Potatoes

01 About

Britain's most beloved crop. Grow your own and you'll never go back — the flavour difference between homegrown and shop-bought is remarkable. There is a variety for every use: waxy salad types that hold together, floury bakers that collapse into fluffiness, and richly flavoured heritage types that supermarkets never stock.

02 What to Grow

Potatoes fall into four groups — First Earlies, Second Earlies, Maincrop, and Salad types — each with different harvest timing and uses. First Earlies are fastest: 60–80 days from planting to new potato heaven. Maincrops take longest but give the biggest yields and store well. Salad types are waxy, thin-skinned and best eaten fresh. Choosing the right type for your soil, space, and kitchen use makes all the difference.

03 Varieties

The number of varieties shown for each crop is based on UK consumption data (2025/26) — the more popular the crop, the more variety choices we include.

⚡ First Earlies

Harvest Jun–Jul. Fastest crop — 60–80 days. New potato flavour at its freshest. Ideal for containers and potato bags.

Swift

First Early

The earliest of all — harvests as soon as 60 days. Small oval waxy tubers with excellent fresh flavour. Ideal for containers.

• Outdoors
• Container
• Beginners

Rocket

First Early

Exceptional speed and reliability. Round white-skinned tubers with creamy flesh. Very popular in UK allotments.

• Outdoors
• Container
• Beginners

Pentland Javelin

First Early

Classic Scottish first early with white skin, waxy flesh and clean flavour. Good resistance to scab.

• Outdoors

Foremost

First Early

Long-established reliable first early. Pale skin, waxy flesh, excellent flavour. Steady yields.

• AGM
• Outdoors
• Heritage

Arran Pilot

First Early

The classic Scottish first early. Long oval waxy tubers with smooth white skin and clean flavour. A staple of UK allotments for over a century.

• Outdoors
• Heritage

Duke of York

First Early

Heritage first early with golden-yellow waxy flesh and outstanding buttery flavour. Kidney-shaped tubers — one of the oldest named varieties still grown.

• Outdoors
• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour

🌿 Second Earlies

Harvest Jul–Aug. Versatile — waxy enough for salads, substantial enough for boiling. Good for most growing situations.

Charlotte

Second Early

The most popular salad potato in the UK. Waxy yellow flesh, nutty flavour, superb boiled or in salads. Reliable and prolific.

• Outdoors
• Container
• ⭐ Flavour
• AGM

Kestrel

Second Early

Striking purple-eyed tubers with white skin. Versatile — boils, bakes and chips well. Strong disease resistance.

• Outdoors

Estima

Second Early

Large oval tubers with light yellow flesh. Reliable heavy cropper. Excellent baked or boiled.

• Outdoors
• Beginners

Wilja

Second Early

Long oval yellow-fleshed tubers with good flavour. Very reliable in wet conditions. Good resistance to blight.

• Outdoors

Maris Peer

Second Early

Compact round tubers with firm waxy flesh. Holds shape perfectly when boiled — ideal for salads and new potatoes. Very consistent yields.

• Outdoors
• Container

Nadine

Second Early

Smooth white-skinned tubers with firm waxy flesh. Reliable heavy cropper with good disease resistance. Stores reasonably well for a second early.

• AGM
• Outdoors
• Beginners

🏆 Maincrop

Harvest Aug–Oct. Largest yields and best for storage. Includes the classic bakers, chippers and mash potatoes.

Maris Piper

Maincrop

The nation's favourite for chips, mash and roasts. Floury white flesh, heavy yields, superb flavour. The benchmark maincrop.

• Outdoors
• ⭐ Flavour
• AGM

King Edward

Maincrop

The classic roast potato. Floury, dry-textured flesh with red-tinged skin. Outstanding flavour. A British institution.

• Outdoors
• ⭐ Flavour
• Heritage

Desiree

Maincrop

Red-skinned with yellow waxy flesh. Versatile — chips, boils, roasts and mashes. Good drought tolerance.

• AGM
• Outdoors
• Heritage

Sarpo Mira

Maincrop

Exceptional blight resistance — the best choice for organic growers or wet summers. Red skin, floury flesh, heavy yields.

• AGM
• Outdoors
• Heritage
• Blight Resistant

Rooster

Maincrop

Distinctive deep red skin with fluffy yellow flesh. Excellent for chips, roasts and mash. Heavy cropper with outstanding blight resistance. Ireland's most popular potato.

• Outdoors
• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour
• AGM

Cara

Maincrop

Large round tubers with white skin and distinctive pink eye markings. Mild flavour, very versatile. Excellent resistance to blight and eelworm.

• Outdoors
• Beginners
• Disease Resistant

🥗 Salad Types

Waxy, firm-fleshed varieties that hold their shape when cooked. Best eaten fresh — store poorly but taste extraordinary.

Anya

Salad

Knobbly nutty fingerling with waxy yellow flesh and outstanding flavour. A cross between Desiree and Pink Fir Apple.

• Outdoors
• ⭐ Flavour

Pink Fir Apple

Salad

The aristocrat of salad potatoes. Knobbly, irregular, waxy and intensely nutty. Eat hot or cold — spectacular either way.

• Outdoors
• ⭐ Flavour
• Heritage
• AGM

Ratte

Salad

French fingerling with rich buttery flavour. Beloved by chefs. Small elongated tubers with firm yellow flesh.

• AGM
• Outdoors
• ⭐ Flavour
• Heritage

Nicola

Salad

German salad variety with consistently excellent flavour. Long oval tubers, golden skin, firm waxy flesh. Very reliable.

• Outdoors
• ⭐ Flavour

Belle de Fontenay

Salad

The aristocrat of French salad potatoes. Slender oval tubers with golden waxy flesh and a refined buttery flavour. Beloved by chefs.

• Outdoors
• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour

Vitelotte

Salad

Stunning heritage fingerling with deep purple-black skin and vivid violet flesh throughout. Nutty earthy flavour. A spectacular talking point.

• Outdoors
• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour

🎨 Specialist & Coloured Skin

Blight-resistant and novelty varieties with striking skin colour, prized for their distinctiveness and reliability.

Orla

First Early · Blight Resistant

A smooth-skinned first early with outstanding blight resistance and excellent flavour. Clean, bright white skin and waxy flesh. One of the best organic and low-spray potato choices for UK growers.

• Outdoors
• AGM
• Blight Resistant
• Beginners

Salad Blue

Heritage · Purple

Striking round tubers with deep blue-purple skin and vivid violet-blue flesh throughout. A 19th-century Scottish heritage variety. Nutty, earthy flavour. Holds colour when cooked in the skin.

• Outdoors
• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour

Purple Majesty

Heritage · Purple

Deep purple skin and vivid purple-blue flesh. Very high anthocyanin antioxidant content. Firm, waxy texture. Excellent roasted or boiled — holds its colour well when cooked.

• Outdoors
• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour

04 Where to Source

Seed potatoes arrive from specialist suppliers Jan–Mar, and from most garden centres from Feb onwards. Always buy certified disease-free seed potatoes — never plant supermarket tubers, which may carry disease and are often treated to suppress sprouting. Order early: popular varieties sell out fast.

📬 Seed catalogues

The widest range — hundreds of varieties. Order Jan–Feb for delivery in Feb–Mar. Popular first earlies and salad types sell out early.

🏪 Garden centres

Convenient. Stocks from February. Main varieties only — buy early before sellout.

🤝 Seed swaps

Potato Day events in Jan–Feb offer dozens of heritage varieties at minimal cost. An excellent source for Pink Fir Apple, Ratte, and unusual heritage types.

05 Planting Options

🌱 Open Ground

The traditional method and highest-yielding. Dig trenches 10–15cm deep, enrich with compost, plant sets 30cm apart (earlies) or 40cm (maincrop) with shoots upward. Earth up as foliage grows.

Suitable varieties: All varieties — especially maincrops for maximum yield.

Open Ground — regional timing

Region	Sow / plant	Harvest	Notes
Scotland & Far North	Chit Feb–Mar · Apr–May · Earth up May–Jul	Jul–Oct	Late Apr–early May
Northern England	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	Jun–Oct	Late Mar–mid Apr
Midlands & Wales	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	Jun–Oct	Mid Mar–mid Apr
Ireland & Isle of Man	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	Jun–Oct	Mid Mar–mid Apr
South & SE England	Chit Jan · Feb–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	Jun–Oct	Early–mid Mar
South Coast & SW	Chit Jan · Feb–Mar · Earth up Mar–May	May–Oct	Late Feb–mid Mar

🛍️ Potato Bag

Grow 3 sets in a 40–50 litre potato bag. Fill one-third with compost, plant sets, cover and add compost as shoots grow. Excellent on patios. Harvest by tipping the bag.

Suitable varieties: First and second earlies — Swift, Charlotte, Rocket, Kestrel.

Potato Bag — regional timing

Region	Sow / plant	Harvest	Notes
Scotland & Far North	Chit Feb–Mar · Apr–May · Earth up May–Jul	Jul–Aug	Late Apr–early May
Northern England	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	Jun–Aug	Late Mar–mid Apr
Midlands & Wales	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	May–Aug	Mid Mar–mid Apr
Ireland & Isle of Man	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	May–Aug	Mid Mar–mid Apr
South & SE England	Chit Jan · Feb–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	May–Aug	Early–mid Mar
South Coast & SW	Chit Jan · Feb–Mar · Earth up Mar–May	May–Aug	Late Feb–mid Mar

🪵 Raised Bed

Raised beds give excellent drainage — critical for potatoes. Plant as per open ground. Earthing up is easier with loose raised-bed compost. Perfect for smaller gardens.

Suitable varieties: First and second earlies. Salad types do particularly well.

Raised Bed — regional timing

Region	Sow / plant	Harvest	Notes
Scotland & Far North	Chit Feb–Mar · Apr–May · Earth up May–Jul	Jul–Aug	Late Apr–early May
Northern England	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	Jun–Aug	Late Mar–mid Apr
Midlands & Wales	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	May–Aug	Mid Mar–mid Apr
Ireland & Isle of Man	Chit Jan–Feb · Mar–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	May–Aug	Mid Mar–mid Apr
South & SE England	Chit Jan · Feb–Apr · Earth up Apr–Jun	May–Aug	Early–mid Mar
South Coast & SW	Chit Jan · Feb–Mar · Earth up Mar–May	May–Aug	Late Feb–mid Mar

06 Companion Planting

✅ Grow nearby

• 

  🫘 Beans

  Legumes fix nitrogen that benefits potato growth. Runner beans and French beans are good rotation predecessors or adjacent-bed companions. The shade from tall beans also reduces slug pressure on emerging potato shoots.

• 

  🌸 Calendula

  Calendula (pot marigold) attracts beneficial insects including hoverflies whose larvae eat aphids. A reliable flowering companion for the vegetable garden that benefits potatoes and neighbouring crops.

❌ Keep apart

• 🍅 Tomatoes — Both are Solanaceae — they share blight (Phytophthora infestans). Keep as far apart as possible and never rotate into the same bed year after year.
• 🍆 Aubergines — Same family as tomatoes — susceptible to the same diseases. Rotate all solanums together and give each bed a 3-year rest between plantings.

07 Sowing — How To

Potatoes begin life not as seeds but as seed tubers — small certified potato sets that are chitted (pre-sprouted) before planting. Chitting gives the crop a 2–3 week head start and improves yields significantly. It is the single most worthwhile preparation step.

1. 

   Select seed potatoes

   Buy certified disease-free seed potatoes from a reputable supplier. Choose sets around the size of a hen's egg — larger ones can be cut in half but leave to dry for 24 hours before planting.

2. 

   Start chitting

   Stand tubers rose-end up (the end with most eyes) in egg boxes or seed trays. Place in a cool, light, frost-free location — a cool windowsill or unheated spare room is ideal.

3. 

   Develop good sprouts

   Chit from Jan–Feb for a 2–3 week head start. Aim for short, stubby, dark green shoots (1–2cm). Pale, leggy shoots in the dark are worthless — light is essential.

4. 

   Prepare the ground

   Dig in plenty of well-rotted compost or manure. Potatoes thrive in rich, loose, well-drained soil. Avoid freshly limed ground — it encourages scab.

5. 

   Make planting trenches

   Dig rows 10–15cm deep. Space rows 60cm apart for earlies, 75cm for maincrop. A rope or cane keeps rows straight and makes earthing up easier.

6. 

   Plant sets

   Set chitted tubers shoot-side up, 30cm apart (earlies) or 40cm (maincrop). Handle sprouts carefully — they snap off easily. Cover gently with soil.

7. 

   Earth up

   As shoots appear, draw soil up around them to leave just 5–8cm of foliage showing. Repeat every 2–3 weeks. This protects against frost, encourages more tubers and prevents greening.

8. 

   Monitor and harvest

   Watch for blight in warm humid spells. First earlies are ready when flowers open — lift a test plant. Maincrop: allow foliage to die back naturally, then lift on a dry day.

08 Using a Propagator

Potatoes are grown from seed tubers (sets), not from seed, so a propagator is not part of the process. The equivalent of propagation for potatoes is chitting — standing the tubers rose-end up in egg boxes or seed trays in a cool, light, frost-free spot for 4–6 weeks before planting. A cool windowsill, unheated spare room, or porch is ideal. The goal is short, dark green stubby sprouts 1–2cm long.

Heated propagator

Not applicable — potatoes are chitted, not germinated in heat. Warmth during chitting produces weak, drawn sprouts. A cool, bright, frost-free spot (7–10°C) is ideal for chitting.

Standard unheated propagator — A lidded seed tray traps warmth and humidity around germinating seeds without electricity. Performance depends entirely on room temperature — best placed on a warm windowsill and used from March onwards. Replace the lid promptly after watering. Remove it completely the moment seedlings emerge to prevent damping off.

Windowsill alternative: A bright south-facing windowsill can substitute from late February. Place a clear polythene bag loosely over the pot during germination. Remove immediately once seedlings appear.

09 Soil Requirements

pH

5.0–6.0

Best

Loam, Sandy loam

Tolerates

Clay loam, Sandy

Avoid

Waterlogged, Alkaline chalk

10 Ongoing Care

⛏️ Earthing Up

Earth up regularly as shoots grow — draw soil around the stems to leave just 5–8cm of foliage showing. Repeat every 2–3 weeks. This protects against frost, encourages more tubers to form along the buried stem, and prevents tubers near the surface from turning green and toxic.

💧 Watering

Steady moisture is essential once plants are in flower and tubers are swelling. Irregular watering at this stage causes hollow heart and skin cracking. In dry spells, water deeply twice a week at the base of the stems. First earlies in containers need daily watering in warm weather.

🍂 Blight Watch

Blight (Phytophthora infestans) can destroy a whole crop within days in warm, humid weather. Inspect plants every 2–3 days in summer. At first sign — brown patches spreading from leaf tips, white mould beneath — remove all affected material immediately and never compost it. Choose blight-resistant varieties (Sarpo Mira, Orla) for peace of mind.

🥔 Harvesting

First earlies: harvest when flowers open, about 10 days after the petals fall. Gently scrape soil aside to check tuber size — aim for egg-sized. Second earlies: as above, from late July. Maincrop: wait until all foliage has died back completely, then choose a dry day and lift with a fork well clear of the row.

11 Watch Out For

🐛 Insects & pests

• 🐌 Slugs & Snails — Silver slime trails on leaves, soil, and pots — often the first sign before damage is found
• 🐜 Aphids (Blackfly & Greenfly) — Curled, distorted, or stunted growing tips — aphids inject saliva that causes leaf curl to protect them
• 🟢 Leafhopper — Pale papery cast skins (exuviae) dotted on the underside of leaves — the most characteristic sign

🍄 Diseases to watch

• 🟤 Late Blight — Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is the most destructive disease in the UK kitchen garden. The same pathogen caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s. In warm, humid conditions it spreads with terrifying speed — an entire crop of tomatoes can be destroyed within a week of the first lesion appearing.
• ⬜ Sclerotinia (White Mould) — Sclerotinia sclerotiorum causes a sudden, dramatic collapse of apparently healthy plants. It produces dense white cotton-wool-like mycelium and large black resting bodies (sclerotia) that persist in soil for up to 10 years. A single severely affected bed can remain a reservoir for re-infection for a decade.
• 🌿 Fusarium Wilt — Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum) is a soil-borne vascular disease that invades root systems and blocks the water-conducting tissue of the plant. Infected plants die of internal drought even with adequate soil moisture. Different formae speciales (strains) target specific host plants — asparagus fusarium is different to tomato fusarium.

Full identification and treatment advice is in the Pests and Diseases sections.

12 Storage & Preserving

🥔 Short-term fresh

Freshly lifted earlies and salad types are best eaten within a week. Store in a cool dark place loosely in a paper bag or hessian sack — never in plastic.

🌑 Cool dark storage

Maincrop potatoes store for months in the right conditions: 4–7°C, complete darkness (light causes greening), good ventilation, and away from frost. A garage, shed or cellar is ideal.

❄️ Frost protection

Potatoes are damaged by frost. In storage, insulate boxes with newspaper or hessian and check regularly through winter. Any green or soft potatoes must be removed immediately.

13 Expert Tips

14 Common Mistakes

15 See Also

• 🌼 Companion Planting
• 🔄 Crop Rotation
• 🛍️ Potato Bag