Vegetable Gardening Tips: How To Grow Potatoes

There is several vegetable gardening tips that you will want to learn about but one that is really easy to follow and very helpful is learning how to grow potatoes. Potatoes can be grown easily and will taste wonderful if grown properly. It follows that you should find out more about how to grow them so that they provide you with a fresh option at your dinner table. Even though potatoes are root crops they still require getting plenty of sunshine without which they will not be able to reach their full potential.

Soil Conditions

The simplest vegetable gardening tips in regard to growing potatoes is to also understand the kind of soil conditions in which to grow the potatoes. Ideally, potatoes grow the best when the soil is slightly acidic which typically requires a soil with pH of between just under six and six and a half. In addition, the soil should be soft and loamy and the best time to plant the potatoes is in the early springtime.

Another useful vegetable gardening tip in regard to growing potatoes is that it is better not to use potatoes bought in the supermarket as your seeds. The reason is that there is no way to know whether these potatoes are disease ridden and they also do not give you the best yield. However, a week before planting the potato seeds you need to place the seeds where there is a minimum temperature of about sixty degrees Fahrenheit and where there is lots of sunlight as this will help ensure that the potatoes will sprout up properly.

Another useful vegetable gardening tip in regard to growing potatoes is that on the day before the actual planting you will need to cut the potato with a knife into small seeds and at the same time you need to ensure that each seed has one eye in it.

Other useful vegetable gardening tips in regard to growing potatoes are to ensure planting the potatoes in rows and to space the plants with a foot of space between each plant. Also, different rows should be set at three feet distance from each other and the seeds need to be planted about three inches beneath the surface of the soil. It will take about three weeks for the seeds to begin sprouting and two weeks after this the stems will rise to about eight inches in height which is when it is time to add about four inches of soil.

You can then add about an inch or two of soil for each succeeding week and you need to ensure covering the potatoes so that they are not exposed to light. Remember another vegetable gardening tip and that is to water the potatoes frequently as the potatoes start to flower. The most important time to water the potatoes is when they are creating fresh tubers and the best time to water the potatoes is in the early morning.

If you are living in an apartment or condominium or you do not have sufficient space in your home to do normal gardening then you should learn from a few useful vegetable container gardening tips how you can still grow vegetables despite space constraints. Simple tips that will come in handy include picking the right kind of container, creating an ideal soil mix and learning where to place the containers and how to water and fertilize the plants.