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There is nothing quite like the taste of freshly harvested potatoes straight from your own garden. Whether you love them baked, mashed, roasted or turned into crispy chips, potatoes are one of the easiest and most rewarding vegetables to grow at home.
With the right preparation and care, you can enjoy a generous crop from garden beds, raised planters or even containers on a patio. This guide explains everything you need to know about growing potatoes at home, from choosing the right varieties to harvesting perfect tubers.
Before you start planting, it is important to choose the right type of potato for your space and cooking preferences.
First early potatoes are the quickest to mature and are ideal if you want an early summer harvest.
Popular varieties often include:
Second early potatoes produce slightly larger crops and are incredibly versatile in the kitchen.
Popular choices include:
Maincrop potatoes take longer to mature but reward gardeners with larger harvests and excellent storage potential.
Popular varieties include:
Potatoes thrive when planted in the right conditions, and giving them a strong start will significantly improve your harvest. They are also one of the easiest crops for beginners to grow, as they tolerate less-than-perfect conditions better than many other vegetables while still producing a rewarding harvest.
A few weeks before planting:
Avoid planting potatoes in the same spot every year. Crop rotation helps reduce the risk of potato blight, potato eelworm and wireworm.
One of the best ways to improve early potato crops is by chitting seed potatoes before planting. During the chitting process, small shoots known as ‘chits’ begin to appear from the seed potatoes. Healthy chits should look short and sturdy, and are usually creamy white, pink or purple depending on the potato variety.
Chitting encourages seed potatoes to sprout before planting. Giving them this head start helps plants establish faster and results in an earlier harvest, particularly with first and second early varieties.
This method works especially well for first early potatoes and second early potatoes.
Planting potatoes directly into the ground gives the developing tubers plenty of space to grow and is one of the most reliable ways to produce a healthy crop.
Prepare straight trenches in well-worked soil. Dig each trench approximately 15cm deep. Leave enough space between rows to allow the plants to develop and make harvesting easier.
First and second earlies: trenches 15cm deep and 60cm apart
Maincrop potatoes: trenches 15cm deep and 75cm apart
Place each seed potato in the trench with the shoots facing upwards. Correct spacing gives each plant enough room to grow, improves air circulation and helps produce a good crop of evenly sized potatoes.
Lightly cover potatoes with soil and water well.
Once stems reach around 25cm high, mound soil around the stems to create ridges approximately 15cm high.
This process:
🥔 Expert Tip: Earthing up doesn’t just prevent potatoes turning green. It also helps protect young shoots from unexpected late spring frosts and can encourage more tubers to develop along the buried stem.
Potatoes grow exceptionally well in raised beds because the soil warms up quickly in spring and drainage is improved. Follow the same spacing recommendations as ground-grown potatoes, ensuring beds are at least 30cm deep for good tuber development.
Short on space? Potatoes grow brilliantly in containers, patio planters and potato grow bags.
Some reusable potato grow bags also feature a handy access flap, allowing you to harvest a few potatoes at a time without disturbing the rest of the plant. This is especially useful for early varieties, as the remaining tubers can continue developing beneath the compost. Container-grown potatoes can also help reduce pest problems and make excellent use of smaller growing spaces.
Consistent watering is essential for healthy potato growth.
Potatoes benefit from a high-potassium fertiliser during the growing season. Avoid excessive nitrogen, which encourages leafy growth rather than tubers.
Mulching around plants can also:
Taking a few simple preventative measures throughout the growing season can help keep potato plants healthy and improve the quality of your harvest. While potatoes are generally easy to grow, spotting problems early and creating the right growing conditions will help reduce the risk of disease, pests and damaged crops.
Potato blight is a fungal disease that thrives in warm, damp conditions, particularly during wet summers. It can cause foliage to blacken and collapse quickly, while infected tubers may rot in the ground or in storage.
Preventative measures:
Slugs can damage developing potatoes by leaving holes and tunnels in the tubers. In larger potato plots, complete slug control can be difficult, but a few preventative measures can help reduce problems.
Try:
Potato scab is a common soil-borne disease that causes rough, corky patches to develop on the skin of potatoes. While affected potatoes are still edible once peeled, scab can spoil their appearance and reduce storage quality.
Try:
Potatoes can be harvested at different stages depending on the variety and the size of potatoes you prefer. Checking plants regularly will help you decide when the crop is ready to lift.
First and second early potatoes are usually ready from early summer onwards and are best enjoyed fresh.
To check if they are ready:
Many gardeners begin harvesting earlies once the plants start flowering, although this can vary between varieties. First and second early potatoes are often harvested as “new potatoes” while the skins are still thin and tender.
Maincrop potatoes are harvested later in the season and are better suited for storing through autumn and winter.
For the best storage results:
Leave harvested potatoes somewhere dry and airy for several days to allow the skins to harden before long-term storage.
Growing your own potatoes is a rewarding way to enjoy fresh, homegrown produce. At Lyonshall Nurseries, you’ll find seed potatoes, compost, fertilisers, grow bags and a wide range of vegetable gardening essentials to help you achieve a healthy, productive harvest.
Visit us in Kington to browse our seasonal range and speak to our team for practical advice on growing potatoes at home.
