Potatoes are one of the most rewarding crops to grow. They are hardy, filling, and fun to dig up (it’s like a treasure hunt for adults). But here is a secret that seasoned farmers know but new gardeners often miss: You don’t plant the whole potato.
If you take a few minutes to cut your seed potatoes properly before planting, you can essentially double—or even triple—your yield. It’s the closest thing to printing money in the garden.
Here is the no-nonsense guide to cutting, curing, and planting potatoes for a bumper crop this season.
Why Chop the Spud?
You might think, “Wait, won’t cutting it hurt the plant?”
Actually, it helps. Think of a seed potato not as a single seed, but as a battery pack for multiple plants.
- Stretch Your Dollar: By cutting one large potato into three pieces, you get three separate plants. You buy less, you grow more. Simple math.
- Healthier Plants: Smaller pieces mean you can space them out properly. This prevents overcrowding, so your plants aren’t fighting for water and sunlight.
- Disease Defense: It sounds counterintuitive, but if you cut and “cure” them (more on that in a second), the potato forms a protective skin that actually helps resist rot better than a whole, bruised potato might.
The Prep Work
Step 1: Buy the Right Spuds
- The Rule: Do not use leftover potatoes from the grocery store.
- The Reason: Supermarket potatoes are often sprayed with a growth inhibitor, so they don’t sprout in the bin. They will just sit in your dirt and rot.
- The Fix: Head to your local hardware store or garden center and buy certified “Seed Potatoes.” They are disease-free and ready to rock
Step 2: The Cut
You don’t need to be a surgeon, but you do need a sharp, clean knife.
- Look for the “eyes” (those little dimples or sprouts).
- Cut the potato into chunks that are about the size of a golf ball, roughly 2-3 ounces.
- Crucial: Every single chunk MUST have at least 1 or 2 eyes. If it has no eyes, it won’t grow.
Step 3: The Cure
This is where most beginners fail. You cannot cut a potato and immediately throw it in the wet dirt. It will rot.
- Spread your cut pieces out on a newspaper or a cardboard box in a cool, dry place, like a garage or basement.
- Let them sit for 24 to 48 hours.
- You want the cut side to dry out and form a thick, leathery “scab.” This callous is its armor against soil diseases.
Getting Them in the Ground
1. Pick Your Spot
Potatoes love sun. Find a spot that gets at least 6–8 hours of sunlight. They also hate “wet feet,” so loose, well-draining soil is a must. If you have heavy clay, mix in some compost or consider a raised bed.
2. Dig Your Trench
I prefer the trench method. Dig a row that is about 4–6 inches deep. If you are planting multiple rows, keep them about 3 feet apart so you have room to walk between them later.
3. Eyes to the Sky
Place your cured potato chunks in the trench, spacing them 12 inches apart.
Make sure the sprouts are facing up towards the sky, and the cut side is facing down. This saves the plant energy so it doesn’t have to grow in a U-turn.
4. Cover and Wait
Cover them with about 4 inches of soil. Don’t pack it down too tight; keep it fluffy so the sprouts can break through.
The Hilling Hustle
Once your plants pop up and are about 6 inches tall, you need to do a little chore called “hilling.”
Use a hoe to pull soil from between the rows up around the base of the plant, burying the bottom half of the stem. Why? New potatoes grow above the seed piece, not below it. If growing potatoes see sunlight, they turn green and become toxic. Hilling keeps them covered, safe, and delicious.
Water them deeply once a week, more if it’s a scorching July, throw some fertilizer on them if the leaves look pale, and get ready. In a few months, you’ll be turning over that soil and finding pounds of gold.
Grab a bag of seed potatoes this weekend and give it a try. Your grocery budget will thank you!