As long as your seed potatoes have 'eyes', which are shoots on various parts of the potatoes, they can be cut in half and planted. If the soil has been well cultivated and is not too wet, you can plant potatoes immediately.
Cut them in half, or if the potatoes are really large, cut them into quarters. Make sure that each chunk of potato has at least one eye, which is a small depression in the surface of the potato where the roots sprout. If you need to cut seed potatoes, it is best to wait at least four to seven days before planting them.
Small potatoes (the size of a small egg) can be planted whole, but larger potatoes should be cut into smaller pieces. The ideal potato seed is a 1 1/2-ounce block with two or more eyes/sprouts per seed.
One way to combat the disease issue is to let your seed potatoes cure for a few days after cutting and before planting. To cure them you simply need to let the cut potatoes sit in an airy, dry place that is out of the sun for 2 or 3 days. The cut side of the potato will dry and harden and get a leathery texture.
Why baking a potato cut in half is great for more than just saving time. By cutting your potatoes in half lengthwise and placing them cut side down on a greased sheet pan before cooking, you will do two things. One, you have made them half the thickness, so they will cook through in literally half the time.
The lesson here is that you can keep potatoes from turning brown by storing cut potatoes in cold water to slow the oxidation process (aka the thing that makes peeled potatoes turn brown).
Don't soak cut potatoes longer than overnight.
If keeping potatoes in water for more than an hour, refrigerate. However, don't soak them any longer than overnight—after that, the potatoes start to lose their structure and flavor.
Tubers weighing between 1.5 ounces but under three ounces should be planted whole. Three- to five-ounce seed tubers should be cut into two pieces. Five- to seven-ounce tubers should be cut into three pieces.
Cutting Potatoes Before Planting
This will begin the sprouting process. A day or two before planting, use a sharp, clean knife to slice the larger seed potatoes into smaller pieces. Each piece should be approximately 2 inches square, and must contain at least 1 or 2 eyes or buds. Plant smaller potatoes whole.
Small potatoes can be planted whole, but larger potatoes (bigger than a golf ball) should be quartered with a clean knife ($95, Williams Sonoma) before planting. Make sure each piece includes an eye or bud. To prevent rot, let the pieces dry for a couple of days before planting.
You buy a bag of potatoes and before you can use them, they begin to sprout. Rather than throwing them out, you may be contemplating growing grocery store potatoes in the garden. Will store-bought potatoes grow though? The answer is yes.
Cover each potato with about three inches of soil. After a few weeks, the potato plants will begin to sprout. Then you can gently fill the trench with another few inches of soil, leaving the top of the plant exposed. This is called “hilling” and it protects the potatoes from the sun, as well as supports the plant.
The broken seeds will not be able to grow into plants since they cannot mature or germinate. If the embryo of the seed gets damaged, it won't be able to provide nourishment to the young plant and there will be no chance of seed germination.
Seed potatoes can be cut in half before planting, to increase your crop of spuds.
Plant the potatoes in holes 12 inches (30 cm) apart.
Cover with soil and water well. You should generally provide your potatoes with 1–2 inches (2.5–5.1 cm) of water per week, including rainfall. They prefer their soil moist, but not waterlogged.
Like garden-grown potatoes, container-grown potatoes need rich, well-drained loamy, soil. A mix of potting soil and compost with added sand (about 20% of the total) serves potatoes well. Add a handful of well-balanced organic fertilizer as you're making your soil-compost mix.
Potatoes like a well-drained sandy loam soil. Heavy, untilled soils will yield small, deformed potatoes. They will rot under prolonged cold, wet conditions. If your soil drains poorly or is heavy clay, then consider using raised beds or growing potatoes in containers.
A single plant will produce, at a minimum, three or four pounds of potatoes, and a single seed potato will produce four or five plants.
If you're here, you'll probably be glad to know that yes, you can peel and cut potatoes the day before you plan to serve them — and that it's super easy! All you have to do is submerge the bare potato pieces in water and refrigerate (more on that later).
Water will move from an area of less salt to more salt (more water to less water), and so when the potato is placed in the saltwater, all the water that is inside the potato (yes, plants have a lot of water inside of them, that's what gives a plant it's structure) moves out by osmosis.
Why use salt water for soaking potatoes? There's moisture naturally found in potatoes, and moisture is drawn to higher concentrations of salt. (This is a process called osmosis.) So, if you put the potatoes in a salt water bath, that will help draw out some of their moisture, resulting in crispier fries.
Boiling the potatoes in a salt and vinegar bath allows them to soak up all of that briny flavor before you dry them off and crisp them up in the oven. The result is a soft-in-the-center, crispy-on-the-outside potato that's loaded with flavor.
Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes.
You can store peeled potatoes in water in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Peeled potatoes left out by themselves at room temperature, on a refrigerator shelf or wrapped in foil or plastic wrap will still get dark overnight, so submerge them in a bowl of water, cover and refrigerate.