How many pounds of harvest will 5 pounds of seed potatoes yield?

How far will a potatoes plant spread out underground from the seed potato?

Will it take over other adjacent crops?

Thanks

Others can probably answer this better (I am a newbe on the potatoes - first year I am really planting them and I am experimenting at that since I don't have a ton of room).

From my understanding the potatoes will grow between the seed piece and the top of the soil (or straw if you grow them in straw). From my understadning, yield will vary not only from type of potato, how much room they have, season lenght and soil condition, but also based on how much you hill it. If you only hill once, you have a very limited space (between the seed and the top of the soil or straw) for them to grow.

JamesM gave a perfect answer. This is something that no one can really answer for you as it's based on way too many variables. As far as yield, look up info on the varieties you're growing & see what's expected, although even that will vary depending on your specific growing conditions.

They don't spread all that much & certainly won't take over adjoining crops assuming you space them correctly to begin with. They're not like vining squash or anything like that.

allenwrench, you may be thinking about sweet potatoes. Those vines will visit neighboring beds, but not irish white or red taters. They stay close. I am guessing if all goes well from your 5 lbs.of seed potatoes, if you get 25-35 lbs. at harvest, you should be happy.

Its possible, if you let them get big enough, to get a bushel, over 50 lbs. But all your conditions will have to be perfect., Temp, water, soil, etc.

I usually plant a row of 20-25 seed potatoes...guessing to be 2 lbs or so.

I would guess the harvest at 10-20 lbs depending on growing conditions, water, and how much defoliation has been done by the beetles, and that assumes you hill them up a foot or so.

Now if you start digging them a couple weeks after blooms start, youll get more small potatoes, or new potatoes, youll get a bigger harvest if you wait until the plants start to die back....I do both, dig small ones early and leave some for bigger taters.

quote:

Originally posted by JamesM:
Others can probably answer this better (I am a newbe on the potatoes - first year I am really planting them and I am experimenting at that since I don't have a ton of room).

From my understanding the potatoes will grow between the seed piece and the top of the soil (or straw if you grow them in straw). From my understadning, yield will vary not only from type of potato, how much room they have, season lenght and soil condition, but also based on how much you hill it. If you only hill once, you have a very limited space (between the seed and the top of the soil or straw) for them to grow.

Thanks for everyone's replies.

I thought the taters grew underground.

If the seed potato is planted a few inches below the soil will potatoes grow above the original soil line?

Is the reason to hill them up to keep them from turning green from sunlight? (as well as keep them moist)

Ya!
I'll take that. You must hill for two reasons if no other. Firstly to keep the 'taters from getting sun burned and also to keep the plant fed, cool and moist in the hot sun.
I think I got that right.

The taters DO grow underground. But some folks prefer to grow them underneath a thick pile of straw instead of earth.

If you have a veggie gardening book or do a websearch on "growing potatoes" look for a picture that will show you where & how the taters sprout off the plant. That would be easier to understand than reading a printed explanation.

They sprout off root nodules on the root system, the looser higher hill you can pull up around the plant even as it grows almost bury the plant a couple times, the more roots you will make, thus the more taters you will make. Add straw or soil, hill up around the plants as they grow. And you can double, even tripple your yield. Like the old tater in the bucket trick. Put about 4 inches of soil or potting soil in a bucket. Plant the seed, put 4 inches on top of it. Then as the tater plant grows, add soil till just the top of the plant is stickin out. Do this till the bucket is full of dirt to the top and the tater plant is now growing full out of the top of the bucket. When the plant starts to die back. Dump the bucket and look at what you have....taters, taters, taters, all the way up the bucket.

As an old senior citizen, I just harvested about 23 lbs. of red potatoes from ONE pound of seed potatoes. I did a deep trench down my row, plant the seed potatoes about 6" apart, cover them with about 2" of soil, then keep pulling dirt (Hilling) up over the green stems, leaving the leaves free. By the time I quit pulling dirt, the mound (hill) is probably 8" deep. Some of your produce will depend on soil, weather, type of potato, etc. I did not fertilize my seed potatoes this year. Also, Organic Gardening website has a pretty good video on planting potatoes. Happy Gardening!

That's a very nice yield. If you had planted 100 lbs., you could have harvested a ton of taters.

You will know at time of harvest! Too many variables, but the potential is amazing.