How to be a spud gun
Why not make an early start on your potato patch?
Potatoes are a delicious and productive vegie to grow at home and can even be grown in pots. It’s best to use seed potatoes rather than supermarket potatoes as seed potatoes are certified as disease-free and also haven’t been sprayed with sprouting inhibitors. Seed potatoes are available for planting during winter.
Whether in a garden patch or a pot, potatoes prefer a deep, slightly acidic soil with good moisture levels. Before planting, enrich the soil first by digging in some Yates Thrive Natural Blood Bone with Seaweed which will add valuable organic matter to the soil, help to improve soil structure and attract earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms.
For pots, use a well-drained container or special potato bag and fill with a 20 cm layer of good quality potting mix, such as Yates Premium Potting Mix.
Plant the seed potatoes around 15cm deep into the soil or potting mix and then apply a 5cm mulch layer of pea or lucerne straw.
The potatoes will start to sprout in a few weeks and green stems and leaves will develop.
As green shoots emerge through the mulch after around a month, apply additional 15 cm layers of mulch and a sprinkling of more Thrive Natural Blood Bone with Seaweed. Mulch protects the potatoes from sunlight (which turns potatoes green and inedible) and the increasing layers allow more stems and thus potatoes to develop up the stem.
Keep the soil or potting mix consistently moist.
It takes around four months for potatoes to mature fully, with the appearance of flowers or the plant starting to yellow being indicators of them being ready to harvest.
Impatient gardeners can harvest some tender baby potatoes a little earlier by gently feeling around under the mulch and removing individual spuds.
If you live in a cold area, it’s important that the new potato stems are not exposed to frost, so delay planting so that stems emerge after the chance of frost has passed.
Before planting, put seed potatoes into a well-lit (out of direct sunlight) spot for a few weeks so they develop small shoots (this process is called ‘chitting’). This helps to give potatoes a head start before they go in the ground.