How to grow potatoes

June 13, 2012, 3:08 pm Yahoo!7

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The best way to grow potatoes depends on the space you have. Traditionally, spuds are planted in a vegetable patch but if you don’t have one, or don’t have room, you can use bags, pots or tyres. Choose a spot with enough light and where you have room to mound up soil as the plant grows. Use ‘certified’ seed potatoes, which are not seeds at all, but potatoes grown for planting. Free of certain diseases, they produce a larger, healthier crop. Buy them from nurseries or garden centres.

Potatoes thrive in vegetable patches where mounding the plant is easy. For best results, rotate your crop frequently and don’t plant tomatoes or eggplants in the same patch of soil for a number of years.

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Gather your supplies

Seed potatoes

Potato fertiliser

Sharp knife

Mulch

Garden fork and hoe

Here's How

Step 1: Using a sharp knife, cut seed potatoes into pieces with at least two eyes (sprouts) each. Before planting, allow to set for a day or two to allow knife wounds to dry.
Step 2: Mark your trenches and dig about 10cm deep, heaping removed soil to one side.
Step 3: Place pieces into trench about 20cm apart and in rows spaced at about 75cm intervals.
Step 4: Sprinkle potato fertiliser on either side of pieces. Backfill with soil, removing lumps and breaking up any sods. Mulch well and water.
Step 5: When plants reach 25cm tall, draw soil from between rows on either side and hill around stem, leaving 10cm of stem exposed.
Step 6: When foliage has died back, potatoes are ready to harvest. Dig out carefully using a garden fork.

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Mandi11:17am Saturday 24th November 2012 ESTReport Abuse
Roughly how long does it take for the potatoes to 'die back'? And what IS dieing back?
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