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Vanisle_BC
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1389
- Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:02 pm
- Location: Port Alberni, B.C. Canada, Zone 7 (+?)
Potatao spacing
How close do you plant potatoes? What's the closest you've spaced them and had good results? Mine will be in raised beds. Three feet - or even two? - between rows would seem unnecessary. Recommendations on the web are all over the map, with one site claiming a 50lb yield from 2 rows in a 3x3ft bed with the plants spaced eight inches apart.
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7730
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Potatoes tend to grow in a circle around the plant stem like the attached picture shows.
Red Pontiac potatoes grow like round balls they don't take up much space I plant cuttings 6" apart. These are hot weather potatoes they out produce white potatoes 4 to 1.
Kennebec potatoes are slightly larger than red potatoes my plants are 7" apart. These are hot weather potatoes and will do better in cool weather climate. You might get larger potatoes than me I think your weather is cooler than ours. If you get plenty of rain you will have larger potatoes than me.
Russets are longer potatoes but never grow large for me I now plant them 6" apart instead of 8". They claim to be hot weather potatoes but I have better luck growing these in winter and they are still small.
We have very hot dry soil for 2 to 3 months 98 degrees F with 1 or 2 small rains per month July, Aug, Sept. my potatoes never grow as large as grocery store potatoes. Potatoes are a 4 month crop.
Best potato fertilizer is 15-15-60, I buy 15-15-15 fertilizer then add lots of wood ash. Mix wood ash & vinegar to lower ph of wood ash. 2 different university studies say to use 15-15-60 fertilizer 25 lbs per every 35 ft row. Pour fertilizer in a straight line on the soil cover with 1" of soil then place cutting directly over top of the fertilizer. Cover cuttings with 6" of soft soil.
Plant cuttings 6" deep to get roots down into very moist cool soil. New potatoes grow above the cuttings. The higher up you hill your soil the more new potatoes plants will grow. Hill soil up 4" above cuttings soon as you see plants hill up 2" more. If you hill soil up high enough to grow 4 layers of new potatoes that gives you a lot of potatoes. I save garden space by planting 2 rows of potatoes side by side 6" apart with cuttings spaced 6" apart.
YouTube videos show commercial growers cut potato plants off after 3 months this is suppose to make plants produce larger potatoes and put less energy into growing leaves. I have not tried this yet but I will this year.
I think potato plants do better planted too close together the combined power of many potatoes can lift up heavy soil easier to make room for potatoes to grow larger.
Red Pontiac potatoes grow like round balls they don't take up much space I plant cuttings 6" apart. These are hot weather potatoes they out produce white potatoes 4 to 1.
Kennebec potatoes are slightly larger than red potatoes my plants are 7" apart. These are hot weather potatoes and will do better in cool weather climate. You might get larger potatoes than me I think your weather is cooler than ours. If you get plenty of rain you will have larger potatoes than me.
Russets are longer potatoes but never grow large for me I now plant them 6" apart instead of 8". They claim to be hot weather potatoes but I have better luck growing these in winter and they are still small.
We have very hot dry soil for 2 to 3 months 98 degrees F with 1 or 2 small rains per month July, Aug, Sept. my potatoes never grow as large as grocery store potatoes. Potatoes are a 4 month crop.
Best potato fertilizer is 15-15-60, I buy 15-15-15 fertilizer then add lots of wood ash. Mix wood ash & vinegar to lower ph of wood ash. 2 different university studies say to use 15-15-60 fertilizer 25 lbs per every 35 ft row. Pour fertilizer in a straight line on the soil cover with 1" of soil then place cutting directly over top of the fertilizer. Cover cuttings with 6" of soft soil.
Plant cuttings 6" deep to get roots down into very moist cool soil. New potatoes grow above the cuttings. The higher up you hill your soil the more new potatoes plants will grow. Hill soil up 4" above cuttings soon as you see plants hill up 2" more. If you hill soil up high enough to grow 4 layers of new potatoes that gives you a lot of potatoes. I save garden space by planting 2 rows of potatoes side by side 6" apart with cuttings spaced 6" apart.
YouTube videos show commercial growers cut potato plants off after 3 months this is suppose to make plants produce larger potatoes and put less energy into growing leaves. I have not tried this yet but I will this year.
I think potato plants do better planted too close together the combined power of many potatoes can lift up heavy soil easier to make room for potatoes to grow larger.
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avidbowhunter
- Full Member
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 9:01 am
I Plant my potatoes 1 ft apart and get very good results. As stated before, put the tubers as low in the ground as possible. I plant almost my whole garden in wide row, raised beds. This really helps with potatoes. Hill them when they are about 4 or so inches high. The more hilling, the more potatoes. My go to varieties are red Pontiac, Kennebec, and Yukon gold.