Potatoes (Latin: Solanum tuberosum) are one of the easiest and most rewarding crops to grow, even in the challenging conditions of Zone 3 Alberta. While the short growing season and clay-heavy soil can seem tricky, with a little preparation and care, you can enjoy a bumper crop of delicious, homegrown potatoes.
This guide is here to walk you through everything you need to know—from picking the right varieties to digging up and storing your harvest.
Gardening in Zone 3 Alberta
Zone 3 Alberta isn’t for the faint of heart—it’s known for long, freezing winters, and short summers with a growing season that lasts only about 80-100 days. Thankfully that is plenty of time to grow potatoes, and they’re not even difficult to take care of!
Here’s what helps:
- Choose plants and varieties that thrive in our temperamental weather.
- Start as early as possible to make best use of the shorter growing period.
- Prep your soil to set your plants up for success.
Picking the Best Potato Varieties
Not all potatoes are created equal, especially when you’re gardening in a cooler climate. In Canada, most of the potatoes available are “intermediate” varieties and are classified by their maturity dates—perfect for our shorter summers.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Very Early: 65–70 days
- Early: 70–90 days
- Mid-Season: 90–110 days
- Late: 110–130 days
For Zone 3 Alberta, stick with early or mid-season potatoes. They’ll mature quickly and reliably before the first frost. for best results as a new grower, buy from a local greenhouse or garden center (truly locally owned, not a chain). They take into account local growing conditions when they bring in seeds to resell. You can even plant grocery store potatoes that have sprouted, but seed potatoes tend to give you better results.
It’s most important to just get the highest quality of what you are able to obtain in the varieties you want. Good quality seed potatoes first, then organic regular potatoes, or regular potatoes, if no seed potatoes are available. Skip over any that don’t look healthy: wilted, wrinkled, moldy, and/or bad smelling.
Potato tops do grow flowers and seeds, but potato genetics are weird and you won’t end up with the potatoes that grew under ground.
Getting Your Soil Ready
Potatoes are happiest in loose, well-draining soil that’s packed with organic matter, also known as loamy. If your backyard soil is more like cement (that’s the clay), don’t worry—you can fix it!
Here’s how:
- Add organic matter: Mix in compost, peat moss, or well-rotted manure to loosen things up.
- Adjust the pH: Potatoes prefer slightly acidic soil (pH 5.5–6.5).
- Try raised beds: If you’re not able to fix your soil, grow your potatoes in containers or raised beds.
Rotate what you grow
Try to avoid planting potatoes where potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant were grown for at least the past 2 years, optimally 4 years, to prevent diseases. Crop rotation can be vital for a healthy garden and is one of the major problems in commercial agriculture: not enough crop rotation leads to diseases and poor nutrients. If you have a very small garden and can’t feasibly rotate where you plant, don’t worry about it unless you run into a problem with disease. Proper watering and other maintenance will help prevent disease!
Planting Potatoes
Ready to plant? Timing and technique are key for getting the most out of your short growing season.
When to Plant
- Plant seed potatoes 2–3 weeks before the last frost (late April to early May for most of Zone 3 Alberta).
- Make sure the soil is workable and at least 7°C (45°F).
How to Plant
- Cut larger seed potatoes into chunks, leaving 2–3 eyes per piece. After cutting, let them dry for a day to prevent rotting.
- Dig trenches about 4 inches deep and space them 12–18 inches apart.
- Plant the chunks with the eyes facing up, spacing them 12 inches apart. Cover lightly with soil.
Caring for Your Potato Plants
Potatoes are pretty easygoing, but a little TLC goes a long way.
Watering
- Water deeply once a week to keep the soil evenly moist (but not soggy). If possible, water early in the day, low to the ground, to avoid getting the leaves wet, helping to prevent blight.
- When the plants start to yellow, skip every other watering. This helps toughen the skins for storage.
Does the water you use matter to your potatoes?
In general, even if we have nasty well water than needs major filtration for human use, plants don’t care. If you have any doubts about the safety of your water, have it tested. City water should have chorine filtered out.
Hilling
- Every few weeks, pile soil or mulch around the base of the plants to cover the lower leaves. This encourages more tubers to grow and prevents sunlight from greening the potatoes.
Pest Patrol
- Visually inspect the leaves often and physically remove any aphids or other pests immediately. Remove diseased plants quickly and carefully to avoid spreading (don’t shake the diseased plant over healthy ones, for example).
- Beneficial nematodes and lady bugs can be bought and released into your garden to help get rid of the bugs that threaten all your plants, without harmful chemicals.
- Diatomaceous earth is a powder made from algae fossils. It’s safe for all humans, livestock, and pets, but it’s very effective in killing garden pests when sprinkled on soil, and has many personal uses as well as farm and commercial applications.
Timing and Technique to Harvesting Your Potatoes
After waiting all summer, the best part is here! Potatoes are one of the most satisfying plants to harvest.
How to Harvest
- Potatoes are mature when the vines have completely died back from frost or age.
- Wait about 2 weeks after the vines die to let the skins mature.
- Loosen the soil with a garden fork, starting a foot away from the plants.
- Dig out the potatoes carefully with your hands to avoid tearing the skin.
To loosen the soil: Using a hay fork, insert it into the ground about a foot back from where you’d guess the edge of the potatoes grew to. This is not an exact science, so use the first plant as your tester and adjust future jabs. You don’t want to try to use it like you would a shovel. Push in, tilt the handle slowly back until it’s almost parallel to the ground, let it go and get down on your hands and knees and reach into the dirt to get all the potatoes you can. The hay fork is only to loosen things up under there, so your hands can gently get them out.
Storing Your Potatoes
Storing your potatoes properly means you can enjoy them all winter long.
Curing
- Let the potatoes dry in a warm, airy spot for 1–2 weeks to toughen their skins.
Storage
- Set aside the smallest potatoes to use as next year’s seed potatoes.
- Eat damaged, thin skinned, and soft potatoes right away.
- Keep them in a cool, dark, and humid place (about 7°C/45°F).
- A second fridge works well if it’s set warmer than normal since it can be difficult to maintain the correct temperature all season
- Keep an eye on your stored potatoes and pull out and use ones that are getting soft.
Are Green Potatoes Safe to Eat?
You can eat the non-green parts of potatoes, just cut the green off and cook the rest. The green is a sign they were exposed to too much sunlight and produced a toxin call Solanine (that is a pesticide that protects the plant from pests).
More Resources
US States and their universities have a fantastic system called the Cooperative Extension System. They are an absolute treasure trove of information about a whole lot of rural life topics. On a related note, I’ve also found a load of fantastic information from the University of Alberta website regarding chickens and lots more.
https://www.edmontonpotatogrowers.com/planting-tips
https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/topics/potatoes
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scenec6be.html
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/techniques/grow-your-own-potatoes
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/blogs/how-to-grow/how-to-grow-potatoes-from-seed
Last but not least: Our favourite Potato Recipes
Final Thoughts
Growing potatoes in Zone 3 Alberta are more than worth the minimal effort they require. There’s nothing like digging up your own spuds and enjoying them fresh from the garden.
Got potato-growing tips or stories? Share them in the comments—we’d love to hear from you!
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