Before you plant a potato or even dig a hole, it helps to know what to expect from your plants. That includes the output you might get at the end of the season.
So, how many potatoes per plant can you expect? You can expect a yield from 1 to 5 pounds of potatoes per plant (1 or 2 large potatoes to 13 small ones). Some varieties of potatoes will yield more per plant, and you will get more weight if you wait until maturity to harvest the tubers.
Of course, stress (from weather, pests, diseases, weeds, and competition) also affects potato plant yield. The good news is, you can alter potato production by changing how you plant your seed potatoes.
For example, planting farther apart results in fewer plants, but gives you a good chance of getting larger tubers.
In this article, we’ll talk about how many potatoes you can expect per plant and how to ensure that you get a good yield.
Let’s get started.
The Complete Guide To Growing Potatoes
A complete reference and an ultimate guide that teaches you everything you need to know about potato selection, planting, care, harvest, and storage.
How Many Potatoes Per Plant?
You can expect a yield of 1 to 5 pounds (16 to 80 ounces) of potato tubers per plant. Most potatoes weigh in at 6 to 13 ounces, so this means 1 or 2 large potatoes up to 13 small potatoes from one plant.
The number of potatoes per plant depends on several factors, including:
- Variety – some types of potatoes are more productive than others. Some produce only a few large tubers, while others produce many small ones.
- Weather – a spring freeze will kill potato growth back to the soil surface. A fall freeze will end the season early. High soil temperatures will slow or stop tuber formation, and drought will lead to reduced yield. Too much rain will lead to soggy soil, which will lead to loss of tubers due to rot.
- Stress – pests (like Colorado Potato Beetle), diseases (like early blight), and competition (from weeds or other nearby plants) all contribute to stress that will reduce yield from potato plants.
A good year can put you closer to 4 or 5 pounds of potatoes per plant, while a bad year can reduce it to 1 pound or less per plant (especially in the face of late blight).
Remember that total yield (in terms of weight) will be lower if you harvest before maturity (for example, new potatoes).
However, potato yield per plant also depends on who you ask (and where you plant). The soil in some areas will be better suited to growing potatoes (the best is sandy, well-drained soil that is somewhat acidic).
| University Source | Suggested Yield (lbs per plant) |
|---|---|
| Maryland | 0.4 to 1.5 |
| Maine | 0.67 to 2 |
| Colorado | 2 |
| Oregon | 2 to 4 |
| Michigan | 3 to 5 |
per potato plant from five
different universities.
How Many Potatoes Do You Get From Two Plants?
You can expect 2 to 10 pounds of potatoes from two plants. This comes out to 3 or 4 large potatoes or 26 small potatoes (or somewhere in between for medium size potatoes).
If you leave more space between your two potato plants (12 to 15 inches), they will compete less and produce more tubers per plant.
How Many Potatoes Do You Get From Three, Four, Or More Plants?
The following table gives you an idea of how many pounds of potatoes to expect from different numbers of potato plants, depending on tuber size (low, middle, and high).
| Number of Plants | Low | Middle | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-2 | 3 | 4-5 |
| 2 | 2-4 | 6 | 8-10 |
| 3 | 3-6 | 9 | 12-15 |
| 4 | 4-8 | 12 | 16-20 |
| 5 | 5-10 | 15 | 20-25 |
| N | N-2N | 3N | 4N-5N |
high ranges for potato yield (in pounds),
depending on the number of plants.
How Do You Get More Potatoes Per Plant?
To get more potatoes per plant, choose high-yielding varieties, such as Kennebec, Red Luna, Viking, and Yukon Gold. Use certified seed potatoes, which are disease-free and have not been treated with sprout inhibitors (which grocery store potatoes are treated with).
Also, leave more space between potato plants (12 to 15 inches if you have the space to spare). This reduces competition between plants and gives them more space to grow, along with more water and nutrients to produce tubers.
By similar reasoning, keep weeds under control to get more potatoes per plant. If your potato plants are not competing with weeds, then they have more resources to grow and make tubers.
Take steps to control pests to keep them from weakening your plants. Biological pest control (for example, ladybugs to eat aphids or Colorado Potato Beetle larvae) is one way to prevents pests without pesticides.
Use hilling several times during the growing season to get more potatoes per plant. Hilling will insulate plants from extreme cold and heat, discourage certain pests, and prevents green tubers by keeping them out of sunlight (thus increasing edible harvest).
You can use soil, straw, or other materials for hilling potatoes. Potato growers who want competition-grade potato tubers often use straw to grow potatoes.
Use side-dressing to add fertilizer (including nitrogen) to your potatoes, especially if a soil test reveals a deficiency.
The Complete Guide To Growing Potatoes
A complete reference and an ultimate guide that teaches you everything you need to know about potato selection, planting, care, harvest, and storage.
How Many Potatoes Can You Plant Per Row? (Potato Plant Spacing)
According to Fedco Seeds, a seed potato piece weighs about 2 ounces. So, 1 pound (16 ounces) of seed potatoes will give you around 8 plants.
This means 1 pound of seed potatoes will furnish 8 to 10 feet of row at spacing of 12 to 15 inches between plants.
The following table gives a summary of what to expect at various spacing for seed potatoes: inches between plants and length of row needed:
| Space Between Plants (Inches) | Length Of Row |
|---|---|
| 6 | 4 feet |
| 8 | 5 feet, 4 inches |
| 9 | 6 feet |
| 10 | 6 feet, 8 inches |
| 12 | 8 feet |
| 15 | 10 feet |
of row needed for a pound
of seed potatoes (meaning
8 plants) at various
spacing between plants.
If you want larger tubers, plant them a little farther apart (for example, 15 inches instead of 12 inches). Just remember that this will take up more space, and you will get fewer plants in the same garden (each plant takes up 25% more space, so you will get 20% fewer plants).
On the other hand, if the tubers are too large in your experience, then plant seed potatoes closer together (for example, 8 or 9 inches apart). This is a good experiment to try if your tubers get hollow heart when they are too large.
How Many Potatoes Per Pound Of Seed Potatoes?
You can probably expect 8 to 40 pounds of potatoes (10 to 50 large potatoes or 21 to 105 small potatoes per pound of seed potato). This sounds like a big range, so let’s go through the calculations below.
A pound of seed potatoes is 16 ounces. Assuming each seed potato piece is around 2 ounces, then you will get 16 / 2 = 8 seed potato pieces from one pound of seed potatoes.
If each seed potato piece successfully grows into a healthy plant, then you will get 8 plants. If each plant produces 1 to 5 pounds of potatoes, then you can expect 8 to 40 pounds of potatoes at harvest from a single pound of seed potatoes!
If you cut up the seed potato into smaller pieces, you might get more plants, but they might be less hardy (so you might lose some), or they might not grow as well (meaning lower yields).
However, as mentioned earlier, it all depends on a variety of factors, including the type of potato, the plant spacing, the weather, the soil, sources of stress on the plant, and the care you give them.
How Many Pounds Of Seed Potatoes Do I Need?
The pounds of seed potatoes you will need for planting depends on the spacing between plants and rows, and how much area you are cultivating.
Let’s look at some examples.
Example 1: How Many Pounds Of Seed Potatoes Do I Need?
Let’s say that you are planting 3 rows of potatoes in your garden. There will be 30 potato plants per row, meaning you will have 3*30 = 90 plants.
Each plant will come from 1 piece of seed potato, which will be about 2 ounces. This means you will need 90*2 = 180 ounces of seed potatoes (or 180/16 ~ 11.25 pounds of seed potatoes).
Example 2: How Many Pounds Of Seed Potatoes Do I Need?
Let’s say that you have an area in the garden that is 15 feet wide and 20 feet long. You want to leave 15 inches between potato plants (to get larger tubers) and 3 feet between rows.
So, on the 15 feet of width with 3 feet between rows, you can fit 15/3 = 5 rows of plants (6 if you squeeze them in at both ends).
Each row of plants is 20 feet or 240 inches long (20*12 = 240). So, you can fit 240/15 = 16 plants per row.
So, this means (5 rows)*(16 plants per row) = 80 plants.
Each plant will come from 1 piece of seed potato, which will be about 2 ounces. This means you will need 80*2 = 160 ounces of seed potatoes (or 160/16 = 10 pounds of seed potatoes).
The Complete Guide To Growing Potatoes
A complete reference and an ultimate guide that teaches you everything you need to know about potato selection, planting, care, harvest, and storage.
Conclusion
Now you know how many potatoes to expect per plant and also how to increase your yield with proper potato plant care.
I hope you found this article helpful. If so, please share it with someone who can use the information.
You can find a recipe for twice baked mashed potatoes here.
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