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How to Grow Gourmet Potatoes

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Jonathon Engels, a long-time vegetarian turned vegan, is currently on a trip from Guatemala to... Read More

Potatoes have the reputation of being fairly easy to grow, and for the most part, they are. Heck, leave a potato in the pantry long enough, and you’ll see that it starts to grow right there and then, no planting necessary. In fact, while not recommended, oftentimes those organic potatoes we bring home from the supermarket can be planted in the garden to produce more potatoes.

All that said, there are some issues with growing potatoes at home. For one, to produce a sizeable quantity requires a large amount of space, and ultimately producing those potatoes—if we buy proper seed potatoes to do it—will cost about as much as buying them from the supermarket, even organic. Because of this, it makes sense to grow other vegetables if space is limited.

And, that’s why growing gourmet potatoes can be a lot of fun. They’ll add some pizzazz to the potato dishes we’ve come to love, and they’ll be something a bit more notable than the standard russet we can get in such abundance for so cheap. In other words, go for the gusto with the spuds if growing them at home.

Choosing Your Potatoes

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There are literally thousands of varieties of potatoes, some the size of a foot and others barely bigger than your pinky finger. They can be purple, blue, yellow, red, or white; inside, out, or inside and out. They can have a fluffy texture or creamy or waxy. So, the first thing we have to address is which potato best suits our wants?

A good place to start is determining what those aforementioned run-of-the-mill, easy-to-come-by potatoes are best at doing. Russet potatoes tend to be fluffy, starchy, and large. They make great baked potatoes, twice-baked potatoes, and—we all love them!—French fries. The starchy stuff—also including Burbank and Idaho—are ideal for hash browns, pancakes, gnocchi, and potato chips.

In other words, we should probably consider potatoes that are better for other stuff.

For creamy, buttery potatoes that are good for mashing and topping casseroles (think au gratin), we can look into all-purpose varieties like Yukon Gold, Yellow Finn, and German Butterball. But, honestly, it’s waxy potatoes—those they work for potato salad, roasting, and grilling—that are fun to grow as gourmet potatoes in the garden. They have all sorts of colors and shapes to work with, providing a more memorable dining experience.

Growing Your Potatoes

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There are lots of methods for growing potatoes, especially in smaller quantities, so we are going to explore three easy options here: Conventional hilling, container gardening, and mulch beds. The important thing to realize about growing potatoes is that the more we bury the plant as it grows, the more tubers we’ll get underground.

The classic way to grow potatoes is by hilling them. For this method, we dig a deep trench (say a foot down) and pile the excavated soil beside the trench. The seed potatoes are planted in the trench, covered over with a couple of inches of soil. It gets buried again and again with the excavated dirt, leaving just the tip of the plant above ground, until the dirt at the sides of the trench is used to make a mound where the trench once was.
For container potatoes, the same principle is used. Three or four seed potatoes are started in a large plant pot or five-gallon bucket filled about a quarter of the way with soil or mulch. As the plant emerges, soil or mulch is added to the bucket, burying the little plant up to its last leaf. This continues until the container is full. This method can also be done in bags or bins.
No-dig beds are popular these days, and they can work for growing potatoes as well. Instead of digging a trench, potatoes are placed on loosened soil (just put a garden fork in and wiggle it back and forth a couple of times) then covered with about a foot of organic mulch. When the plants get to about six inches above the mulch, add more, repeating the process until the plants bloom.

Potatoes should be planted in early spring, a couple of weeks before the last frost date. The crop will be ready within three or four months.

Harvesting Your Potatoes

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Harvesting potatoes is an exciting time. First of all, it’s possible to cheat a little and pinch a few “new” potatoes from around the edges of the plant. New potatoes are essentially just potatoes that haven’t been harvested before reaching maturity. These can be gathered just after the potato plant has flowered.

For mature potatoes, wait until the plant dies back to the ground and dig them up. Generally, they are six inches below the surface and further. It’s best to come at the plant from the sides with a garden fork, hopefully avoiding damaging the tubers.

Kept in cool (preferably below 40, above freezing), dark places, mature potatoes can store for months. If exposed to too much light, they’ll go green, turn toxic, and start to grow anew.