoes? How much do you consume for the year that is self-grown? Is there really such a thing as too many spuds? Let me know how much garden space you dedicate to potatoes and perhaps what method you use?

Let me know your thoughts.

I'm thinking this year I'm going to fill buckets and containers, nothing worse than digging up small taters. All work, no payday, just dumping out a container would offset that disappointment a little.

I plant three 4x8 raised beds. The beds are 2’ deep with lots of straw.  I am starting to plant 2 crops a year in the same bed. The second is harvested in November, and I hope it will take me through the winter. I rotate the beds from year to year.   I try to run a 3 year rotation.

I don't know how much space I give them, in part because they're mixed up with other plants. I've only grown them three years, but what's looking best for me is to lay them on the loosened ground, cover them in compost, and cover that in six(ish) inches of spoiled hay. They do also love growing in the Mel's Mix in my wife's "square foot" gardens.

I have ten gallons of them in the cellar this year. Last year I had more. And there are a lot still out in the frozen ground that'll come up on their own in June.

John F Dean wrote: I am starting to plant 2 crops a year in the same bed. The second is harvested in November, and I hope it will take me through the winter. I rotate the beds from year to year.   I try to run a 3 year rotation.

What zone are you in and when do you plant and harvest the first crop?  I will never have enough potatoes.

Zone is a huge question. I would appear I am now in zone 7 sitting very close to zone 6. I am on a hill with a large pond near the garden. The first crop gets planted in March and harvested in July.   I am just supplying food for my wife and I.

I might try for 2 here in 6a this year

Around here, during harvest season, I can buy potatoes for 20 cents per pound. It requires tons of effort to dig them from my hard silty soil, therefore, I don't plant potatoes.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Around here, during harvest season, I can buy potatoes for 20 cents per pound. It requires tons of effort to dig them from my hard silty soil, therefore, I don't plant potatoes.

This is where I might be heading if I don't start seeing results.  

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Around here, during harvest season, I can buy potatoes for 20 cents per pound. It requires tons of effort to dig them from my hard silty soil, therefore, I don't plant potatoes.

Seconded on potentially exploring this route. We have a large potato farm that is about a 20 minute ride from where I am. If the price is right, I can dedicate the potential potato patch to other growies. Maybe after I get my system down of growing in case I want to do them again in the future or a variety I can't get my hands on easily.

By growing your own potatoes, you can insure their purity and cleanliness.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Around here, during harvest season, I can buy potatoes for 20 cents per pound. It requires tons of effort to dig them from my hard silty soil, therefore, I don't plant potatoes.

I am wondering what's the ratio of yield to seed when growing potatoes for other people.  Seed potatoes are expensive from $3 to $5 per pound. Given a ratio of 10:1 , it still can't beat what's sold bulk in the store. I grow new potatoes and the ratio is lower at 5-7:1. Mine are harvested early in June with great flavor so I keep on growing some.

The last time I grew potatoes (in Oregon's high desert), I weighed my harvest.  I had planted ten or twelve different kinds to see which we liked best, and which did best in that location; there were a couple that didn't do anything at all.  But of the others, I got a thirty pounds yield for every pound planted from the fingerlings (three kinds), and a ten pounds yield for every pound planted from the regular types, except Yukon Gold, which grew but didn't yield nearly as well.  (I see there are improved similar varieties with better yields available now, like Yukon Gem.)  Other people have given me similar figures even when they were growing in different climates.  

And if you buy new seed potatoes every year, yes, that's going to be mighty expensive spuds!  The idea is to get seed potatoes of the kinds you want, and keep part of your harvest set aside to plant the following year, and every year afterwards.  So they are an investment.  I've just ordered seed potatoes for 2024, the first time in a long time that I will be planting potatoes (we've been trying to eat very low-carb); other than trialing different varieties, these should keep us and our extended family in potatoes for a long time.

I dont eat alot of potatoes,i do like to have them on hand when needed and im going to play in the garden anyway so i dedicate some space for them,usually only 50 to 75 feet of row space,usually shallow planted and topped with a few inches of compost.I have been saving my own to replant each year and it seems to work well.If i dont get as many as last year im ok with it,ill just adjust how many i eat so to save what i need to replant again,i can buy some from the store to eat if needed. Last year i did grow some in containers in my hoophouse with a little wood stove supplied heat to keep them from freezing.
I was thinking to plant more this year because i found my chickens love the green tops,i may try to grow them as a second crop for fall munching for the chicks and if they make potatoes for me it would be a bonus to use the green tops as fodder.

Potatoes are fun to grow,even if you dont have huge potatoes,its like finding buried treasure every time you dig one up,you never know when your going to find the biggest potato.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Around here, during harvest season, I can buy potatoes for 20 cents per pound. It requires tons of effort to dig them from my hard silty soil, therefore, I don't plant potatoes.

That makes good sense. Here in the Central Sands of Wisconsin, it is a big potato growing area, and they are relatively cheap and available year round. Also, it is only hubby and me. I do grow some but we don't eat them very fast and we don't have a big storage facility, so I stopped planting potatoes too.
I think I'm going to plant them in a half barrel, mixed determinate and indeterminate, just to see how many I can grow like this.
I will be doing the same thing for sunchokes and sweet potatoes.
The advantage of being able to flip the barrel and get the potatoes in my sandy soil will work really well to pick them without much effort, I think. Sunchokes would run to Timbuktu and are terribly invasive in sandy soil, so they MUST be contained.

Does anyone else combat gophers? My sweet potato harvest didnt happen because a family of gophers got them first. Same for sunchokes. Now I am planting in plastic baskets that I placed in the ground. My one good working cat has more than he can handle.

Nancy

nancy harborth wrote:Does anyone else combat gophers? My sweet potato harvest didnt happen because a family of gophers got them first. Same for sunchokes. Now I am planting in plastic baskets that I placed in the ground. My one good working cat has more than he can handle.

Nancy

You may find that wire baskets are needed, or grow stuff above ground in containers.  I suspect gophers can chew through the plastic baskets.

We have moles, but I haven't seen any sign of gophers, but in addition to an outside cat, we also have a Rat Terrier, a big Anatolian Shepherd, and (next door, but often in our yard) my brother's Schipperke.  Between them, we don't have too many pest-critter problems.

For the last 2 years I planted 5 30ft beds of potatoes. Each bed is 30 inches wide and they were planted about 1 ft apart with 2 staggered rows in each bed.

Last year we harvested over 300lbs
This year about 150lbs as a grasshopper plague set the plants back majorly.

nancy harborth wrote:Does anyone else combat gophers? My sweet potato harvest didnt happen because a family of gophers got them first. Same for sunchokes. Now I am planting in plastic baskets that I placed in the ground. My one good working cat has more than he can handle.
Nancy

Indeed, high raised beds or any way you can raise the edge of the bed, or have a smooth surface they can't climb [Like a plastic 1/2 barrel with a lot of small drainage holes on the vertical sides but close to the bottom] will make it hard for gophers and voles: they feel vulnerable when they have to step out where they can be seen.
The idea of having drainage holes like 2-3" from the bottom is that the bottom 2-3" will stay moist and that moisture will "wick up", so you don't have to water quite so much.
It will also prevent sunchokes from getting 'lost' all over the garden and colonize it. Potatoes are another crop that can be done in barrels
This said, I wish I had a cat like yours!

nancy harborth wrote:Does anyone else combat gophers? My sweet potato harvest didnt happen because a family of gophers got them first. Same for sunchokes. Now I am planting in plastic baskets that I placed in the ground. My one good working cat has more than he can handle.

Nancy

My grandfather developed a simple windmill, no more than 12"/30cm in diameter, and in the hub placed a metal can with a few small ball bearings. As the windmill turned, the ball bearings bounced around in the can, sending vibrations down the metal t-post, into the ground, and doing a fair job of keeping gophers out of the green beans.

The one picture I have is suboptimal, visiting family in the coming weeks so I'll look for more.

Clay, I like your idea but how do you attach a can with ball bearings?
I've found a "mole chasing windmill" and although they have some positive reviews, I looked [I always look} for flaws by reading the poorest reviews. I found that those are best at giving a hint of ways to improve on the [pricey] model.
The quality of Lehman's is usually top notch. Some of the complaints were: "It takes a stiff breeze to get them to move and I oiled the thing".. "You have to pound the attaching pole 5' into the ground". "My soil is clay so the vibrations do not go far".
Everyone agrees that vibrations in the soil scare them. The trick, it seems, is to cause the vibrations to be widespread so you don't have to buy too many devices [which are pricey]
Instead, I was thinking of getting this one. I had a tiny one that worked for a while but driving on the lawn...
It is not cheap, but if it works as described [covers 3,500 square feet] that might be a better solution?
https://bird-x.com/animal-rodent-products/electronic-repellers/transonic-mole/#:~:text=With%20a%20range%20of%20up,animals%20without%20traps%20or%20poison.
This product has quite a few detractors though. They seem to work for a while but the burrowing animals get used to it. Neighbors complain about the noise.
So I'll keep looking.
One thing, though: Burrowing animals go "grubbing" around stumps. If you can pull out the stump, you remove the grubs [give them to the chickens!
Removing the source of food sounds like a sure winner to me.
The problem is: I want to save my spring bulbs and anything that burrows is attracted to them like me to candy, so ... back to the drawing board!

We grow potatoes in our 'raised' beds. Our garden uses rows of composts that we have mounded on top of cardboard, directly onto former grassland pasture. The rows/mounds follow the contour lines of the garden to try and retain water, with frequent spaces for paths. The paths, between each row, are woodchipped using more cardboard for weed and grass suppression.

This method makes planting and pulling the potatoes incredibly easy. The soil is loose enough that I can plunge my hand into it, up to the elbow in some places, and root around with my fingers for the potatoes. This minimises soil disturbance (which I value) and is quite fun. I tend to start by pulling out the whole plant and shaking it, dislodging the soil from the root system and dumping the still-attached potatoes onto the bed for me to collect. There are always some that I have to go fishing for, using the technique I just described.

We plant the potatoes directly into the mound and do very little 'earthing up'. The potatoes seem to grow downwards in the loose soil without much difficulty.

Timothy Norton wrote:How much garden space do you dedicate to potatoes?

This year we grew 2 small beds, approximately 1.2x5m each (approximately 12m2, 130 sq. ft.). We grew mostly an early, white variety although there was also a small patch of purple potatoes too. I think we yielded about 35kg from ~4kg of seed potatoes. It was a bad year for potatoes this year, however, with all the local farmers suffering, and we expect to grow more from a similar area next year.

As a proportion of our garden, we grew in 2 of the smaller beds. It was maybe 7.5% of our growing area. Despite occupying a small area, potatoes (and also squash) form the majority of the calories we grow.

Timothy Norton wrote:Is there really such a thing as too many spuds?

In my view this is a yes. For my partner and I, 50kg is about perfect. We can eat all of the potatoes before they start to green up and sprout and we can save a few to grow on the next year. Last year we ended up with about 120kg of potatoes as we are also members of a community garden. This was too many and we ended up selling quite a few.

Given that my labour costs for planting and harvesting are very little - only an hour or two for each process - I would gladly grow many more potatoes if I had a good way to sell/trade or gift them. Next year I suspect we will grow many more.

For 2 people, I plant 3-4 4x8 raised beds. Some years are a bust and I'm always wishing I grew more.  If the harvest is a bumper, they get canned since I don't have decent cold storage and they always sprout.

Regarding voles, ground squirrels, etc. We had to dig up EVERY raised bed and put 1/4 inch hardware cloth in the bottom, then re-fill.  No way to keep out the voles and they are voracious!  Got a German Shepherd and haven't had one day of trouble with the ground hogs...  Before getting the dog, the GHog took ONE BITE out of every watermelon, melon, butter nut squash, etc. and ruined the whole crop of several things.  Choice words said loudly.  

I wouldn't have minded the monster taking the whole melon or whatever and eating the whole thing, but to just take one bite out of all that was beyond words just wasteful!!!

My theory is always plan more than you need and give away the extra. You just never know what the weather will do to your harvest.  Good for you growing your own food!! Happy 2024!

Oh, Dottie, what a pity. Yep, wild critters are wasteful. Here, birds will peck every wild cherry. I don't really mind: These are very small and not very sweet. but it is the principle of the thing!
I got a few 55 gal.  barrels, cut in half in which I grow tomatoes. I got quite a few more from the dump for free.
Next year, I will grow sunchokes, potatoes and sweet potatoes in them: I've had voles in the raised beds too, so that will be my solution. Always optimistic: I will have a bumper crop!
You don't tell us where you hail from or what is your zone. What kind of soil do you have?
Anyway, good luck to you.

The only method we've found to work in our area is tire planters. Lay down 1" wire mesh and stack the tires five high. When it's time to harvest, just kick over the top few tires. It's a free resource from any tire shop, far less labor than digging and keeps the gophers out.
We're getting back into it after a few years, restarting the crop from seed. Going to experiment with filling the bottom two tires with chips and the top ones with soil/compost.

Daniel Giddings wrote:The only method we've found to work in our area is tire planters. Lay down 1" wire mesh and stack the tires five high. When it's time to harvest, just kick over the top few tires. It's a free resource from any tire shop, far less labor than digging and keeps the gophers out.
We're getting back into it after a few years, restarting the crop from seed. Going to experiment with filling the bottom two tires with chips and the top ones with soil/compost.

You would damage less spuds since you don't have to go dig with a fork. Another thing with tires is that if you make sure to wet the insides of the tires as you go, you may have a reserve of moisture there.
I was picturing tractor tires but I suspect these end up getting awfully heavy, especially stacked 5 high!
Potatoes do not like being in the same soil year after year: Ideally, they need a 3-4 year rotation. Do you move the tires to another area and fill them again? Or, how do you handle the necessary rotation?
I am planning to do something very similar but with 55 gallon barrels cut in half. I've done it with tomatoes, also in  the solanum family. Next year, I plan to do it with sunchokes and sweet potatoes, both crops that tend to roam, especially in sand, so having them in a barrel will certainly facilitate getting all of them out without nicking them.
So far, knock on wood, I have not had too many attack from voles, even when I planted my potatoes in trenches, directly in the garden. [Only 2 hills out of four 25 ft rows].
My soil is sandy, so I expect I will cover the barrels with a tarp in the last couple of weeks or so if it threaten rain: That will make it easier to topple these barrels to get at the potatoes, sunchokes, sweet potatoes.
It is just hubby and me, potatoes are not terribly expensive in Wisconsin, so it is just to be able to grow the cultivars of potatoes I really want. I don't really have a good storage spot anyway, so having that many tubers/root crops may be difficult, especially if I'm going to add witloof chicory for forcing.

I planted potatoes & sweet potatoes for the first time this year. I made one 60’ long hill w rich soil, leaves & wood chips then as the regular potatoes grew I hilled up w soil & straw. I had a great harvest tho I did have some nibbling critters - I think grubs - that nibbled holes in some. Some rotted w too much moisture. But I was really pleased! And I LOVED the magic of digging them up! But then the sweet potatoes! They were planted in shorter rows. Rabbits & other critters loved the vines so I put down tunnels of mesh which helped. What a delight to harvest! Like orange jewels! I’ll be planting again but probably not as many as there are just two of us.

Gauri, those are beautiful sweet potatoes! I wonder what they need for soil nutrients to get so big? What pH is your soil? I have not had good success with regular potatoes. I think they need more acid soil. I like the idea of stacked tires to make harvesting easier. I don't have tires, so will try to use rolled wire lined with cardboard. Anyone tried that one?  What time of year is best to plant potatoes where there is frost/snow from Nov to April?  Do you save the eyes from sprouted potatoes?  For how long can they survive if they dry out? Can I plant those after a few months? I hope I can get some spuds growing next year!

Hello Denise! As my husband says, “I’m still a piker” in my potato growing but will share what I did. We’re here in western North Carolina south of Asheville - 7b. We have mineral soil so I’ve been amending it w leaves, mulch, manure & vermicomposting during our 3 years of homesteading.
Honestly I just read as much as I could about planting, tending & harvesting potatoes. I bought my seed potatoes last year but they were $$$ so I’ll sprout my own this year. I believe I planted the seed potatoes in early May & just kept hilling them up w soil & straw as the vines grew. Watered them when dry. So exciting to harvest them! And so delicious! Fully organic!
Sweets require less tending. I had nice soil so they needed no amending. They are tropical so they get planted in the summer. As I said, I just put wire mesh over the vines so the critters wouldn’t eat them all the way down!
I got my sweet potato slips from Johnny’s- again $$$$ - but they include good growing instructions.
Good luck!

Regular potatoes can be planted three or four weeks before your last frost date.  For us in South-central KY, that means late March.  (We are now also listed as zone 7a, though I think we are probably really still in 6b.) If they have emerged from the ground and you are getting a hard frost, it wouldn't hurt to cover them, but even if the little plants freeze back, they'll usually keep growing up from the mother potato.  I want my storage potatoes to be ready to dig just before we get our first frost in late October, so I'm going to try delaying planting some.  I don't want to be trying to store potatoes as early as July or August, especially not in this climate.  This is a bit of an experiment, because my previous gardens have all been in places with much shorter growing seasons; I'm not sure what pests late-planted potatoes may face here.

Potatoes that have been stored may shrivel up quite a bit, depending on variety and storage conditions (some varieties keep better than others), but as long as they start growing sprouts you can plant them.  If they dry out completely, they probably won't grow (pretty sure they won't, but if someone knows otherwise....)

Potatoes do prefer a somewhat acidic soil, but are very forgiving about soil.  

I'm going to try sweet potatoes this year for the first time.  

Thanks for adding to the discussion Kathleen!
Last year was so hot & dry I definitely had a problem w storage. Some sprouted quickly.
Unfortunately we live in a flood plane & I can’t dig a root cellar. Storage will be my challenge this year!

Gaurī Rasp wrote:Thanks for adding to the discussion Kathleen!
Last year was so hot & dry I definitely had a problem w storage. Some sprouted quickly.
Unfortunately we live in a flood plane & I can’t dig a root cellar. Storage will be my challenge this year!

I'm trying to figure out how we are going to manage a root cellar, too.  We could dig one -- ground water won't be a problem here.  And that may possibly happen, since my brother now lives next door, and knows how to operate heavy equipment (and we can borrow or rent the necessary equipment).  But there are other ways to manage storage for root crops.  Look up clamps for root storage, or barrel 'root cellars,' as two possibilities.

Hi Gauri, Thank you for the explanation. I think my zone is around 7b also, but maybe it has changed recently with the new USDA rating. So not sure what it is now. I tried to look it up but was confused by it. I am in forest land on a mountain so the soil is depleted of minerals and phosphorous. Have been adding composted materials including  composted oak leaves and twigs from pine and cedar trees to the soil. Also adding crushed biochar plus minerals and some worm castings. Are "seed potatoes" the whole potato or just the sprouted eyes that emerge from potatoes?  I tend to cut the eyes out before cooking the taters and that's what I've been planning to plant next year. Is that not sufficient?  I find that leaving a potato whole once it sprouts it may easily rot or mold. I keep a small box of spuds in the cellar where it's cold but not freezing like outside gets. How do you store your "seed potatoes" and what are they?

The term 'seed potatoes' refers to whole potatoes.  You generally cut the whole potato up, leaving a couple of eyes per piece, about 24 hours before planting (supposedly letting the cut surfaces dry helps avoid some disease problems in the ground, although some people say it doesn't really seem to make a difference).  You *can* plant just eyes, but they need to be fresh and have a substantial chunk of potato attached if possible.  People *have* planted just the long sprouts detached from the potato (similar to the process of getting slips from a sweet potato) with some success.  I haven't tried that myself, so can't vouch for it, but you'd need to spread your potatoes out if you were going to try that.  My sprouts are usually inextricably entwined.  And it's best that the potatoes not have really long sprouts on them, because the sprouts do break off easily, and it's not much use planting an eye if it's already sprouted and the sprout has broken off, so you need to handle them with care.  If one breaks off, you can try planting the sprout and see what happens.

Kathleen, Thank You! That's the best explanation I've ever read about how to ready potatoes for planting. I've had the slips break off the eyes many times like you say they're loosely attached. I have cut the eyes off and left them to dry but I think it will be too long to expect them to store for several months. I'll have to donate several whole potatoes to the effort and if they sprout during winter hopefully not too much to keep them from going bad or rotting before spring.

Denise Cares wrote:Kathleen, Thank You! That's the best explanation I've ever read about how to ready potatoes for planting. I've had the slips break off the eyes many times like you say they're loosely attached. I have cut the eyes off and left them to dry but I think it will be too long to expect them to store for several months. I'll have to donate several whole potatoes to the effort and if they sprout during winter hopefully not too much to keep them from going bad or rotting before spring.

Keep them very cool (38 F) and in the dark to delay sprouting as long as possible.  Time of sprouting does vary depending on variety.

My dad and grandpa grew thirty acres potatoes for sale when I was a kid (in the Interior of Alaska), and we have always had potatoes in our gardens, all my life.  They are actually one of my favorite garden crops.

Kathleen, 30 acres?!!  Unreal! And in Alaska no less. Amazing! The soil must be good there despite the cold. Do you remember the variety of potato that did well in the cold climate? Are they still growing potatoes on that farm?

Kathleen another question please. What are "clamps for root storage" you mention in an earlier post? Nothing came up when I put that in to search. I found "barrel root cellar" tho. There was a lot I didn't understand how that works or it it's even safe based on what some said in the conversations. i think you'd have to cover the whole barrel and the surrounding dirt for a good ways to keep the rain and snow away from the barrel and keep it dry, besides covering the lid with hay. I would put one in sideways to prevent someone falling in head first and not be able to get out [that sounded scary -a lady died that way :(  ]