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Root vegetables
Potato
Grown from seed potatoes (tubers), not true seed, for almost all home gardeners.
Get your planting dates
This guide covers how to grow, harvest and keep potato, deliberately without sowing dates,
because the right date depends entirely on your climate zone. GardenBuddy's planting calendar
covers all seven Australian climate zones and will tell you exactly when to sow where you live.
Growing
Full sun, loose, well-drained, slightly acidic soil. 'Hill up' soil or mulch around the stems as they grow to stop tubers greening in the light and to increase yield.
Common problems
- Green tubers from sun exposure, always keep hilled or mulched, green potato is toxic and should be discarded
- Potato moth, mulch heavily to stop moths reaching exposed tubers
- Blight in wet, humid conditions
Harvest
New potatoes: dig gently a few weeks after flowering for small, thin-skinned tubers. Maincrop: wait until the foliage yellows and dies back, then dig and cure for a week before storing.
Preserving this crop
Best suited to:
Seed saving
Difficulty: N/A (grown from tubers). Save your own seed potatoes by setting aside small, disease-free tubers from the harvest, stored cool and dark. True botanical seed exists but isn't how home gardeners propagate potatoes.