Solanum tuberosum
Potato
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 35 cm, rows 65 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Planting
- Apr
- Harvest
- Jun–Sep
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 2 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source
Description
The potato is the most productive tuber in the home garden and a grateful soil loosener in the crop rotation. One seed tuber turns into a whole bucketful by harvest, a classic that children enjoy too.
Care instructions
Lay the pre-sprouted tubers from April about a hand's width deep into loose soil and hill the plants up as soon as they are 20 cm tall; that protects the tubers from light and greening. Keep them moist in dry spells; harvest once the foliage has died back.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
PlantingApr
HarvestJun–Sep
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, nutrient-rich
Give the potato a loose, deep and well-drained soil. Heavy, compacted clay soils hinder tuber formation and make harvesting harder. Keep the soil slightly acidic (pH about 5.0 to 6.5) and do not lime in the year before planting: a pH that is too high encourages common scab. Sandy loam or humus-rich sand warms up quickly in spring and is ideal; you must absolutely avoid waterlogging.
Solanaceae (tomato, potato, pepper) are heavy feeders and prone to disease. A break of at least 4 years on the same bed prevents soil fatigue and late blight.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In autumn before planting, work ripe compost or well-rotted farmyard manure in shallowly, so that the nutrients are ready in spring. You should avoid fresh manure, because it encourages disease. In early spring, shortly before planting, also work in horn shavings or horn meal shallowly to secure the initial supply of nitrogen. When earthing up, you can add a little more ripe compost to the ridges.
Overwintering
Lift the potatoes completely out of the ground before the first frost. In the ground the tubers freeze and rot. Then store them cool, dark, dry, airy and frost-free (e.g. in a cellar), keeping seed tubers separate; in spring you plant anew, because the potato is grown as an annual in the garden.
Propagation
Methods
- Offsets
- Cuttings
In the home garden, the potato is propagated almost exclusively vegetatively. This keeps the variety true and gives a full yield even in the first year.
Seed potatoes (daughter tubers): After harvest, set aside healthy, medium-sized tubers (ideally 3 to 4 cm in diameter) from your highest-yielding plants. Store them cool, dark and dry until winter, then from January in a bright, cool place (10 to 15 °C) so that short, sturdy sprouts form. Very large tubers can be cut into pieces with a clean knife shortly before planting; each piece needs at least one “eye”. From the end of March to mid-April (when ground frost is no longer a threat), the pre-sprouted tubers go into the soil 10 to 15 cm deep and 30 to 40 cm apart.
Shoot cuttings (for rare varieties or a shortage of seed potatoes): Sprout a handful of tubers from February in warm light. When the shoots are 5 to 8 cm long, cut them just above the base and insert them into moist seed compost. In a warm, bright place they root within two weeks and can then be grown on like normal young plants. This method is especially worthwhile if you have little starting material of a rare variety.
Tip against virus build-up: after harvest, leave the tubers intended for further propagation in the light for one to two days before storing them. That way your seed potatoes stay more vigorous over the years. Propagating from true seed (TPS) is not worthwhile in the home garden: the seedlings do not come true and form only tiny tubers in the first year.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
mint family (Lamiaceae)
particularly well establishedYou will find that basil next to tomato and pepper improves taste and keeps whiteflies and aphids away.
For example LavenderThymeBasilRosemarySageHyssop and 42 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
borage family (Boraginaceae)
Borage attracts pollinators and is supposed to keep tomato pests away from the nightshade family.
For example BorageCommon comfreyForget-me-notLungwortSiberian buglossSwamp Forget-Me-Not and one more species in the catalogue
Source: organic greenhouse companion planting practice
Rather not
gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)
You should avoid planting potato and cucumber together because they share disease pathogens such as leaf and brown rot and stand in each other's way as strong feeders.
For example Mexican minich cucumberInca cucumberBitter melonBottle gourdChayoteFig-leaf gourd and 4 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop-rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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Varieties
12 varieties‘Ackersegen’
The ‚Ackersegen’ is a robust old storage variety that has served as a reliable winter potato for decades.
‘Annabelle’
You will enjoy ‚Annabelle’, a modern, very early salad potato that delivers its first tender tubers soon after the winter solstice.
‘Bamberger Hörnchen’
This Franconian rarity, ‚Bamberger Hörnchen’, has elongated, often curved tubers that give it its name.
‘Bintje’
You will find ‚Bintje’ among the most well-known potatoes in Europe and the classic French fry variety in Belgium and the Netherlands.
‘Blauer Schwede’
You will find an old blue‑fleshed variety, ‚Blauer Schwede’, whose tubers are deep blue‑violet on the outside and…
‘Cilena’
You will enjoy ‚Cilena’, a firm cooking variety with elongated oval, yellow fleshed tubers and a smooth skin.
‘Laura’
A predominantly waxy variety that stands out for its red skin and deep yellow flesh.
‘Linda’
A classic among the waxy potatoes, which thanks to its fine aroma has a loyal following, so much so that hobby…
‘Nicola’
A proven waxy variety with elongated, even tubers and deep yellow flesh.
‘Sárpo Mira’
A modern Hungarian breed known for its exceptionally high resistance to potato blight, a blessing if your garden sits in a damp position.
‘Sieglinde’
One of the oldest German early potatoes still in cultivation and a household name in the kitchen over generations.
‘Vitelotte’
An old French truffle potato with elongated, knobbly tubers whose dark violet skin hides intensely blue violet flesh.
Notes from real gardens
What other gardeners have written down about this variety, anonymous and voluntary.
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