Welcome to a guide on how to grow your own potatoes. You don’t need a large amount of space, so even if you live in a flat and have a small balcony then you can still grow potatoes!
This year, instead of planting potaoes on the allotment, we started them off in the greenhouse and planted them in containers. If this is how you’d like to grow yours then all you need is a suitable sized container, making sure it is at least 30cm across and deep, we used old royal mail bags cut down. There are lots of choices out there for using as containers and you don’t have to buy those that are sold for the purpose as they are often quite expensive , instead you can use an old compost bag, large plant pots, or even those large reuseable shopping bags you can get may be ok, just remember to put holes in the bottom for drainage.
You will need to get some seed potatoes from any garden centre. There are different types which determine once planted how long it takes to get a crop. First earlies are usually ready in around ten weeks, second earlies in around 13 weeks and maincrop after about 20 weeks. We have decided to grow a first early variety called swift, and second early type called vivaldi (Sainburys sell these and they are lovely when roasted) and maris piper for a maincrop.
Once you have your seed potaotes you need to chitt them. This means placing the potato into an egg carton with the stubby shoots pointing upwards and place them on awell lit window sill. When the shoots have turned a deep purple colour they are ready to plant out, usually mid-March is about the right time to plant earlies and you can plant the maincrop a few weeks later.
If planting into a conatiner put a small amount of manure at the bottom, then add 10cm of compost. Then make a hole and place seed potato into it, with the shoots pointing upwards. Cover with compost. First and second early potatoes should be planted about 30cm apart. The maincrop, being the heaviest cropper, need a bit more space so plant them about 40cm apart. As the seeds start to grow cover the leaves with more compost. Keep repeating this process. The potato tubers will be ready to harvest once the plants have flowered. Although it is also best to go by how many weeks it has been since planting as not all types freely flower.