How Long Do Potatoes Take To Grow? — A Gardening Guide
Potatoes contain essential nutrients. It can help and improve your bone health, blood pressure, weight management, and many more. The good thing about potatoes is it requires less maintenance. It is cheaper and easier to grow and cook. You can just put a seed potato under the soil, put fertilizer, then wait for your potato to grow. This article will answer your question: “How long do potatoes take to grow?”
Growing Potatoes
Potatoes are easy to maintain. You can produce a large yield with a few seeds of potatoes. Potato plants can grow from a small tuber. Growing potatoes will take three to four weeks to emerge the potato seeds when you use a good quality potato seed. The potato plant is versatile, and you can plant it in every gardening season as soon as the potato’s frost is out of the soil.
There are several factors to determine if your potatoes are ready to harvest, such as the weather conditions and soil temperature. The soil temperature should stay over 45 degrees Fahrenheit—the most secure way to measure the soil temperature to determine the best time to harvest.
Some types of potatoes take from 70 to 120 days to grow. Choose the right kind of potato seeds and plant them at an appropriate time. Give them enough time to mature. Please store your seeds in your refrigerator for quite some time before planting the potato seed.
Choosing the Right Types of Potatoes
Choosing the type of potato seed has a significant impact on how long do your potatoes take to grow. Some potatoes mature at a different time, depending on the type of potatoes. It can also vary in sizes and shapes. Check the different types of potatoes below to see the information on various potato types and how long does it take to grow.
Early Varieties
Early varieties type of potato can harvest about seventy to ninety days. There are many famous varieties of early potatoes, such as King Harry and Irish Cobbler.
Mid-Season Varieties
It is the type of potato that takes a bit longer to mature. It means that it would take more than a hundred days to harvest. This type of potato is better if you plant it on the places with a warm temperature or climate. Yukon Gold and Red LaSoda are the famous varieties of Mid-Season; these can produce a significant yield.
Late Varieties
From the name itself, late varieties type of potato take at least a hundred-ten day and more before the harvest season. Waiting for a hundred-ten day is all worth it. The longer the waiting time, the greater the result. You can store the late varieties for a longer period. Butte and Kennebec are the most prominent representatives from late varieties.
Elongated Fingerling
This type of potato is the most interesting and the most fast-selling because of its popularity. If you are looking for something that you can sell fast at the market, elongated fingerling is a good choice. If you are looking for a fast-growing type, this type is not a good choice. Elongated fingerling takes three to four months from planting to harvesting. The good news is there are methods to fasten the planting process for this type of potatoes.
How to Plant Potatoes
Now that you know the different types of potatoes, it is time to learn how to plant it. After choosing a suitable type based on your preference, prepare your potato seeds to plant. Potatoes grow in a cool and dry place and loose soil that is about 45 degrees to 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 7 degrees to 13 degrees Celcius. It is better to plant your potatoes in a place that gets full access to sunlight - at least 6 hours of sunlight a day.
You can also spread and mix manure or organic compost at the bottom of the trench before planting. In every trench, put a seed potato. Put at least two to three feet space in between each potato seed to have space to grow.
Conclusion
Potato is one of the most popular vegetables on earth. Aside from it is cheap in the local market, it tastes like heaven! The usual snacks that we eat when we are watching movies or just a typical snack time are mostly made of potatoes.
Potatoes is not just famous for its taste but also for its health benefits. Some studies prove that potatoes can help in reducing human inflammation and constipation. It contains an antioxidant that helps in neutralizing harmful molecules known as free radicals.
Potatoes are very easy to maintain, very cheap, and very easy to prepare. In this article, you discover the different types of potatoes and how long do the potatoes take to grow. It is important to learn how long do potatoes take to grow of each kind of potatoes. It will help you take action on how to take care of your potato plants. Remember that potatoes grow in a dry and cold place, and loose soil with about 45 degrees to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Expose your potato seed in the sunlight for at least 6 hours a day.