Q: I ordered some potatoes from a catalog in Maine. They won’t ship until April. Isn’t March the best time to plant potatoes in this area? Will April be too late?

A: The key indicator for when to plant potatoes is soil temperature. You can plant at 45 degrees but you’d be better off planting when the soil is 50 to 55 degrees F. In northwest Atlanta, the soil warms up to the right temperature for potato planting between March 15 and April 15. If your potatoes arrive around the first of April, you’ll be harvesting new potatoes in mid-June and fist-sized spuds a couple of weeks later. You could also make an earlier planting of locally available seed potatoes in March while you wait for the Maine arrivals.