Last edited on November 29, 2025. View history
Red Potato
No scientific name recorded
A variety of potato
How to sow red potato: Direct seed outdoors after last frost. Each piece must have one eye.
Sun requirement for red potato: Plant in Full Sun
Potatoes are starchy root vegetables in the Solanaceae, or Nightshade, family, which also includes tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. They originated in South America, and spread to become a worldwide staple. The leaves and fruit are usually poisonous and the stem tuber is the only edible part once it is cooked. The potato can be cooked in many ways, brewed into alcohol, and also used as the basis for creating bioplastics. More growing information is available in individual species entries.
- 3
- plantings
- 1
- harvest
- 0
- seed packets
Red potato facts
Lifespan
Annual
living and reproducing in a single year or less
14 weeks
median lifespan
First harvest expected
14
weeks after planting
Last harvest expected
14
weeks after planting
Grown for
tuber harvested 1 time
Optimal temperature
15–25 °C
Absolute temperature
7–30 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall
500–800 mm/year
Absolute rainfall
250–2000 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH
5–6.2
Absolute soil pH
4.2–8.5
FAO EcoCrop
Crop cycle
90–160 days
FAO EcoCrop
Max altitude
2800 m
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal light
very bright
FAO EcoCrop
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 red 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 red 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 red 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 red potatoes
Sunniness
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Planted from
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Harvested for
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Varieties of red potato
Plant red potatoes with
eggplant
marjoram
Photos
Photos
Red potato plantings
Red potato harvests
Red potato seeds
Video
Where red potatoes grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about red potatoes
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Who's planted red potatoes
- shiny Robyn Adair potato Sunny old raised bed · Wellington, NZ
shiny
Red potato harvests
-
shiny harvested 3.13 kg.
almost 9 years ago
shiny harvested 3.13 kg.
Find red potato seeds
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
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 red potatoes
Resources outside Growstuff.
