How to Fertilize Potatoes

Viewing videos requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Get the latest Flash player.

Showing 1-5

Part of the video series: How To Grow Potatoes

How to Dig a Trench for Potato P...

How to Prepare Potatoes for Plan...

Where to Plant Potatoes

Add to My Playlist What is a playlist?

Summary: Learn how to fertilize potatoes in this free video on home gardening.

Views: 3,425 | Tags: grow, plant, potato, potatoes, farm, farming, agriculture, potato farming

Get the latest Flash player.

Email Video Add to Favorites

About the Expert

Doug Smiddy Doug Smiddy has had an active interest in gardening as long has he can remember. "When people ask me haw long I've been gardening, I like to tell them that I'... read more

Hide Comments

Conversations About This Video

Comments
(0 comments)
Questions & Answers
(0 questions) (0 answers)

Be the first to comment on this video.

Have a question about this video topic? Ask our community members and let them share their knowledge with you!

Ask A Question

You must sign in to perform that task.

Log In Now!
Don't have an account? Click here to sign up for FREE!

Sign Up Now!
Already have an account? Click here to sign in.

Email Address:

Password:

Confirm Password:

Screen Name:

I would like to receive the Expert Village Video of the Day

Date of Birth:

Gender: Male Female

Country:

Zip/Postal Code:

Enter the letters you see below

What's This?

I agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.

Video Transcript

How to Fertilize Potatoes

Hi! I'm Doug Smiddy with Smiddy's Gardening Services on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we are going to talk about how to plant, grow and harvest potatoes. Fertilizing potatoes is important and you need to understand because it is a below ground crop, it is going to need a fertilizer that is lower in nitrogen. Nitrogen is what promotes leaves, top growth so if you have too much nitrogen in your fertilizer or in the soil, what is going to happen is you are going to have beautiful green lush looking tops and no potatoes. So what you want to use is a fertilizer that is going to be something like a 5/10/10 or 8/16/16. I also like to mix in a product called sulpomag which is sulphur , potassium and magnesium. You can find it at any garden center and what I do is mix about a 50/50 blend of my fertilizer and my sulpomag and shake it up in the bag really well and once my potatoes are in, I just take a couple of handfuls and do kind of a band dressing like right over the top like that and follow your directions on your bag. You do not want to over fertilize. It is better to under fertilize twice than to over fertilize once. You don't want to burn your roots. So that will give me a good general application. I take my hand held cultivator and lightly scratch it into the soil so when I water it, those particles break down and they become part of the soil and start feeding your potatoes and get the roots going and you watch them come up. About 4 weeks after that, you give them another dose of fertilizer and you just watch those things grow. You are going to be so happy.