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Planting Potatoes with Niles

Get advice on how to plant potatoes in your garden with Niles Kinerk, owner of Gurney’s. Niles describes some of his favorite varieties, including Purple Viking and Purple Majesty potatoes. He’ll show you how he prepares seed potatoes for planting, and his time-tested technique for how to mulch an ideal row of potato plants. 

Advice from Niles

  • For seed potatoes with multiple eyes, cut into halves or quarters, ensuring that you have at least a couple of eyes (sprouts) on each section. For smaller seed potatoes, you can plant them whole. 
  • You can plant potatoes as early as the soil is workable – potatoes like cooler weather.  
  • Plant about 1 foot apart – sprouts will grow from the skin side out. Cover up the potatoes, hilling up the soil over the seed potatoes. Cover your row with a thick layer of hay or straw, leaving space between for the potato plant to come through. You won’t have to weed, and the thick mulch will help hold in moisture too.  
  • Hay adds nutrients to the soil – if you use straw, you may want to add a fertilizer with nitrogen to help boost growth. Try Potatoes Alive! Fertilizer – trialed to help plants product up to 57% more potatoes by weight!  
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