For anyone who’s unfamiliar with growing potatoes, here’s How to grow Potatoes from chitting the seed potatoes in February to starting harvesting the first earlies in June…
How to grow Potatoes in easy steps:
The most important factor with growing anything is soil quality and growing potatoes is no exception. So, the first stage in How to grow Potatoes is to make sure you feed your soil regularly with lots of good quality organic matter (e.g. compost) to ensure your potatoes have the required nutrients to grow. Potatoes can be grown in almost any soil, but don’t like heavy clay or very wet soils. Loose soil is ideal so they are free to enlarge.
In February ‘chit’ some ‘seed potatoes’. ‘Chitting’ is leaving potatoes to sprout somewhere, eyes-up, indoors with lots of light. You don’t have to chit your potatoes, but it does give them a head start. If you want to grow big potatoes, rub off most of the shoots leaving only 3 or 4 of the largest, strongest shoots. If you prefer to have lots of smaller potatoes, don’t rub off any shoots. You can grow from any potato but it is recommended to buy ´seed potatoes’ which are certified disease-free and have not been treated with growth-inhibiting chemicals.
There are different types of potato: First Earlies (plant March/harvest 10 weeks later), Second Earlies (plant April/harvest 13 weeks later), Main Crop (plant April/harvest 15-20 weeks later), Second Crop (plant August/harvest 11 weeks later). It’s good to get organised with a variety of first earlies, second earlies, main crops, second crops so you are regularly harvesting throughout the season.
- Plant seed potatoes in rows, sprouts-up, 30 cm apart, with 60 cm between rows, and cover with at least 4 cm of soil.
- As the sprouts grow, regularly mound-up soil around the stems, or mulch, to protect them from frosts and to stop light from reaching the potatoes (potatoes go green if this happens).
- Water regularly and occasionally hoe between the rows to keep weeds controlled.
- Harvest times vary depending on the weather and your soil. Potatoes are usually ready to harvest around 2 weeks after flowering, when the foliage above ground starts to wither.