Originally potatoes came from South America. You can eat them boiled, mashed, baked or roasted and they have become a favourite food for many people. It is easy for anyone to grow potatoes at home and if you don’t have room in your garden you can grow them in containers. Potatoes don’t grow from seeds, instead they grow from a seed potato. The seed potato has small sprouts on it ready to grow. People have been growing and eating potatoes for thousands of years. There are many ways to plant and grow potatoes and this video shows you how to plant potatoes in containers and in the garden soil.
This video shows you a different way to grow potatoes using minimal effort whilst both building soil and creating an abundance of tubers. Check that weed killer has not been used on the hay to keep your crop organic.
There are dozens of different potato varieties, usually described as early, second early and main crop potatoes. These names indicate when they crop and also give you an idea of the space you’ll need, how closely and when they can be planted.
Growing Tips
- Potatoes like plenty of sun, so avoid planting them in frost-prone sites, as these conditions can damage the developing foliage. If you’re starting up a vegetable plot on very weedy ground or old grassland, potatoes may help swamp out weeds with their fast-growing, extensive foliage.
- If you’re short of space, try growing potatoes in an adequately drained container that’s at least 30cm (1ft) deep and wide. Half fill the pot with multi-purpose compost or good quality, fertile garden soil, nestle two seed potatoes into the top of the compost and then
top up with more compost or soil to within 2.5cm (1in) of the rim of
the container. - It’s particularly important that there’s adequate water once the tubers
have reached the size of marbles. Unless there’s regular, ample rainfall,
the size and quality of the crop will be reduced.