How to Grow Potatoes

It’s about time to start thinking about our summer gardens again, and my all-time favorite crop to grow has to be the humble potato. So versatile, so delicious, so family-and-budget-friendly. This is how we’ve done it at our house after years of digging them out of the ground, and it’s by far the best way, in my opinion! Following is your super-simple, step by step to growing your own!

1. Buy your potato starts and grow bags (All of my potatoes were from @burpeegardening and my grow bags were the 10 gallon size (I’d go larger, if you have the space. We’re going for 20 gals this year instead! More space = more potatoes!) The bags are from @vivosun on Amazon.

2. Start with your bags in the space they’re going to “live” so you don’t have to move a heavy, full bag of potatoes and soil. They love full sun, at least 6-8 hours a day. I found that mine liked a little late afternoon shade in our climate. (Fresno, CA, Zone 9b = hotter than hot summers)

3. Fill your bags a little less than halfway with soil and some basic vegetable garden fertilizer (I used Plant Tone with a standard gardening soil)

4. Place the potatoes in the bag with 4-5” between each. Not too crowded.

5. Cover with more soil, just enough so that you can’t see them- about an inch over the starts. Water in.

6. As the potatoes grow, they’ll shoot leaves up, and once they get to 6-8” tall, you just continue to cover those with more soil until your bags are full to the top. It sounds crazy, but trust the process! Those buried leaves will create more roots, and therefore more potatoes.

7. Don’t forget to water and check your potatoes regularly! I watered mine every couple of days in the beginning and then every day as the temperature rose through late spring/summer. They dry out faster in these grow bags, so keep an eye on them.

8. When it’s time to harvest, you’ll notice the leaves starting to die back. This is normal and necessary. Stop watering for a week or two, and let them die back completely.

9. Cut the leaves off, and then flip the grow bags over and out into a wheelbarrow!

10. Dig out your beautiful potatoes. Kids love to help with this step! That’s it! Enjoy your harvest!

I made a reel to accompany all of this information for you visual learners out there. Check it out here!