Crops & Breeds › Vegetable Garden
🥔 Potatoes
Vegetable Garden · growing reference
| Days to maturity | 75 days – 130 days, by type |
|---|---|
| Germination | 18 days |
| Spacing | 12″ in the row × 30″ between rows |
| Planted as | seed piece |
| Water | ~1–2 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Mar 18 — as soon as the ground can be worked.
| Spring | |
|---|---|
| Zone 3 | Apr 17 |
| Zone 4 | Apr 9 |
| Zone 5 | Mar 29 |
| Zone 6 | Mar 18 |
| Zone 7 | Mar 4 |
| Zone 8 | Feb 15 |
| Zone 9 | Jan 23 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Potato Types
- Early · 75 days · 1–3 lbs/plant — New potatoes — thin-skinned, dug young and eaten fresh; the first spuds of the year, but they don't store.
- Midseason · 100 days · 2–4 lbs/plant — The all-rounders (Yukon Gold, Red Norland) — good fresh and hold a few months in the cellar.
- Maincrop · 130 days · 3–6 lbs/plant — The keepers (Russet Burbank, German Butterball, Kennebec) — dug at full size after the tops die back; store till spring.
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