How many potatoes to plant per person
Utah State University Extension plans on 50 feet of row per person for potatoes eaten fresh through the season and 100 feet per person if you also store them for winter. Potatoes are planned by row length rather than by plant count, so the calculator turns those feet into seed pieces at 14 inches apart, the middle of the 10 to 18 inch in-row spacing: 43 seed pieces per person for fresh use.
Kansas State University's planting guide (MF315) gives the same range, 50 to 100 feet per person.
Potatoes for 1 to 6 people
| People | Fresh: row | Seed pieces | Seed potatoes | Harvest | Storing: row | Seed pieces | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 ft | 43 | 4 to 5 lb | 50 to 100 lb | 100 ft | 86 | 100 to 200 lb |
| 2 | 100 ft | 86 | 8 to 10 lb | 100 to 200 lb | 200 ft | 172 | 200 to 400 lb |
| 3 | 150 ft | 129 | 12 to 15 lb | 150 to 300 lb | 300 ft | 258 | 300 to 600 lb |
| 4 | 200 ft | 172 | 16 to 20 lb | 200 to 400 lb | 400 ft | 343 | 400 to 800 lb |
| 5 | 250 ft | 215 | 20 to 25 lb | 250 to 500 lb | 500 ft | 429 | 500 to 1,000 lb |
| 6 | 300 ft | 258 | 24 to 30 lb | 300 to 600 lb | 600 ft | 515 | 600 to 1,200 lb |
Seed potatoes use Utah State's 8 to 10 pounds per 100 feet of row; for storing, double the fresh figure. The harvest is Virginia Cooperative Extension's 10 to 20 pounds per 10 feet of row.
Fitting that into a small garden
These are big numbers for a backyard: a family of four growing for fresh use needs 200 feet of row, which at 33 inches between rows is about 550 square feet of ground. In raised beds at 1 potato per square foot, the same 172 pieces would fill more than five 4 × 8 beds.
If that is more room than you have, decide on the space first and plant what fits: one 4 × 8 bed at 14 inches each way takes 18 seed pieces, and at Virginia Tech's yield a 25 ft row gives roughly 25 to 50 pounds. The potato spacing calculator counts pieces for any bed or row.
Seed pieces and planting
Cut seed potatoes into pieces of at least 2 ounces with one or more eyes each. Plant them 4 to 6 inches deep, 2 to 3 weeks before your last spring frost, and hill soil around the stems as they grow so the tubers stay covered. Colorado State University Extension counts about 125 days from planting to harvest.
Next steps
Plan the rest of your vegetables for the household in the garden size calculator, and lay out the beds in the raised bed planner.