How to grow delicious potatoes

Growing your own potatoes is hugely rewarding, cost effective and fun. Follow our top tips for a delicious crop of potatoes to enjoy in your homecooked dishes.

Chitting your seed potatoes is a simple process that allows them to sprout before planting and gives your potatoes a head start. Place the tubers upright in a container, such as an egg box, and position the box in a bright and frost-free room for 4-6 weeks. You should then start to see sturdy green shoots develop.

Planting seed potatoes is quick and easy. First, find a sunny spot, that is ideally sheltered from harsh weather. 

If you are planting your seed potatoes in a container, line it with roughly four inches of compost and position the seed potatoes approximately 25cm apart. Cover them with another 10-15cm deep layer of compost and water them in. 

If you are planting directly in the ground, simply dig shallow trenches or small holes approximately 10-15cm deep and position your seed potatoes roughly 25cm apart before covering with soil.

Throughout the growing season, keep the tubers moist but not waterlogged as they will rot if they are left sitting in water. Container planted seed potatoes will dry out faster than those planted in the ground, so it is worth regularly checking the soil, particularly during dry spells.

To increase crop yield and prevent the tubers being exposed to sunlight (which turns them green and poisonous), when the plant stem exceeds four inches of growth start a process called ‘Earthing Up’. To ‘Earth Up’ your tubers simply mound soil up around the stems, leaving 10cm exposed. Do this every two or three weeks during the growing season.

Your potatoes are ready to harvest when the plant turns brown and the foliage has died back. If possible, wait for a dry day and carefully pull them up from the ground with a fork to loosen the soil. If grown in a potato grow bag, empty them into a larger container, such as a wheelbarrow, so you can easily pull up the potatoes.