Last Updated on September 13, 2026
How Many Potatoes per Square Foot?
2 seed potatoes per square foot on the square foot chart, or one per square if you want big baking potatoes. Potatoes need depth more than width: plant them 4 inches deep and hill soil or mulch up the stems as they grow.
The spacing pattern
| Square foot method | 2 per square on the chart; 1 per square if you want large baking potatoes; rows at 12 to 15 inches in a traditional bed |
|---|---|
| 4 x 4 bed (16 squares) | 32 seed potatoes |
| 4 x 8 bed (32 squares) | 64 seed potatoes |
Every seed piece makes a plant that sets tubers along the buried stem, so yield comes from how much stem you bury, not how many plants you cram in. Two per square gives more, smaller potatoes; one per square gives fewer, larger ones.
Planting the square
- Cut seed potatoes into egg-sized pieces with two eyes each and let them cure a day or two.
- Plant 4 inches deep, 1 or 2 per square, 2 to 1 weeks before the last frost.
- When the plants are 8 inches tall, hill soil or straw up around them, and repeat; harvest after the tops die back.
Tim’s growing notes
Planting, hilling, watering and harvest are in Planting and Growing Potatoes. No bed? Potatoes grow very well in fabric containers.
When to plant potatoes
These are the windows the Plan My Garden planner uses, counted from your average last spring frost. Enter your frost date on the seed starting calendar to turn them into dates. Potatoes go in a couple of weeks before the last frost; the tops are frost-tender, so not earlier.
| Direct sow | 2 weeks before to 1 week before your last frost |
|---|---|
| Days to maturity | about 90 days |
How I grow them, in brief
I chit the seed potatoes four to six weeks ahead in a warm, bright spot until the sprouts are half an inch long, cut the big ones into pieces with two sprouts each, and let the cuts callus for two days. In the bed they go 4 inches deep, one or two to a square, sprouts up. When the plants are 8 inches tall I hill soil or straw up around them, and again as they grow, because the crop forms along the buried stem. Mulch keeps light off any tuber near the surface; a green potato is not for eating. When the tops yellow and die back I stop watering for two weeks, then dig, dry them in the sun for an hour, and cure them two weeks in the dark at about 55°F before storing. Bed method in Planting and Growing Potatoes; the fabric-pot version, which is how I grow most of mine now, is How to Grow Potatoes in Containers.
Where I get seed
Seed potatoes are what Wood Prairie is known for: certified organic Maine seed potatoes in dozens of varieties, sorted by season and by texture. Their easy-to-grow list is the place to start. Code PMG5 takes 5 percent off.
Quick questions
How many potatoes will a 4 x 4 bed produce?
With 16 to 32 seed pieces and good hilling, expect several pounds per plant, so 30 to 60 pounds is a reasonable range.
Can I use grocery store potatoes as seed?
Most are treated to stop sprouting and can carry disease. Certified seed potatoes are cheap insurance.
Let the planner place them
Plan My Garden is free to start: draw your beds, pick potatoes and everything else you want to grow, and it places each plant at the right spacing and gives you a planting schedule for your zip code.
Related: Square Foot Gardening Chart · Planting and Growing Potatoes · Seed Starting Calendar
