Potatoes and temperature

12 years ago

I have been searching for information on the right time to plant potatoes in my area and I keep getting conflicting information. Here is my problem:

1. Potatoes do best when soil temps are below 70. That leaves me with the months of Nov-Mar to grow them.

2. Potatoes need to be protected when it freezes. My frost dates are Oct-April.

So it seems that if I do grow potatoes I will need to protect them through their entire season? That sounds like too much effort.

Any advice is very appreciated! Thank you.

-Crystal

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Comments (4)

lgteacher
12 years ago
Potatoes are grown in colder climates, so I don't see how freezing would be a problem. The link below has more information. You can also contact your local Master Gardener group. They probably have a website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Potatoes in California
Dick_Sonia
12 years ago
I'm curious where you live in Sunset Zone 7 that has soil temperatures above 70F from April to October. High soil temperatures are usually associated with climates where summer days do not cool off at night. Aside from low desert areas like Palm Springs and Phoenix, almost no place in the western U.S. has soil temps that warm; that's something that occurs mostly along the Gulf Coast states. In the majority of SSZ, average summer soil temperatures range from the 50's to the low 60's.
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chelton
Original Author
12 years ago
dick sonia,
Good point on the soil temperature. I was just going by the average high air temp assuming the soil would somewhat follow those numbers. I was monitoring my soil temp in January and found that, depending on exposure, the numbers were within 10 degrees of the air temp. Obviously there is a max to that though. Even though it gets to 100 degrees air temp in Summer, the soil will be nowhere near that. I need to find a good graph that relates air and soil temp.

Regardless, My average high air temp in April is 73 and in Oct it's 79. It is my understanding that the tubers do not grow when the temp gets above 75. Also, they will be in raised beds so the soil will be warmer then the ground soil. Also, today was 83 degrees. And while not normal, my point is that it gets hot here quick.

My tenative plan is to plant some Yukon gold tomorrow and harvest beginning of May. I will monitor the tuber growth and try to figure out when they can't handle the heat. When it freezes it can get down to 13 degrees which I am assuming would burn the plant since potatoes tolerate light frost not heavy.

Thank you for taking the time to help, this is my first year at serious gardening so the learning curve is steep. BTW I live in Shandon, Ca. It's near Paso Robles.

Thanks again!
Laurel Zito
12 years ago
I think you can cover them with wet straw to cool them down. Look up the idea of hilling potatoes. This cools them so they don't turn green.