Seed Potatoes

The term seed potatoes can be confusing. Seed potatoes are not seeds, they are potatoes specially grown to give you the best chance of a healthy crop. You must also ensure that you buy certified disease free seed potatoes. Don't be tempted to plant potatoes bought for the kitchen use as these will usually give disappointing results. The potatoes may even fail to sprout as they are sometimes treated to prevent them growing. Seed potatoes are generally sold in net bags.

 

 

Choosing varieties to grow

 

It’s difficult to recommend potato varieties as taste is very subjective. Also the taste and performance of varieties vary depending on the soil they are being grown in and weather conditions.

 

There always seems to be so much to take into consideration when choosing seed potatoes.

•  When do the potatoes mature?
• Are they resistant to particular pests and diseases?
• If you wish to grow in a container which varieties are suitable for container growing?
• How do you cook your potatoes?

 

If you garden on an allotment ask other gardeners on the site which potatoes perform well.

 

Most suppliers of seed potatoes will describe the varieties but be aware that they want to sell to you and will obviously describe the potatoes in the best light.

 

Other sources of information are:

The Potato Council website has lots of information about potatoes including understanding terms such as earlies or maincrop, a brief history of the potato and recipe ideas.

The Potato Variety Database can be a good source of information but is better for finding information about a particular variety that you are considering growing.

 

Growing Potatoes

 

Many gardeners prefer to chit their seed potatoes before planting. If like us your potatoes usually are bought or arrive in late winter or early spring then you have no real option other than to chit them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To chit, the seed potatoes are placed in a light, cool, frost free location. They then produce short stumpy shoots which some people believe gets the potatoes off to a good start. Whether it does or not no harm is done by chitting.

 

 

 

 

 

We leave our seed potatoes to chit in our greenhouse and cover them with layers of fleece if frost is forecast.

 

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Planting seed potatoes

 

Some people will dig a deep trench into which to plant their seed potatoes but we prefer an easier method using a trowel (read about it here). We haven’t found that it affects the crop and certainly means that we get our potatoes planted quicker and suffer less aches and pains

 

Earthing up

 

As the potato tops grow they need to be earthed up - this means that you must drag earth up from the sides of where the seed potatoes are planted to create a mound. This prevents any potatoes growing near the surface from becoming green. We use a draw hoe for this job.

 

Growing under weed control fabric

 

For a few years no we have been planting seed potatoes through holes in weed control fabric, (see here). Using this method there is no need to earth up.

 

Growing potatoes in containers

 

As well as growing potatoes in the ground we also grow some in hessian planting bags. These are started off in the greenhouse and moved outside when the greenhouse space is needed for tomatoes. This gives us an earlier crop. Growing potatoes in containers is a good option if you have little space and just want to grow a crop of early new potatoes. For more information about growing potatoes in containers see here. The potatoes can be planted on large plant pots ofr your can buy purpose made planters.

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Storing potatoes

 

We store our potatoes in stacking boxes that we pick up free at the supermarket or in brown paper sacks sold specifically for this purpose. You can also store potatoes in hessian sacks. Don’t store in plastic and make sure that any light is excluded as light will make the potatoes turn green.

 

Potatoes need to be stored in a frost free place we use our garage. If potatoes are frosted the starch turns to sugar and the potatoes develop a sweet flavour. Don’t store any damaged potatoes as these can spoil your other potatoes. If the damage isn’t severe use these potatoes first cutting off any damaged parts.

 

Also bear in mind that stored potatoes are very attractive to hungry mice.