How Many Potatoes per Plant (Detailed Explanation)
Potato plants aren’t your usual garden plants because their growth process is slightly different from other plants. Additionally, you can’t really tell the quality or the quantity of the yield unless it’s harvest day.
That happens because the tubers or the potatoes remain buried underground for 90-120 days. You don’t get to see the results of your hard work until you dig them out.
Yet, you need to have some expectations before harvesting, right? So, how many potatoes per plant should you expect?
Potato plants will give you around 10 potatoes per plant. Those 10 potatoes should weigh anywhere between 6-7 pounds (2.7-3.1 kg).
How Many Potatoes per Plant?
Each potato plant will give you anywhere between 8-12 potatoes of various sizes and weights. 2-4 of these potatoes will be small-sized, 6-8 will be medium-sized, and 2-3 will be on the larger side.
A small potato weighs a bit less than 5 ounces (140 grams), while a medium one weighs somewhere between 5-10 ounces (140-280 grams.) A large potato weighs more than 10 ounces (over 280 grams.)
Doing the math, you should expect your plant to yield around 1 pound (0.4 kg) of small potatoes, 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of medium potatoes, and 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of large potatoes. All in all, you get 8-12 potatoes per plant, and they will weigh 6.7 pounds (4.2 kg.)
All of these numbers are average and aren’t restricted. You can get bigger or smaller numbers and sizes of potatoes. Fun fact, as of 2022, the world’s largest potato weighs around 11 pounds (5 kg.)
How to Increase Potato plant Yield?
You can increase your potato plant yield by planting at the correct depth, keeping the temperature suitable, and watering correctly.
Planting at the correct depth is arguably the most important factor in increasing the yield of your potato plants. We’ll need a bit of imagination here, so bear with us for a second.
Imagine that we have a plant that can grow fruits all around its stem. You’d want to make the stem of that plant as long as possible to get as many fruits as possible, right?
In potato plants, the stem that produces the tubers is actually located underground. The green part of the plant (vines) is what’s located outside.
So, if you want to increase the length of the stem, you need to plant your potato as deep as 6 or even 8 inches (15-20 cm.) This will give the longest possible stem you can get and increase the yield of your potato plant.
You should also do your best to plant potatoes in the right season where temperatures are favorable, 61-66ºF (16-19ºC), to be exact. The best time to start planting your potatoes should be between late March or early May, when the spring is coming.
Last but not least, appropriate watering won’t only increase the yield of your potato plant but also the size of the tubers.
Problems that Decrease Potato Yield
The main problems that lead to decreased potato yield are the absence of sunlight, improper nutrition, and insufficient watering. The absence of sunlight will slow down the growth of any plant because it slows down the photosynthesis process. Without sunlight, the plant loses the ability to make its own food and, in turn, grows slower and yields less.
Nutrition is another important part of the plant growth formula. Just like the absence of sunlight, a potato plant that’s deprived of compost and fertilizer will grow slower.
Lack of water is the last but certainly not the least reason for the reduction of potato plant yield. Potato plants’ soil should never be allowed to go dry.
It should always be moist but not stagnant. Additionally, when you check for moisture, you should do that as deep as the level of the planted potatoes.
How Many Potatoes will Grow from One Seed?
If a potato seed successfully grows into a plant, it will form around 10 potatoes of variable sizes. This number will increase or decrease depending on the type of seed you use.
Before we go any further, you should understand that potato seeds aren’t actual seeds. It’s just a term used to describe the origin of a new potato plant.
Potato seeds can either be true seeds or seed pieces. True seeds are small-sized potatoes that have sprouted and used to plant an entirely new plant. Seed pieces are sliced parts of a larger size potato that has sprouted and planted to form a new potato plant.
Regardless of the type of seed you use, the size and the quality of those seeds is the main determining factor in the number of potatoes they grow. A small-sized, low-quality seed can give you less than 6 potatoes even if taken care of. On the other hand, larger, higher-quality seeds can yield over 10 potatoes.
Conclusion
How many potatoes per plant depends on the planting conditions, the quality of seeds, and the amount of water and nutrition. Your lucky number is 10. The more you take care of your plant, the more potatoes over 10 you can get per plant.
Do your best to plant your seeds deep and keep the soil moisturized and well-fertilized. You should end up with good-sized, numerous potatoes. Happy planting.