In this post I hope to help guide you in choosing potato varieties that perform best in your growing space and meet the expectations of your dinner table. These blog posts tend to evolve over time as I get questions and feedback from our customers, so please reach out if you need clarification or additional information.
Pictured: Potatoes In July growing at Mountain Valley Garlic
Consider your growing space:
You can choose to grow your potatoes in the ground, in raised beds, or in grow bags or pots. Generally, growing potatoes in the ground or in a raised bed are the easiest options. Potatoes do not like a lot of temperature fluctuations and if they experience too much drought they won't produce as much. If your garden space is limited, pots and grow bags can produce a nice crop of potatoes they just need a little more care. Once your potato plant is showing leaves, water frequently enough that the soil does not dry out.
For grow bags or pots, consider smaller, early to harvest varieties like Dark Red Norland, Yukon Gold, and Yukon Gem. These varieties do not benefit from hilling like the larger, sprawling varieties and are generally ready to harvest about 60 days from when leaves emerge. Plant 1 potato (or 1/2 the potato if it is large) per square foot of pot space and be sure your soil is at least 1 foot deep and well-draining (you may need to add drainage holes to your pot). 1 plant per pot seems to produce as well as trying to put 2 or 3 in a pot. Potato towers, or any expandable pot where you can extend upward and continue adding soil around the plant, mimic the hilling process and allow you to grow indeterminate potato varieties such as any of our mid or late season potatoes.
If you have the space to plant your potatoes directly into the ground or in a raised bed, any of our varieties will thrive in that environment. In a 4' wide raised bed, I would plant 2 rows each about 12" away from the sides. If your bed is narrower than this, consider planting only 1 row. If you can plant directly in the ground, give each row 2-3' on each side for the potatoes to sprawl. Don't forget to hill sprawling varieties as they grow for increased production.
Consider your experience level:
Some potatoes are fussy, prone to disease, or prone to cracking or hollow-heart. Once you've successfully grown potatoes for a few years, you can probably grow any variety you want but if you're new to this crop, consider my favorites for ease-of-growth: Yukon Gem, Peter Wilcox, Red Maria, and German Butterball. These varieties have proven themselves year over year in my gardens in NE Washington and N. Idaho. They are scab resistant, disease tolerant, drought tolerant, and stand up better against weed pressure (yes, even we have years when the weeds take over parts of the garden).
Consider how & when you'll eat your potatoes
When I'm choosing what to plant in my family garden, I tend to take 2 different approaches. 1. What do we eat the most of that I don't want to buy at the store and 2. What specialty items do I want that I can't get elsewhere. For example: I can get Red, Yukon, and Russet potatoes at the grocery store so when my garden was small, I'd plant German Butterball and something fun (a fingerling or purple potato). As my garden grew, I began to focus on producing all of our potatoes and expanded my plantings to include Dark Red Norlands and Yukon Gold for eating in July and August (we dig them as needed, a bucket at a time) and Elbas and Gold Rush Russets for storing through the Winter and Spring.
Like mashed potatoes? Russets and Butterballs are my favorite. Want them roasted? Butterballs, Yukons, and Reds are all tasty. In a stew? Waxy Carolas hold their shape very well and Yukons and Butterballs are also a classic choice. For colorful platters of roasted veggies, fingerlings are a must but if potato salad is on the menu I love Peter Wilcox or any Yukon. If you have kids or grandkids purple or pink mashed potatoes from Blackberry or Adirondack are always a hit (add something acid like sour cream or yogurt to really make the color pop).
I hope this helps to guide your seed potato choices. As always, we're here to support you in your growing adventures so please reach out through email if you have any other questions. orders@mountainvalleyorganics.com
To learn more about growing potatoes, visit our website:
To see all of our seed potato offerings, visit our Seed Potato Page
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