Potato Mine

The Potato Mine is a single-use explosive plant. They're inexpensive, but take approximately 15 seconds (about the time it takes a regular zombie to walk three spaces or half the time it takes to reload and use it again) to arm themselves before surfacing from the ground. After that, they will detonate the first time a zombie enters their square. It may kill several zombies if they are stacked.The potato mine can give a Gargantuar a bandage on his arm when it tries to smash it. It takes two Potato Mines to kill a Gargantuar.

Suburban Almanac Entry
Potato Mine

Potato Mines pack a powerful punch, but they need a while to arm themselves. You should plant them ahead of zombies. They will explode on contact.

Damage: massive

Range: all zombies in a small area on the lane

Usage: single use, delayed activation

Some folks say Potato Mine is lazy, that he leaves everything to the last minute. Potato Mine says nothing. He's too busy thinking about his investment strategy.

Cost: 25

Recharge: slow

Strategy
Because of how cheap they are, they can be very effective early in levels. After that, the long arming delay makes them difficult to use. Always put them at least 3 squares in front of a zombie. This is enough for a zombie that travels at the same speed as the normal zombie.

Placing a Potato Mine behind a defensive plant (Wall-nut, Tall-nut, or Pumpkin) can maximize its effectiveness; when the zombies break the wall, assuming there are no faster zombies such as the Jack-in-the-Box Zombie and Flag Zombie, they will all be within the explosion range of the Potato Mine when the first one reaches it. They can also be planted behind Wall-nuts or Pumpkins to catch any Pole Vaulting Zombies that try to vault over them. Similarly, they can be planted to make a Pole Vaulter jump early, in addition to catching later zombies.

You can plant a potato mine in front of a grave so that when the zombie comes up SPUDOW! The zombie is now killed.


 * Note: If they are planted inside Pumpkins, some zombies can trigger them without eating the Pumpkin as they jump over the Pumpkin.

Potato Mines are also effective against Digger Zombies. When they try to dig under an active Potato Mine, it will explode. If the Potato Mine isn't ready yet, the Digger Zombie will eat the Potato Mine while it is still underground.

Surprisingly, Potato Mines actually can be used against Gargantuars, but you probably won't end up doing so. It is extremely effective against Zombie Bobsled Teams, killing the bobsled along with all four zombies if armed and planted next to the ice.

In ZomBotany and ZomBotany 2, Potato Mines can't be hit by peas, even when armed.


 * Note: Potato Mines can't be planted on Lily Pads, since there's no room "inside" or under the Lily Pad.

An effective strategy in early survival levels could be to use Potato Mines to save money, saving the money you could be spending on Peashooters to instead invest Sun in Sunflowers or other plants. Eventually, there will simply be too many Zombies to handle for just the Potato Mines, however, given their slow recharge.

Achievements
The Potato Mine is the source for the Spudow! achievement. Kill a zombie with a Potato Mine to receive the achievement. A zombie, stepping on a Potato Mine in I, Zombie will also count.

Trivia

 * Potatoexplosion.PNG an unarmed Potato Mine is smashed by a Gargantuar, Squash Zombie, Zomboni or Catapult Zombie, a flattened version with the red light steady of an armed Potato Mine appears instead.
 * Potato Mines can only be taken by Bungee Zombies while arming, as a Bungee Zombie will die in the explosion if it encounters an armed Potato Mine.
 * On the Xbox Live Arcade version's loading screen, the Potato Mine's red light will flash when the game is done loading.
 * The Potato Mine is the only plant that shows half of its body above ground.Potato_Mine.jpg
 * In the Online Version, instead of getting a Potato Mine on level 1-5, you get a Squash.
 * In the Zen Garden, the Potato Mine is slightly too large for the Flower Pot.
 * When the Potato Mine explodes, The word "SPUDOW!! " will appear along with a mashed potato explosion.
 * The Potato Mine's red light will flash faster as the zombie gets nearer.
 * The Zen Garden Potato Mine will not have a flashing red light normally, but if it is held by a garden glove or inside a wheelbarrow the red light will be permanently on.
 * The Potato Mine is strangely larger than its shadow.
 * George Fan stated that Potato Mine was a spoof of Swiss Family Robinson, where the family sets traps for the enemies.
 * Digger_Potato.jpg Potato Mine is the only explosive instant kill that cannot kill a Balloon Zombie in the air.
 * When the Potato Mine explodes, you can hear a crumbling sound.
 * The Potato Mine, Sun-shroom and Puff-shroom are the only plants that cannot be hit by the peas fired by Peashooter Zombies and Gatling Pea Zombies.
 * A Digger Zombie will eat an unarmed Potato Mine underground.
 * An Imitater Potato Mine, even though it is gray, will have it's color restored to the original upon explosion.
 * Potato Mine is one of the twelve plants that appear in the seed selection screen after you get the Grave Buster on the online version, the others are: Ice-shroom, Lily Pad, Doom-shroom, Threepeater, Tangle Kelp, Jalapeno, Spikeweed, Torchwood, Tall-nut, Cactus and Blover.
 * It is strange how it arms itself as when it is armed all it does is come out of the ground a little. Maybe this is because it is lazy as stated in the Suburban Almanac.
 * The Potato Mine is one of the six plants that are vegetables, others being Squash, Jalapeno, Cabbage-pult, Kernel-pult, Garlic, and Melon-pult