The Seed Potato Cometh: Time to Plan Your Harvest

The Seed Potato Cometh: Time to Plan Your Harvest

Are you ready to step outside and embrace the magic of January days in the garden? No…? I’m not surprised! Dark mornings, short days, and little light, makes many people immune to the subtle charms of the winter garden. While the mild start to December lulled us into a false sense of security, the cold polar airstream has now struck, bringing with it a chill that can’t be ignored. Checking fresh weather maps, I see that a snow warning has been issued for the South of London. The crisp air and frost-covered landscape can be truly magical but admit it – it is more tempting to stay indoors where it’s warm and cozy! However, being indoors all day can quickly become boring. We all need a change of scenery. When you do venture outdoors to escape the ennui, dress warmly for the cold weather. And when you start to feel the chill creeping in, why not treat yourself to some cold-weather comfort food? Picture yourself sitting in the café at Alexandra Palace Garden Centre or its sister café at Sherfield-on-Loddon Garden Centre, savouring a piping hot jacket potato with a delicious topping of your choice. It’s the perfect way to warm up from the inside out and fuel your body for a walk around the outdoor plant area. All this talk of warm fluffy potatoes serves to remind me that I need to tell you that the first delivery of our seed potato range for 2025 is about to hit the shelves!

Seed Potatoes: The Key to a Bountiful Harvest

When it comes to successfully growing potatoes, starting with high-quality seed potatoes is essential. These certified seed potatoes are specially selected for their disease resistance and healthy growth, ensuring that your crop will be productive and plentiful. Did you know that using certified seed potatoes can yield up to double the harvest compared to growing regular potatoes?

Potato Health and Disease Resistance

All our seed potatoes have been rigorously tested to ensure that they are free from any harmful diseases or pests. This means you can plant them with confidence, knowing that your crop will be healthy and robust. The only question left to answer is, what variety will you choose to grow in 2025? To help you decide let’s look at the three main groupings:

First Early Varieties

First early varieties of seed potatoes are quick to mature, making them perfect for planting in early spring. These potatoes are great for harvesting as new potatoes and are ideal for salads or boiling. Jersey, Rocket, and Duke of York are popular first early varieties.

Second Early and Salad Crop Varieties

Second early varieties of seed potatoes take a bit longer to mature but still produce delicious, creamy tubers. These types are perfect for boiling, mashing, or roasting. Salad crop varieties are popular for their tender skins and waxy flesh, making them perfect for salads. Charlotte is the most popular salad potato to grow in the UK. Maris Peer is a flavourful and versatile second early variety.

Maincrop Potatoes

Maincrop potatoes are the longest-maturing varieties of seed potatoes and produce the largest spuds! They are typically planted in late spring and can be harvested in late summer or early autumn. These potatoes are perfect for storing, and they are ideal for use in hearty dishes like mashed or baked potatoes. Maris Piper, Cara, and King Edward are classic maincrop varieties.

Chitting for Success

Potatoes should be planted when the soil has warmed up after winter, typically after late March. Indeed, there is an old farming adage that says you shouldn’t plant your potatoes until the soil is warm enough for you to sit on it comfortably with your bare bottom. I haven’t tried this in my North London back garden, mainly out of courtesy to the neighbours, but maybe one of our readers with a bit more privacy has? If this is how you test your soil temperature, please let us know if it works!

However, there is a major benefit to buying your seed potatoes now. And that is, you have plenty of time to chit. And No! This is nothing to do with our earthy discussion in the immediately preceding paragraph. Chitting means exposing potato tubers to sunlight in a cool place so that they develop shoots. Chitting helps ensure an earlier potato harvest by giving your seed potatoes the best possible start. The simplest way to chit your seed potatoes is to sit them in an egg box, or space them out in a seed tray, on a sunny windowsill in an unheated room. Under these conditions they will develop strong sprouts, giving your plants a head start into growth, and giving you an earlier crop. The traditional procedure following chitting is to gently rub away all but two or three fat sprouts before planting your tubers, but horticultural trials have shown this practice is unnecessary. Chitted seed potatoes should only be planted in a sunny position in the garden once the soil has warmed up sufficiently. Good Friday is the traditional day for planting potatoes, because the Devil was said to have no power over the soil that day! However, I would recommend planting first earlies in late March, second earlies in mid-April, and main crop potatoes from mid-to-late April.

Growing Potatoes in Bags and Containers

If you don’t have a large garden you can always plant seed potatoes in a big pot or a potato bag (such as the Vitax Potato Grow Sack). It’s easy to do and perfect for small outside spaces such as patios and balconies. Half fill a large pot or sack with multipurpose compost, and plant 3 to 5 seed potatoes about 4 inches deep. Then, as your potato plants grow, simply add more compost and fertiliser to earth them up, covering the stems and protecting the developing tubers from exposure to light, until the bag is full. I recommend using Vitax Organic Potato Fertiliser for great results. Potatoes grown in containers will develop earlier than those planted in the ground, but they must never be allowed to dry out.

In conclusion, growing potatoes is a rewarding activity that all children (and grownups) should experience at least once in their lives. There is nothing like the thrill of unearthing and then cooking and eating tasty homegrown spuds for the very first time. By starting with high-quality, certified seed potatoes and following trusted cultivation techniques such as chitting, you can ensure a bountiful harvest of delicious and nutritious potatoes. So, give it a try this year and experience the satisfaction of growing and harvesting your very own potatoes!

Further reading:

Planting seed potatoes

https://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/blog/keep-calm-and-plant-seed-potatoes/

How to cook the perfect Jacket potato

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/nov/04/how-cook-perfect-jacket-potato