Authored by Suzanne Alicie in Gardening
Published on 07-23-2009

Gardening can seem to be a nearly scientific process. With soil alkaline measurements, drainage requirements, staking and caging, and all the other varied things you hear from seasoned gardeners. The fact is that nature does most of the work. A gardener simply needs to plant the seeds and harvest the crop. However there are many things a gardener can do to produce better and more vegetables. If you are looking for a relatively worry free vegetable to grow the answer for you is potatoes.

Potatoes are the easiest vegetable to grow. Not only that but they are also a vegetable that you can plant next years crop with, eliminating the need for seeds or starter plants.

With a bag of potatoes from the grocery store you can plant your own potato crop. When the potatoes start sprouting “eyes” simply cut the potatoes into pieces with an eye or two on each one. These are your seed potatoes, and all you need to grow a lot of potatoes. These seed potatoes can be stored in a bag in the bottom of your refrigerator until you are ready to plant them. Planting should be done in early spring after the last frost.

Planting potatoes is just about as easy as it gets. There is no need for perfect rows or measured depth. The main thing to remember is that the potatoes grow under the ground so you will need to provide a mound of soil in order to have room for them. Place the seed potato in the center of a mound of loose soil, a few inches deep and cover it. The sprouts or eyes will find their way to the top.

The potato plant will come out the top of the mound and begin to leaf and spread. Make sure that the soil stays moist but not soggy, because if it is too wet your potatoes will rot in the ground.

Once the plants begin blooming (white flowers) you will need to hoe the mounds to make sure there is plenty of room for the potatoes to develop under the ground. The blooms will drop off and this is when your potatoes are growing. At this time you can dig out a few “new” potatoes which are small, or you can wait for the potatoes to develop fully.

The plants will begin to die, and fall over. When the plant itself is dead is the ideal time to harvest your potatoes. Simply cut off and dispose of the plant, then carefully dig the potatoes out of the soil. They will be easy to find, because the potatoes grow from the roots of the plant. You should have a colony of potatoes throughout each mound.

You can store your potatoes in a cool place and they should last for the whole season. When spring returns you can repeat the process using your leftover potatoes to start a new crop.

For a beginning gardener potatoes are the easiest vegetable to grow. They are relatively care free, requiring only water, sun and soil. Of course, as with all garden vegetables, you can do things to improve your potato plants but it isn’t necessary.