How Many Seed Potatoes to Buy?
When calculating how many Seed Potatoes to buy, gardeners have to know what space is available in the vegetable garden for growing the potatoes.
Potatoes are grown from ’seed’ potatoes, which are small, immature potatoes or tubers. Seed potatoes are sold ‘loose’ in old fashioned hardware shops and garden centers, but it is more common to find them in small, sealed packets.
To work out how many potatoes to buy, decide where the potatoes will be planted and measure the length of the rows available.
Early Potatoes are planted:
- 30cm (12in) apart from each other
- in rows 60 cm (2ft) apart
So if the row is 6ft long, you will need 6 potatoes (remember that if there are only 5 seed potatoes in the packet you can divide the largest potato into 2).
Main-crop potatoes are planted:
- 35cm (15in) apart
- in rows 75cm (2ft 6in) apart
If possible, rows should run from North to South so each plant gets it’s full share of sun.
- earlies are more valuable than main-crop
- homegrown early potatoes have more flavour than others
- early potatoes are expensive to buy.
The first steps for growing potatoes are:
- Plan how many potatoes to grow, and whether to grow earlies and/or maincrop
- Choose the potato varieties you want to grow
- Prepare the soil in the vegetable garden
- Buy the seed potatoes & look for certified seed
- Chit the potatoes
- Plant the potatoes
It is easy to calculate how many seed potatoes to buy when you consider what space is available in the vegetable garden for growing the potatoes. Remember that unblemished, clean, certified seed potatoes are worth the investment!Click on the image below to visit amazon.com & find out more about this book or visit the TopVeg bookshop.
[…] how many potatoes to grow, and whether to grow earlies and/or […]
Pingback by Top Veg » Blog Archive » How to Grow Potatoes in the Vegetable Garden. - January 16, 2008 6:51 am
I have just bought my seed poataoes so I will refer to this post for planting info. Thanks
Sara from farmingfriends
Comment by farmingfriends - January 16, 2008 9:23 pm
Hi Sara
Buying seed potatoes announces the start of the vegetable growing season. I hope you have a good crop!
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - January 17, 2008 8:36 am
How early do you plant your potatoes in the UK? Here in the US I can’t really remember when we plant. I know it’s much later.
Comment by Curtis - January 18, 2008 12:53 pm
Well, Curtis, it all depends!!
The island climate of the UK is very variable. The Southwest of the UK will plant a good 4 weeks before those in the North.
Timing also depends on the soil conditions, and weather. We have had a lot of rain this week, & the soil will take a while to dry out, so planting will be delayed.
If the soil has been covered for a few weeks, it will be drier and warmer.
If growers are prepared to protect the new shoots from frost, and the soil conditions are right, then we can plant a little earlier,
That said, the growers in warmer areas will try to plant their early potatoes in January. Main crop go in throughout March when the soil conditions are right.
Thanks for your interesting question!
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - January 19, 2008 3:21 pm
I’m new to this… how many potatoes would you expect from each seed?
Comment by karen - January 21, 2008 1:11 pm
Ill be planting my potatoes on Good Friday,did the same last year..Thanks for stopping by my site
Comment by dee - January 21, 2008 1:39 pm
Hi Karen
The number of potatoes produced by each seed potato varies according to variety, number of chits, growing conditions etc…
The picture of new potatoes at the top of this post, all came from one root.
The official answer is from 2 - 10. But I would be very fed up not to get at least 6 and preferably 8 -10!
Hope that helps
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - January 21, 2008 1:47 pm
Hi Dee
Yes, the traditional time to plant potatoes in the UK is Good Friday - the first day off for workers after Christmas! No muck or mystery there!
Happy planting & hope for good weather
TopVeg
Comment by TopVeg - January 21, 2008 1:49 pm
[…] 2. How much space is there in the vegetable garden for potatoes? Think about the other vegetables you are hoping to grow, and work out how long the potatoes will be taking up their allotted patch. Perhaps other vegetables should take precedent over potatoes? Check out this article which gives planting distances for seed potatoes. […]
Pingback by Top Veg » Blog Archive » Ten Factors to Consider When Choosing Seed Potatoes - February 5, 2008 5:31 pm