Oddbean

@120acc36 I want to learn more about gardening. I know so little. With potatoes - I brought as seed pots from mitre 10 - what do you do next. Wait for sprouts? & where ( inside dark or outside in light). Do I plant in full sun / dappled / shady. Moisture?

@820fe993 Hi there, the first thing you want to do is chit the potatoes, which means starting the eyes growing. Chit the seed potatoes by arranging them with ‘eyes’ up, in egg boxes or seed trays in light in a cool but frost-free room. They are ready for planting when the sprouts have reached 2cm in length, which will take 4–6 weeks.

@820fe993 Next you have to plant them in the ground. Potatoes like full sun. Dig a trench 7–15 cm deep, and plant the potatoes with the sprouts pointing upwards and cover with at least 2.5cm of soil.

@820fe993 I usually plant the potatoes about 30 cm apart. The next part is waiting for them to come up through the soil. At this time of the year there can still be late frosts which will kill them.

@820fe993 When there's about 20–30cm of growth above the soil after the last frost, you will need to ‘earth them up’. This is when the soil is drawn up around the potato stems. This stops potato tubers from being pushed to the surface and turning green in the light, making them poisonous. The soil should be drawn up to leave 10cm of leaves exposed to the light and this should be done on a regular basis.

@820fe993 You'll need to look at each potato variety you plant, they each have a time where they reach maturity. I make a note in my diary of when I planted them and then work out when they'll reach maturity. On that day I'll do a little digging around in the soil gently to see how big they are.

@820fe993 There are other ways to determine if the potato plants are ready to harvest, some potato plants start to die back, others start flowering. Don't eat the potato berries after flowering, they are poisonous, as well as any potatoes that are green in colour.

@820fe993 But potatoes are nearly full proof to grow, and once you have potatoes in your garden, you'll never get rid of them. You always miss some when harvesting them, and they'll grow up the next year. All my vege garden beds have surprise potato plants that grow up each years, they're a bonus meal in my opinion.

@120acc36 thanks for the Potato growing guidance. My abandoned seed potatoes now have 1cm of growth - so I’ll leave a bit longer & follow your recipe for success. I’ve got Agria. But I might return for something good for potato salad for summer. 😎

@820fe993 @120acc36 Local legend has it that you “don’t” plant your potatoes out until the Kowhai flower. We had a super crop of “older” types last year, so much nicer than bought spuds (Rua, Ilam Hardy, Jersey Benny, etc). This was despite such wet weather. Good luck with your crops!

@820fe993 Oh at some point, you don't have to earth them up any longer, and just let them grow. you need enough soil on either side of the plants for the potato tubers to grow into. Also you don't want to unearth the potatoes and make them turn green.