Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
Karuparera Potato
A variety of potato
How to sow karuparera potato: Direct seed outdoors after last frost. Each piece must have one eye.
Sun requirement for karuparera potato: Plant in Full Sun
Karuparera is a traditional New Zealand heritage Māori potato (taewa) featuring dark purple skin with white eyes and creamy, waxy flesh
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Karuparera potato facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For karuparera potato, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 90 days at its best temperature, about 1170 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your karuparera potato will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing karuparera potatoes
- Sit seed potatoes in the light to sprout 4 weeks before planting out
- Dig compost into the bed 1 week before planting out
- Earth up the shoots 3 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Check the leaves for blight 5 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Water in dry weather 6 weeks after planting out every week
- Dig the first new potatoes at first harvest
- Lift the main crop 6 weeks after first harvest
- Dry the potatoes and store them in the dark 7 weeks after first harvest
How members grow karuparera potatoes
Planted from
Plant karuparera potatoes with
eggplant
marjoram
Photos
Photos
Karuparera potato plantings
Video
Where karuparera potatoes grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about karuparera potatoes
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Who's planted karuparera potatoes
- shiny North West bed · Wellington, NZ
shiny
Karuparera potato harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 90 to 160 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Solanum tuberosum L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Solanaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -1 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about karuparera potatoes
Resources outside Growstuff.
