Did you just notice that the potatoes you bought at the supermarket a while ago and then forgot about have suddenly started sprouting in the pantry? Should you throw them away then? Absolutely not! It is possible to grow these potatoes that have sprouted to produce new potatoes. Below we explain how you can plant sprouted potatoes!
Can you grow potatoes that have sprouted?
Yes! A sprouting potato can be planted in the ground to produce more potatoes. If you do everything right, you can grow several potato plants and a large number of young potatoes from a single sprouted potato.
Planting sprouted potatoes – tips for location and soil
Potatoes are often planted in raised beds, but you can also plant them directlyinto the earthplant. It is also common to grow germinating seed potatoes in pots on your balcony or patio.
Plant the potatoes in a location with full sun to partial shade in garden-type soil, 30 to 40 cm apart. The garden soil should not be too nutrient-rich - too much compost can cause the seed potatoes to rot. You need soil that drains well or a container with drainage. Potatoes cannot survive in moist soil or in water that just sits there.
When should you plant them?
About two weeks before the first dandelions appearin springThere are still about four weeks until the last frost. This is the earliest time you can plant potatoes outdoors and is ideal if you intend to develop the seed potatoes throughout the summer and get the highest harvest of fully ripe potatoes.
You can grow heirloom potatoes all summer long, even into early fall, as long as you have at least eight weeks before the weather turns cold and the first frost of the season hits. After eight weeks, you will be harvesting very few fresh potatoes and the total weight of your crop will be only slightly more than the amount you planted. That's not so bad when you consider that fresh potatoes are a delicious treat and the old potatoes with the sprouts would end up in the compost anyway.
Planting sprouted potatoes – step-by-step instructions
- Step 1:First, prepare your garden bed by forming rows of mounds out of the soil.
If you fill up the soil around the potato plants, they will grow faster. This is because the potatoes grow beneath the surface of the soil. While the leaves of the potato plant develop above ground, the roots of the plant and the potatoes themselves develop underground. So the larger the mound you raise, the more room the seed potatoes have to grow.
Hilling the soil in your garden is easy: you scoop up the soil on each side of the row you are forming and pile it in the middle of the row. The mound should be between 20 and 30 cm high and the distance between rows should be about 30 cm.
- Step 2:Count the number of potato sprouts you have.
Once the potato has sprouted, it is perfectly fine to put the entire seed potato in the ground. Another method to increase the number of plants and potatoes is to plant seed potatoes from their “eyes”. The number of sprouts determines how many plants you can grow from that potato. The more shoots a potato has, the more plants you can grow from it. The so-called eyes (sprouts) on the potato will eventually grow into a potato. Each eye that has sprouted can be cut off and develop into a plant.
- Step 3:Carefully cut off each eye, making sure to leave a small portion of the potato attached to the eye.
First cut the potato into several pieces. Make sure each piece of potato has at least one sprouting eye. This way you can ensure that each piece has enough room to develop further. This means there is no rivalry between plants for water and nutrients in the soil. Try to plant your sprouts no later than two to three days after cutting. For best results, the tray is sufficiently dry to prevent the spread of disease, but not so dry that the seedlings become ineffective. It is not necessary to keep the seedlings in water or soak them before planting. After cutting, you should store them in a dry and cool place.
- Step 4:Plant the potato pieces.
Even though you could just stick the whole potato in the ground, you'll get a lot more out of it if you plant each shoot individually. When planting, make sure the cut side is facing down. Plant each shoot 8 – 10 cm below the top layer of soil. The distance between individual plants should be at least 30 cm so that the plants have space to grow both above and below ground.
The planted potato sprouts take about a week to break through the ground and open their leaves. Make sure to water the plants regularly and give them as much sunlight as possible. As the plants develop, you can continue to mound soil around the base of the plants, which is recommended. Generally, potatoes take about three months to develop before they can be harvested. Certain varieties may require more or less time.
