Potatoes have eyes. I don’t know why people started calling the tentacle-like appendages that seed potatoes have growing from them eyes, but that’s what they’re called. Most people know that potatoes are the root of a plant (a nightshade plant, the leaves and flowers are poisonous) but not as many know that the beginnings of their extended root structures are these noodley ‘eyes.’

Potato Eyes

To ready potatoes to be planted, you take seed potatoes–potatoes that still have eyes–and cut them usually in half, to pieces no smaller than 3oz. or about the size of an egg. Any potato that’s already around that size need not be cut. And each seed needs to still have developed eyes on it or it will not grow.

You need to have tilled land with 3 foot wide beds separated by 1 foot paths. You take a wheel hoe with a shovel like attachment and run it right in the middle of your beds, making a V in the ground. Then, you simply put potatoes in this V about a foot apart and then close the V back up, watering the potatoes a bit afterward to help them grow. It’s that simple! At LaFarm, we make sure our potatoes are well weeded until the plants are tall enough to lay down straw around without blocking out the potato plant, maybe around 10-12 in. tall.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014