Planting potatoes yourself - it's very easy. Such a potato bed looks like a lot of work at first, but digging, sowing, piling up and caring for it are also easy for laypeople to do. The following answers provide helpful guidance.

Where can I grow potatoes?

If you have a garden, you create a potato bed and with enough space you can grow larger quantities of potatoes here. You can also plant potatoes in pots, buckets and sacks and place them on the balcony. The yield is smaller here, but it's always fun.

Where can I get the seeds from?

Potatoes are grown from seed potatoes. You can get them in the garden center or via garden mail order. If you have already harvested potatoes yourself, you will get the seed potatoes for next year from your own harvest.

What types of potatoes are there?

"Linda" and "Agria" are among the most popular potato varieties in Germany. A classic among the potatoes is the "Ackersegen" variety. They are distinguished not only by their name, but also by harvest time, type of cooking, skin color and finally by taste and use.

Different harvest times have:

  • early potatoes like Gloria, Cilena, Sieglinde
  • medium-early varieties: Agria, Stella
  • late potatoes: Ackersegen, granola, vitelotte (blue pulp)

The cooking type distinguishes:

  • Waxy potatoes: Linda, La Ratte, Bamberger Hörnchen
  • mainly waxy potatoes: Gloria, Granola, Agnes
  • Floury varieties: Ackersegen, Bintje

A distinction is made in the shell color:

  • yellow-skinned varieties: Adretta, Sieglinde
  • red-skinned potatoes: Rosara, Laura

At which location do I plant my potato bed?

Choose a sunny and wind-protected location in your garden for your potato bed. Even if the tubers grow underground, they need the warmth of the sun.

When is it time to prepare the bed?

The first step is the deep digging of the bed in the fall. The clods remain in place throughout the winter. The second step is crushing the clods and digging the furrows in the spring.

What does the soil for growing potatoes have to be like?

Potatoes need loose, nutrient-rich soil. You can improve the soil by mixing in rotten manure.

To germinate or not?

Potatoes do not need to be pre-germinated. However, pre-germination is advisable in order to encourage the growth of the plant and achieve higher yields.

Start germinating 2-4 weeks before you plan to sow. So that the seed potato can set firm germs, it needs light and an ambient temperature of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius.

When can you plant potatoes?

Planting time depends on the potato variety. Early varieties can be sown in frost-free weather from mid-March.

Mid-early and late varieties are sown from mid-April to mid-May. To protect against late frosts, cover the rows with straw, blankets or garden fleece.

How are potatoes sown?

Potato sowing is the term for placing the seed potatoes in the furrow. Here are a few quick instructions: Place the potatoes about 10 cm deep and 30 cm apart. The potato is turned so that the sprouts or eyes are pointing upwards. The furrows are loosely raked and carefully poured on.

How big does the distance between the rows of potatoes have to be?

Potatoes are planted in rows. The distance between the rows must be at least 60 cm.
First, this gives the plant room to spread its underground shoots. Second, you need the space to build small dams later.

Why do potatoes need to be piled up?

The mounding protects the potato from exposure to light. This is important so that no green potatoes or green spots that contain the toxic solanine form.

Do potatoes even need to be watered?

Yes, because the tubers can only grow if the soil has sufficient moisture. It is therefore essential to water during longer dry periods.

What are potatoes fertilized with?

As heavy feeders, potatoes need sufficient nutrients. Fertilizing therefore begins with the preparation of the bed.

If you mix in rotted manure or compost, the soil is initially supplied with all the important nutrients. During the growth phase, you can also fertilize with horn shavings (€32.93) and magnesium.

How does the potato bloom?

The flowers of the potato are white to purple. They form on the part of the herbaceous potato plant that grows above ground. The actual fruit of the potato, small green berries, develops from the flowers. These contain seeds but, like all green parts of the potato, are poisonous.

What to grow potatoes on the balcony in?

Potatoes grow in practically any container that has a capacity of at least 10 liters. Black mason's buckets, plastic buckets and sturdy plastic bags are best suited.

You can achieve a larger harvest with a potato tower. It can consist of flower pots, stacked bricks, mason's buckets placed one on top of the other or tubes made of bamboo or plastic mats. With the latter in particular, you have to consider that the irrigation water runs off over the balcony.

What do I have to consider when growing potatoes on the balcony?

  • use 1-2 seed potatoes for a 10 liter bucket
  • From a content of 20 liters up to 4 seed potatoes
  • Place the jar in a sheltered, sunny spot
  • the best planting time for the balcony is from mid-April
  • if there are late frosts, bring in the bucket or cover it
  • Don't forget to water, but avoid waterlogging

When and how are potatoes harvested?

The first new potatoes are ready to harvest from June. At this point, the potato haulm is still green. To check if the tubers are ripe, carefully dig up a potato. If the skin can no longer be rubbed off with your finger, the potato is ripe.

From the end of August you start harvesting the mid-early potatoes. This is followed by the late varieties until the end of October.

How are potatoes stored?

First, let the potatoes dry well. Then they must be stored in a dark and frost-free place. This is ideally the cellar at temperatures of 4 - 8 °C.

You build a stack of potatoes out of stable boards or you get airy fruit crates that you stack on top of each other. In between you always make sure that there is a supply of fresh air.

Mid-early and late potatoes have the best storability. New potatoes, on the other hand, must be used within a few days.

How can I win seed potatoes?

You always get seed potatoes from your last harvest. You already know the growing conditions, harvest time and taste and you can use good experiences for the next year. Immediately after the harvest, you pick out the approximately 3 cm large tubers and store them - preferably in the cellar - in a dry and dark place until next spring.

Which plants thrive in close proximity to potatoes?

Beans, kohlrabi, cabbage, spinach, caraway and marigolds get along well with neighboring potatoes.

What are bad neighbors?

Pumpkins, courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes are bad neighbors because, like potatoes, they are heavy feeders. Planted next to each other, they would deprive each other of important nutrients. In addition, potatoes do not get along with sunflowers, celery, peas and onions.

Why do I keep reading that the potato is poisonous?

It's true that all green parts of the potato are poisonous. These include the potato tops and the small green berries that form from the flowers. The toxic substance solanine, which is produced when exposed to light, is responsible for this.

On the other hand, the underground plant parts of the potato, i.e. the tubers that serve as valuable food, are harmless. An exception are green spots and germs as well as green potatoes. They also contain solanine and must therefore not be consumed. So peel potatoes thoroughly, cut away green parts and sort out green potatoes.

Green potatoes are not only toxic to humans but also to animals. Feed potatoes must therefore also be sorted accordingly.

Why do I have to follow crop rotation when growing potatoes?

Growing potatoes removes important nutrients from the soil. Colloquially, it is also said that potatoes leach out the soil. That's why you have to plant your potatoes in a different place after 3 years at the latest.

With the subsequent cultivation of clover or lupins, the so-called green manure, the soil recovers. To ensure that potato breeding brings in high yields year after year, it is recommended that heavy, medium and weak consumers follow the crop rotation.

Why is the potato cabbage dying?

This is usually a natural process. With the beginning of the dormant period, the potato leaves turn yellow and die. In the case of mid-early and late potato varieties, this is the start signal for harvesting.

Diseases and pests can also be responsible for the death of the herb. Depending on the type of damage, this can be late blight, fungi, scab and blackleg or infestation with Colorado potato beetles and snails.

tips and tricks

Have you ever tried blue potatoes? Varieties such as Vitelotte and Hermanns Blau not only offer a color experience with blue flowers, blue skin and blue flesh. They can also convince with their strong taste.

Category:

Vegetable garden