Where are you located? Do potatoes need to be watered so often in your location? Has there been a frost? Could you post a picture?

Pic would help.

Agree that knowing your location is important and what caught my attention was watering what sounds like way to often??

Dave

I am in Luxembourg in Europe. So kind of north, but not too north!

On this particular day, it was sunny all day above ~70 F / ~21 C (and the days around very similar) with no wind and not-so-cold night. I feel as if the consist sun got the better half of the plants...

Both small plants above the soil are completely dead (they're soft and white laying between the soil top).

I can post a photo tomorrow! Heads up, it'll just be soil though.

Sounds very strange.

hairmetal4ever, how so?

How often should potato plants be watered? I have 3 containers that I've been watering daily. I planted chitted seed potatoes a week ago and they have not broken through the soil yet.

I doubt you are much warmer than the UK and it is too early for potatoes here. They are only just being planted in the north of England and not yet up in the south. I suspect you had a dip below 0c at night. That's what the symptoms sound like. The potatoes haven't rotted and are fine below the soil. And potatoes certainly don't need all that water at this time of year, even in containers, or you will end up with rot.

Laura - There is no set schedule for watering any plants. There are too many variables - the container size, the soil used and how well it drains or retains water, your climate and the weather, etc. just to name a few. Each plant and each container grows different in each garden.

But very few plants, except perhaps a smallish container plant in the high heat of summer, require daily watering. With few exceptions, daily watering is almost always over-watering and it suffocates/smothers the roots. The plant literally drowns as the roots have to access to the O2 they also need to draw from the soil to survive.

You water only when the soil is dry to the touch. Not the surface of the soil but when you stick your hand down into the soil and it feels warm and dry. Once the plants are established then you water only when the soil and the plant indicates it needs it, not by any schedule.

And 1 week is far too little time to see potato plants sprout. Again depending on all the variables it can take 2-3 weeks to see sprouts come up through the soil so a "watched potato plant seems to never sprout".

Dave

Just to recap what the OP said. These potatoes have sprouted but then collapsed. My guess is a night frost.

Night frost sounds very logical to me. A couple nights later it did get quite cold (sadly I didn't check the temperatures).

I presume that the rest of the root base under the soil will slowly die then?

If it was a frost, they should come right back. If they don't recover, then it was likely some kind of rot/fungal issue.

This time of year potatoes shouldn't need any watering at all.

Thanks Dave! I thought I read somewhere that potatoes needed constant water, guess I was wrong. It's my first time trying potatoes. I've got them in grow bags and an old laundry hamper. I had been watering until I saw the water drain out the bottom. I'll stop for a while now, see if anything pokes up. Fingers crossed!

Very helpful input guys! Thanks a lot, hopefully, they grow back! I will definitely reduce my watering, and plant the rest of my potatoes later next month.

Potatoes will recover from a light night frost. As to potatoes needing 'constant water' possible the wording was more like 'consistent moisture'? ie they need consistent moisture in the soil, which is not the same thing as frequent watering. Last week I was walking in a heavily arable area and they were just planting potatoes. No way were those hectares and hectares of spuds going to be artificially watered. In a container they'll need some watering but be led by the feel of the soil, not the calendar.