Planting and growing Potatoes
Welcome to our Potato section here we will give you the best advice for Planting and growing Potatoes so that you will get great harvests.
When to Plant Potatoes
Potatoes are best planted in April when the ground has started to warm up. You can also plant some in August in bags in the polytunnel for Christmas Day
Varieties of potatoes
There are lots of varieties of potatoes out there so its always hard to try to work out which ones to purchase. Here are some of the best ones to go for:
First Earlies:- Arran Pilot, Duke of York, Maris Bard, Pentland, Red Duke of York, Rocket
Second Earlies:-Kestral, Maris Peer
Early Main crop:- Desiree, King Edward, Maris Piper,
Late Main Crop:- Arran Victory, Golden Wonder
Salad Crop:- Charlotte
Planting:-
When you are choosing your seed potatoes make sure that you are getting ones that have been specially put together to grow, these can be bought at garden centers, garden magazines or certain supermarkets, do not buy ones you have for your Sunday dinner. Your seed potatoes need to be planted after they have been chitted. Watch my video on how to chit potatoes it will help you out. The seed potatoes are ready to plant when the shoots are about 3cm long.
Growing
There are many ways that potatoes can be plants but we will concentrate on just two ways.
Ground:- If you are planting in the ground, dig a trench about a spade deep. You then need to plant the potatoes about 34cm apart in the row. Cover back with soil. When you see the shoots coming through the soil cover with more soil to encourage more potatoes.
Bags/ Containers:- If you are growing in bags or containers make sure there is holes in the bottom to make sure they don’t get water logged. Put a layer of compost in the bottom then place about 3 -4 potatoes in each bag or container then cover with soil. Keep watering regularly. When you see the shoots popping through cover with another layer of soil and repeat until the bag is full.
Watch my video to give you helping advice on how to plant in the ground and bags.
Harvesting
Potatoes take on average 14 weeks for earlies and 23 weeks for main crops . When the plants turn yellow and start to die off you know that the potatoes are getting ready to pick. When they have dies down cut the plants off then pick after 10 days.
Planting and growing Potatoes – as you can see there are many ways to grow potatoes, hope you will get a great harvest from the method you try.