📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Starting Early Potatoes Indoors
- 🌱 The Timing: To get an extra-early harvest, you can start seed potatoes indoors (or in a greenhouse) about 14-15 days before your outdoor planting date.
- 📰 DIY Newspaper Pots: Many growers use homemade newspaper pots (cylinders) instead of plastic cups. Why? Because potatoes create massive root systems quickly, and pulling them out of plastic cups often destroys the root ball.
- ⚠️ Removing the Paper: Even though newspaper is biodegradable, you should remove it before planting the potato outside. If left on, it will severely restrict the roots all summer long.
- 🥔 To Hill or Not to Hill? If your goal is the fastest, earliest possible harvest, do not hill (earth up) the potatoes after planting. Hilling delays the harvest (though it increases the total yield later).
Hello everyone! Ludmila, could you give me a tip? I must have missed it, but what kind of pots do you use to start potato seedlings indoors for an early harvest? What volume do they need, and do they need to be transparent or dark pots?
Irina, we used to grow them in little bags made out of newspaper. I used to insist that newspaper was the only way to go, because if you try to pull them out of any other container, the root ball completely falls apart.
But for the last year, I’ve been experimenting with growing potatoes in small 3.5 oz (100 ml) cups. I start them a bit later indoors, but plant them outside earlier, right when the leaf rosette forms. If the seed potato is small, a 3.5 oz cup is enough. If it’s medium, you need a 7 oz (200 ml) cup. Dark or white plastic doesn’t matter, because we pack them tightly into a crate anyway.
What I love about planting them out at the rosette stage is that you can plant them out earlier without fearing the frost. Right before a frost hits, you can hill (earth up) the soil right over their heads, and the bush will only grow stronger because of it.
Ludochka, thank you so much! And how long does it take to get a seedling to that desired stage? Is two weeks enough?
Yes, I’d say 14-15 days is plenty. Start them in cups around April 11th, and plant them out in the garden on April 25th.
How to Make DIY Newspaper Pots for Potatoes
Ludmila, I put a normal-sized seed potato (about the size of a chicken egg) into a 7 oz (200 ml) cup. How is it supposed to grow in there? There is absolutely no room for roots. Maybe I should plant it in a 16 oz (half-liter) cup instead? Or maybe I misunderstood something.
Good morning! It looks to me like you need to add some soil to that cup. Last year, my potato seedlings grew in rolled newspaper cones filled with soil. I really liked the result.
Russi (Anna) wrote:
I put a normal-sized seed potato into a 7 oz cup. How is it supposed to grow in there?
Anna, fill the cup halfway with peat and sawdust, then put the potato in, and sprinkle a little more on top. I think it will be just fine.
gala7496 (Galina) wrote:
Last year, my potato seedlings grew in rolled newspaper cones filled with soil.
Galina, do you leave the newspaper on when you plant them in the garden?
This photo is from May 24th, 2020. Natasha, of course I removed the newspaper before planting. Inside the paper, there was a massive root ball completely holding the soil together. Luda actually criticized me for hilling (earthing up) those potatoes, but it was my first time planting them this way and I didn’t know better.
LavandaN (Natalia) wrote:
Galya, do you leave the newspaper on when you plant them in the garden?
You absolutely cannot plant them with the newspaper left on. It will restrict the roots from growing for the entire summer. Right before planting, you carefully peel off the newspaper and plant the potato.
I am absolutely loyal to newspaper pots. It’s so easy to plant them, rolling them is a breeze, just two clicks with a stapler. There is plenty of room for the tuber, the roots get massive, and the sprouts start poking out the top. If it gets too tight, a root will literally just poke right through the damp newspaper. I stand them upright in a crate. I vote for newspaper pots!
Girls, how exactly do you make a pot out of newspaper? Do you just twist it by the corner? What size should it be? Does anyone have photos?
I took a newspaper and a cylindrical can (like a large can of bug spray, for example). I wrapped the newspaper around it in about three layers. Slipped it off, folded the bottom inwards, and put a couple of staples in the top edge (you can use tape too). I filled it halfway with damp soil, dropped the potato in, covered it with more soil, and packed them tightly together in a crate.
I do it exactly the same way, except I fold the bottom in FIRST, and then slide it off the can. The newspaper slides off as a perfect cylinder, one staple at the top – and the cup is done. It goes very fast.
Should You Hill (Earth Up) Early Potatoes?
gala7496 (Galina) wrote:
Ludmila actually criticized me for hilling (earthing up) those potatoes…
Wait, are you not supposed to hill potatoes?
LavandaN (Natalia) wrote:
Wait, are you not supposed to hill potatoes?
It’s generally believed that hilling pushes back the harvest time. So if your specific goal is getting an ultra-early harvest, hilling is not a great idea.
It’s better to form a raised bed right from the start and never hill them afterward. If you do this, the tubers will form earlier and be much larger (though there will be fewer of them). But if you don’t care about getting them extra early, then you can just grow and hill them as usual.
Ludmila, have you really tried planting potatoes in those little plastic cups? In our region, G. Staroseltseva just layers them in a crate for moist sprouting–alternating a layer of potatoes and a layer of soil, no higher than 2 tiers. In previous years, I always planted them in newspaper pots (huge thanks to you for teaching me that), but right now I’m debating if I should just try plastic cups instead.
Lyubov, yes, I’ve tried it. It just happened that I had a ton of extra plastic cups lying around, and I didn’t feel like rolling paper pots. I was worried that the potato wouldn’t fit, that it would be too cramped, and that there would be nowhere for the roots to grow. But if you are only growing the seedling up to the rosette stage (or just slightly past it), it works out perfectly fine.
The only modification I will absolutely make this year is cutting the top rims off the cups with scissors. I did that with my tomato and pepper seedlings, and it is so convenient – it takes up drastically less space under the lights. I plan to start my potatoes on April 11th.
