Potatoes are the third most widely planted crop in the world and are also a common food on everyone’s table. Potatoes can be cooked and fried to make different delicacies. Today we Instead of studying how to eat potatoes, study potato cultivation techniques. Let’s explore how to grow potatoes at home. Follow the detailed steps below to harvest the potatoes you grow.
Method/Steps
1Collect seeds. Unlike other plants, potatoes can be sown in two ways. - Use seed potatoes. You can order them online or buy seed potatoes at your local flower market. You can also use leftover potatoes from the supermarket as seeds. (But these potatoes are not necessarily disease-free—if you plan to plant potatoes again in the same spot, you may have some long-term problems because many pathogens will continue to grow in the soil year after year.)
- Use a sharp but non-serrated knife to roughly cut each potato into quarters, making sure there are no more than three small "eyes" (small pits on the surface of the potato) on each small piece of potato. Leave the cured potatoes in the sun for a day or two, or until you notice sprouts starting to appear on those eyes.
- Although many people will advise this, Don’t soak your potatoes! Unlike many hard-shelled seeds that require soaking to soften the skin, potatoes have enough moisture on their own to germinate. Soaking potatoes will only make them more likely to rot! If you want the cut sides of the potatoes to "heal" faster - allow the cut sides to form a dry "skin" to prevent rotting.
2Prepare the soil. You can plant potatoes in a small patch of soil, or you can plant them in a large pot on your patio, in a tire or in a chimney cap. The most important thing is to make sure the soil you prepare is as free of weeds as possible. In addition, you may need to plant some compost or sprinkle some organic fertilizer into the soil to make the soil nutritious. 
3 Plant potatoes. Time your planting so that the potatoes will bear fruit a week or two before the last frost of the season in your area. Cold temperatures at night kill potential pests, and as the days get longer your potatoes will need more light. In coastal Virginia, for example, potatoes planted on St. Patricks Day in March are ready for harvest in July. - Bury the seeds in the seed potatoes or potato fruits about 2.5cm below the soil, and then build a small pile of soil above the seeds. There should be enough space between the potatoes so that they don't crowd together underneath as they grow. As the potato rhizomes grow, add some soil at the base—if your potatoes are exposed to light as they grow, they will turn green and be slightly toxic.
4Take care of crops. Take good care of your potatoes and you'll reap healthy, edible fruits. - Watering your potatoes regularly will ensure they grow uniformly. Watering once a week in summer is enough, but watering should be thorough every time. However, you can water more if necessary. If the leaves of your crop are starting to look wilted, this is a sign that the potatoes need more water. Be careful not to overwater or you will get black potatoes.
5Harvest potatoes. Harvest and enjoy the fruit close to the first frost. You can harvest potatoes in stages - "young" or "early" potatoes are harvested 7-8 weeks after sowing (when they bloom). Pick some off, but don't uproot them, and let the remaining potatoes continue to grow to their full potential. You'll know its time to harvest your potatoes when the vine leaves begin to turn yellow and wilt.
- Watering your potatoes regularly will ensure they grow uniformly. Watering once a week in summer is enough, but watering should be thorough every time. However, you can water more if necessary. If the leaves of your crop are starting to look wilted, this is a sign that the potatoes need more water. Be careful not to overwater or you will get black potatoes.
- Bury the seeds in the seed potatoes or potato fruits about 2.5cm below the soil, and then build a small pile of soil above the seeds. There should be enough space between the potatoes so that they don't crowd together underneath as they grow. As the potato rhizomes grow, add some soil at the base—if your potatoes are exposed to light as they grow, they will turn green and be slightly toxic.
- Use seed potatoes. You can order them online or buy seed potatoes at your local flower market. You can also use leftover potatoes from the supermarket as seeds. (But these potatoes are not necessarily disease-free—if you plan to plant potatoes again in the same spot, you may have some long-term problems because many pathogens will continue to grow in the soil year after year.)
Tips
- The potatoes you leave in the soil will grow new potatoes the next year. This may seem simple, but in realityIt is not a good idea to grow potatoes in the same soil as it increases the risk of pests and diseases through overuse of the soil. Ideally, a patch of soil would be used to grow different vegetable crops, including potatoes, on a rotating basis.
- If you want to buy potato seeds from a seed company or garden supply center, make sure their seeds are disease-free.
Notes
- Do not use green potatoes or the green parts of potatoes - the green parts are highly toxic.
- Potatoes grown in stony soil will have a strange shape, so if you want the potatoes grown to be uniform in shape, you need to remove all the stones in the soil.
Extended reading:
1. How to grow beans. Illustrated tutorial on growing beans and peas
2. Illustrated tutorial on growing cabbage: How to grow cabbage
3. How to grow sunflowers yourself. Illustrated tutorial on growing sunflowers
4. Rose planting tutorial: How to grow roses
5. How to germinate grains and plant sprouts picture tutorial
