Difficulty:
Easy, suitable for beginners but require a little bit of care.
Why Grow Potatoes?
Recent years have seen a boom in Grow Your Own potatoes – they’re easy and rewarding to grow and really versatile in the kitchen.
There are a vast amount of varieties available to cater for every culinary need, and by staggering your planting you can prolong your harvest period from May, all the way up until November.
Potatoes require a fairly long growing season (of around four to five months) and aren’t the smallest of plants, but even when you have limited space in your garden they’re easy to grow in one of our neat and compact Potato Gro-Sacks, which enable you to grow a fantastic crop of potatoes anywhere!
Potatoes are grown from seeds, which look like small, soft potatoes which sometimes have ‘eyes’ on. There are four main types of seed potato available:
· Salad potatoes: Known for their firm, waxy flesh and unique flavour, these are ready relatively early in the season.
· First Earlies: These are the very first potatoes to be ready in the year, maturing from as early as May when planted in February. These are often known as ‘new potatoes’.
· Second Earlies: These follow-on from the first earlies and are usually ready to harvest from June as well as being suitable for storing until August.
· Main crop: Ready to be lifted from September to October, these can be eaten straight away or stored for up to three months.
Our top varieties
Salad potatoes: Charlotte, Annabelle, International Kidney.
First Early potatoes: Rocket, Casablanca, Maris Bard.
Second Early potatoes: Maris Peer, Kestrel, Mozart.
Main Crop potatoes: King Edward, Maris Piper, Desiree.
Site and soil:
Potatoes grow well in most soil types but ideally they should be grown in well-drained, loamy soil that is not too heavy. The soil needs to be deep, well dug and with plenty of well-rotted organic matter incorporated. The plot should be cleared and dug over in late autumn/early winter so that the frost can break down the soil structure, which will make for easy planting in the spring. Alternatively, you can successfully grow a good crop of potatoes in Gro-Sacks.
Ideally, potatoes should only be planted in the same part of the garden once every 7 years but, given that this is not practical for the vast majority of gardeners we recommend a minimum of 3 or 4 years. Aim to develop the longest rotational system you can accommodate in your garden.
How to grow potatoes from seeds
When to plant:
Salad potatoes: March – April
First Early potatoes: February – April
Second Early potatoes: March – May
Main Crop potatoes: March – May
Harvest time:
Salad potatoes: June – July
First Early potatoes: May – June
Second Early potatoes: July – August
Main Crop potatoes: September – November
Preparation:
To get your potatoes off to a flying start it is often recommended that you ‘chit’ them before planting. This allows strong chits (sprouts) to develop on the tubers before planting. Whilst this process is not essential for main crop varieties, it is strongly recommended for First Earlies and, to a lesser degree, for Salad varieties and Second Earlies.
To chit seed potatoes, place them just touching in a seed tray or individually in the sections of egg boxes. Make sure the ‘rose’ end (where most of the ‘eyes’ are) is uppermost. It is these eyes that will form the chits. Place the trays in a cool, light frost-free environment at a temperature of about 45oF/7oC.
The aim of chitting is to produce plump, dark green or purple shoots about 1in/2.5cm long. Thin, long white shoots are a sign of too much heat and not enough light. If shoots are slow to appear, about 3 weeks before planting move the tubers to a warmer position for a couple of weeks and then back to the original, cooler place for the final week.
Planting in plots
A few days before planting, fork over the plot, incorporating some general purpose fertiliser in the top few inches – our pre-planting potato feed is ideal. Set the tubers in rows, either at the bottom of a ‘V’ shaped trench or in individual small holes made with a trowel. Many gardeners aim to have the rows running north-south as this allows the sun’s rays to warm both sides of the ridges.
First Earlies, Second Earlies and Salad varieties should be positioned 30cm apart and 10cm deep in rows 45cm apart; Maincrop varieties should be spaced 40cm apart and 10cm deep in rows 60cmapart.
As soon as shoots start to appear above the soil, it’s time to start ‘earthing up’ the rows. This means pulling soil over the shoots from either side of the row to form a ridge. This protects the plants from late frosts and prevents the tubers from becoming green and inedible. Repeat this regularly until the ridges are about 20cm high.
Planting in Gro-Sacks
At the appropriate planting time, set five tubers on top of a 6-8in/15-20cm layer of good quality compost in each Gro-Sack and then cover the tubers with a further 4in/10cm layer of compost. As the plants grow and shoots emerge above the surface, add more compost to cover the shoots and then repeat as needed until the compost is about 2in/5cm below the top of the bag.
Growing potatoes in Gro-Sacks is really easy, read our illustrated instructions here.
Further Growing Information for Potatoes
Growing:
An application of a high potash fertiliser at the rate suggested on the pack will increase yields, our Bio-Gro Black Gold fertiliser is ideal. Avoid fertilisers high in nitrogen as these will delay maturity of the crop.
Potatoes need plenty of moisture, particularly round about flowering time which is when the tubers start to form. In dry spells it is recommended that the crop is watered every 10 days or so. An occasional heavy watering is better than little and often as this does not get down far enough and encourages shallow rooting.
Continue to ‘earth up’ the potatoes until the Gro-Sack is almost full, or if growing in plots, until the ridges are around 30cm high.
Harvesting:
Harvest times depend on planting dates, weather and temperature at planting time, weather during the growing season, variety maturity and weather and temperature at harvest time.
First Earlies are best harvested in small quantities and eaten straightaway when fresh in June and July.
Second Earlies and Salad varieties can also be harvested in small quantities and eaten when fresh in June and July. Alternatively, if the skins are allowed to ‘set’ – i.e. they don’t rub off when the potatoes are lifted – cut the foliage down to stop continued growth, lift in September and store as per Main crop varieties.
Main crop varieties can be lifted from September onwards and stored as long as the tubers are lifted in dry conditions or are dried properly before being put away. Store in a hessian sack in a cool, dark, frost-free area.
Storing
Maincrop varieties can be lifted from September onwards and stored as long as the tubers are lifted in dry conditions or are dried properly before being put away. Store in a hessian sack in a cool, dark, frost-free area.
Health benefits of Potatoes
Potatoes are packed full vitamins, including vitamin C, which is known for its immune-boosting properties, and vitamin B, which can help maintain a balanced mood and control stress levels. Potatoes are also full of fibre which can help maintain gut health.
Potato Pests and Diseases
Potato Blight – Worst in warm, moist conditions from mid-summer onwards. Brownish black spots appear on leaves and stems and eventually spores from these spots can wash into the soil and effect the tubers. You can reduce risk by wide spacing or growing in Gro-Sacks, as this reduces the risk of infection from one plant to another. Remove and destroy effected leaves and leave the potatoes in the ground for three weeks before lifting, so that the spores on the soil surface die.
Potato Cyst Eelworm – This is a widespread problem in soil where potatoes are often grown. The plants’ growth is stunted and the leaves turn yellow and die. Your yield of potatoes will also be reduced. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot that can be done about eelworm, apart from to avoid growing potatoes in affected areas. One way of making sure you’re not planting potatoes in eelworm-affected ground is to plant them in Gro-Sacks with fresh compost.
Virus diseases – Potatoes are susceptible to several aphid-borne virus diseases. Leaves become mottled and the plants stunted. Any diseased plants should be lifted and destroyed. Preventative measures include: buying new seed rather than saving your own, bin old tubers instead of adding them to the compost heap.
Potato Blackleg – Leaves become pale and curly inwards and the stems begin to rot at the base. Affected plants should be dug up and destroyed.
Common Scab – Scabby areas develop on the potatoes themselves, but is mainly a cosmetic disease.
Slugs – slugs can eat the leaves which can stunt the growth of tubers under the ground. Keep the slugs at bay with Eraza Slug and Snail Killer – it’s the best performing slug pellet on the market!
For Best Results:
Try our pre-planting potato fertiliser, which is specially formulated to give potatoes all the nutrients they need to produce healthy growth.
You May Also Need:
Marshalls Gro-Sacks – the neat & compact way to grow potatoes!
Potato Storage Sacks - the perfect way to store potatoes!
Eraza Slug and Snail Killer – the best performing slug pellet on the market!
