Gardening with Children

I have had an ‘Ask the expert enquiry ‘from Ceri Sawyer in Cumbria and one of the questions that she has asked is

What time of the year should you plant a seed potato?

I thought that I would share my reply with you –

There are three types of seed potatoes

First Earlies

Plant in late March to early April – you can expect to harvest these approx. 10 weeks after planting.

Second Earlies

Plant early to mid April – you can expect to harvest these approx. 13 weeks after planting.  

Maincrop

Plant in mid to late April – you can expect to harvest these approx. 15-20 weeks after planting.

These planting dates are a guide, if you live in the south you may be able to plant a week or two earlier or if you live in the north a couple of weeks later it also depends on our unpredictable weather which at the moment is predictably very cold, even if the ground is not frozen it is still very cold and crops simply will not grow.

Seed potatoes can be planted now in potato growing bags filled with vegetable compost and placed in a greenhouse or polytunnel where they will be protected from the weather otherwise cover your vegetable beds with black plastic or cloches to warm the soil up until there is an improvement in the weather.

When you get your ‘seed’ potatoes put them into egg boxes/seed trays with the ‘rose’ end upwards this is where you might see tiny shoots or the ‘belly button’ end facing downwards and place them in a cool, frost-free and light (not sunny) position. This is called chitting and helps the potato to produce strong buds which speeds up growing once they are planted, all seed potatoes especially first and second earlies benefit from chitting. When the shoots are about 2-3cm they are ready to plant, don’t leave it too late to buy your seed potatoes, once the weather warms up the demand will be high and your choice may be limited.

My seed potatoes are sat patiently in their egg boxes.

Gill