Can You Plant Potatoes Right After You Cut Them?

For the backyard gardener, fresh potatoes from the ground are a wonderful pleasure. However, you must plant seed potatoes first before you can harvest them. 

Although it is simple and inexpensive to grow seed potatoes, you should know a few things before planting them to ensure success. In this article, we will talk about tips for planting potatoes.

Can You Plant Potatoes Right After You Cut Them?

Yes, there is no problem planting potatoes right after you cut them. Simply plant your cut seed potatoes with the cut side down, and the eyes facing up and cover them with about 2 or 3 inches of soil after the potato seeds have been cured. 

Then, as the growing season goes on, keep piling soil onto the newly emerged greens. Cutting seed potatoes is a quick and simple approach to quadruple your supply of seeds and increase the number of plants for a much larger crop this fall.

Cutting Seed Potatoes

Cutting seed potatoes before planting them is a systematic method that can help conserve seeds and increase the number of plants in your garden. It’s time to plant your seed potatoes as soon as the weather in the spring begins to warm up. You typically start planting potatoes without any frost protection around two weeks before your last frost date, regardless of your garden zone.

You can notice that each seed potato has many “eyes” if you look at one closely. The eyes are represented by the tiny dimples in a potato’s skin. A seed potato will begin to “chit,” or sprout, from those eyes as it prepares to be planted. 

The potato plant will eventually develop from those shoots. In fact, for a plant to establish itself and begin producing fruit, it only needs 3 or 4 of those sprouts. Therefore, a larger seed potato, like the one in the picture above, may have 15 sprouts or more. This seed potato can be divided into two or three pieces, with the sprouts distributed among them.

The pieces will sprout, grow, and grow into single potato plants. Knowing how to cut your seed potatoes is crucial. I prefer to keep the bits of seed potatoes I cut large and chunky. Additionally, I prefer to ensure that each piece still has at least 4 or more eyeballs on it after cutting. Consequently, I typically simply cut the seed potato into two pieces. 

An especially large seed potato might be divided into three parts. Some people will dispute this and claim that the seed potato can be chopped into smaller pieces with only two eyes. But I believe that using large chunks with at least 4 eyes gives the potato plant the best opportunity for success.

Use a sharp knife and a line that will give each portion of your seed potatoes at least 4 eyes before cutting off a big portion. Avoid cutting through any eyes because doing so would kill the future sprout. Simply put, 1 seed potato transforms into 2 or 3, enabling more potato plants to grow from a less amount of seed. I prefer a piece of seed potato at least 2 or 3 inches long and wide after cutting.

How long can you keep seed potatoes before planting?

The approximate longest time you may keep tubers as seed until they break dormancy is 200 days, although this will depend on the variety you got. You may be able to extend that for a few weeks using seed inhibitors without compromising viability since you’ve already ordered potatoes as seed.

How to cure potatoes before planting?

Simply leave the cut potatoes alone for two to three days in an airy, dry location away from the sun to cure them. The potato’s cut side will become hard, dry, and develop a leathery texture. This “hardens” the potato’s cut side and aids in protecting the potato plant from soil-borne illnesses.

FAQ

Do you have to cure potatoes before planting?

Allowing your seed potatoes to cure for a few days after cutting and before planting is one technique to combat the disease problem. Simply leave the cut potatoes in an airy, dry location away from the sun for two or three days to cure them.

Do you have to scab potatoes before planting?

If the soil is slightly damp, has a light, aerated texture, and is kept between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, planting seed potatoes right away after cutting can be done safely and with little risk of rotting.

Can I cut a potato in half and plant it?

Yes, slice huge potatoes, then cover with wood ash. Having huge tubers and planting both halves can double the number of potato plants you obtain from a bag of seed potatoes. Because there are more sprouts on one end of the potato than the other, cutting it lengthwise rather than across will increase the yield.

Can you plant a whole potato? 

Yes, larger potatoes (larger than a golf ball) should be quartered with a clean knife before planting, while smaller potatoes can be planted whole. Make certain that each piece has an eye or bud. Before planting, let the pieces dry for a few days to stave off rot.

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