Your Own Potato Garden

Welcome to the potato garden. We grow and ship both garden size and farm size quantities of Colorado Certified Seed Potatoes. This is the place for gardeners, farmers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in potatoes. We also carry Planting Garlic, Jerusalem Artichokes, Onions, Shallots, and Real Salt. We hope you enjoy your stay, and please let us know what you think.

Gardening Thoughts

If you're not already gardening, this is a great year to start. Knowledge of gardening can be a hedge of protection in uncertain times. Raising your own garden provides the benefits of health and better tasting food. It always tastes better when you grow it yourself. And for their nutritional value and yield, we put potatoes at the top of the garden list. It's been said, that we could meet our daily nutritional needs, with only potatoes and milk.

Updated: August 7th, 2010

Current News

Garlic to Plant

Our garlic is now available online and can also be shipped now. However, if you can wait until September 1st shipping, that would be the best.

Seed Potatoes Available

We have a few pounds of naturally grown seed potatoes available for fall planting: Yukon Gold, Purple Viking, Nicola, and Red Dale. Please note that we only give fall planted potatoes a 50% chance of growing. We will make more varieties available online as we harvest them. If you want to pre-order seed potatoes for next spring, please check back Novevember 1st, or give us a call.

Planting Potatoes in the Fall

Fall planting works best for the Southern States. You will need at least 3 months of growing season before you receive a vine killing frost. If you don't have this much time, it'll be better to plant next Spring. Other considerations are soil temperature at planting time and whether the seed potatoes are sprouted and ready to grow. If the soil temperature is too hot, the seed potatoes may not make it. They may be cooked in the soil before they can grow. If the seed potatoes are from our new 2010 crop, we will give them a 50/50 chance of sprouting and growing right away. The seed potatoes generally go through a winter dormancy period where they do not grow because they are waiting for next Spring to start growing. We want all our fall planting customers to be aware of these difficulties. So, having said all this, if you are still willing to take the 50/50 risk of planting fall potatoes, then we will gladly send you the seed. If you've come up with a good fall planting system, please let us know so that we can share the information here on this website.

There are some ways to encourage newly harvested seed potatoes to grow. The first is to place the seed potatoes in a desk drawer in a room that is 70 to 80 degrees F. Check them every 3 days to see if they've sprouted yet. The second is to place the seed potatoes in a paper bag with several banana peels. The out gassing of the banana peels may encourage the seed potatoes to sprout. The third method is to simply plant the seed potatoes, because the environment of the soil, if it's temperature is above 50 degrees F., is one of the best ways to encourage the potatoes to grow. If the soil is too cool, around 40 degrees F., then the potatoes will think it is too cold to grow and they will wait for the soil to warm up. There is one more thing that may encourage seed potatoes to sprout, large swings in temperature, such as a daytime temperature of 80 degrees F. and a nighttime temperature of 50 degrees F. Remember, to plant this fall, do not expose the seed potates to temperatures below 50 degrees F. When the potatoes get cold, the will go into dormancy, that is, go to sleep, and they will not want to grow until spring.

Seed Potato Shipping

Shipping by UPS or by Mail

We ship Colorado Certified Seed Potatoes in small quantities from 1 to 200 lbs in 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 50 lb. boxes. During the checkout process, you'll be able to choose the shipping method and compare costs.

Orders from 200 lbs. to 1000 lbs. are shipped using UPS Hundred weight service. On-line orders for 200+ pounds are adjusted by us after we receive them or you may call for a shipping quote and also place your order by phone. Orders over 1,000 pounds are shipped by Freight. Definitely call us to set up these orders.

Your Shipping Date

Many customers like to place their orders early and have us ship at a later date. During the check out process you are asked for a ship date. As a minimum, please indicate a date that is two weeks before you are able to safely plant. The rule of thumb to follow, for the earliest planting time, is to plant two weeks before your last spring frost. Then of course, you can plant anytime after that, giving yourself at least 3 months growing season before a major fall frost.

Shipping in March through October

If your shipping week falls in the months of March through October, the plan is for you to receive your order later that week or the following week. Occasionally there are delays but we work hard every year to minimize this. Most customers find that shipping 2 weeks before they plant works well. Once received, the seed potatoes will last over a month before they will need to be planted.

Shipping in December through February

Due to freezing temperatures in the winter, we only ship 2 to 4 times from December through February. When we have a full load of orders ready to go, we take them in a protected van or truck to a UPS hub in Albuquerque or Las Cruces, NM. From there they ship throughout the Southern States without the worry of freezing. For this reason your shipment may be delayed 1 to 3 weeks or it may even be shipped earlier.

ASAP Shipping

In the months of April and May, we have customers that place their orders and wish that we would ship them now or even yesterday. However, we have thousands of previously placed orders to pack and ship, starting with the earliest ones placed. So if you are placing your order in April or May, the approximate time for you to receive your seed potatoes is 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. You may put ASAP on your shipping date knowing that ASAP means 2 to 2 1/2 weeks for delivery.

How many seed potatoes do I need?

Potatoes in a Pound:

As an average, in 1 pound of seed potatoes, you will receive from 5 to 8 tubers. You can plant all the tubers whole. Or, to get more plants, you can cut a few of the larger ones so that you have at least one eye on each piece. In the picture below, you will see how to make 5 seed potatoes into 10. Use a multiple of 10 to figure out how many pounds you need. Figure 1 lb will plant 10 feet, 2 lbs will plant 20 feet, 3 lbs will plant 30 feet, and so on.

Potential Yield

To figure out potential yield, multiply the pounds planted by 10. So, if you plant 5 lbs. of seed potatoes, you should yield 50 lbs of potatoes. This is a good starting point for estimating the yield, however, many gardeners are able to bring in much higher yields due to great soil and great growing conditions.

Planting instructions are included with each order. You may also request that we mail you a printed catalog or you may download one to your computer.