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Tips For Fertilizing Potatoes At The Perfect Time
By NICK POLISHCHUK
It’s satisfying to eat potatoes that you’ve grown in your own garden; however, they’re among the most demanding vegetables to grow. One essential aspect is fertilizing correctly.
Potatoes are very fussy about the nutritional balance in their growing medium, and they need the right food at the right time to remain disease-free and produce a good harvest.
Testing the soil’s current composition is a crucial first step. Potatoes uptake many nutrients during the growing season but consume large quantities of potassium and nitrogen.
Use a fertilizer that rectifies a deficiency indicated by the test. A month after planting, apply the fertilizer along the length of the rows, then hill the soil around the plants.
Add at least 0.15 pounds of actual nitrogen for every 50 linear feet of potatoes growing in a row and repeat two weeks later. Take care as excess nitrogen is detrimental to tubers.
The soil test will determine the amount of nitrogen to add. Generally, potato varieties that mature early need less nitrogen, and soils with low organic matter need more nitrogen.
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