Potatoes grow well in pots and are great for those short on time and/or space. A bucket of potatoes can be squeezed into any nook or cranny that receives some sunshine. There are 2 types of potato that crop at different times: earlies and maincrop. Earlies are ready earlier in the year but don’t store well. Main crops are ready later in the year and can be stored over the winter. Grow both to have potatoes all year round. 🌱 Step 1 - chitting Chitting is the practice of encouraging your seed potatoes to sprout before planting. It’s not strictly necessary but it can bring forward your harvests slightly when you’re planting early into cold ground. If you haven’t been chitting but you want to plant your early potatoes now that’s fine too! 🌱 Step 2 – planting out You can grow potatoes in the ground or in containers. To grow in containers I use a large pot with holes in the bottom. You could use anything: a bucket or even old compost bags, just make sure you add drainage holes. Fill your pot with 5cm of compost. Place 2-3 potatoes in the pot with the shoots facing up. Chuck another 5cm of compost into the pot on top of the potatoes. To plant in the ground, make a hole 20cm deep and pop your potato in, shoots facing up. Cover over with soil. Plant first & second early potatoes 30cm apart, in rows 60cm apart. Plant maincrop potatoes 40cm apart in rows 60cm apart. 🌱 Step 3 – earthing up Earthing up is the practice of covering potato plants with earth as they grow. This protects them from frost, and increases yields as the buried stems will produce more spuds. It also prevents the tubers from being exposed to light, which causes them to turn green. Earth up potatoes when the shoots are 10cm tall. If you’re growing in containers, fill the container with more soil to cover the plant completely. Repeat this process over the next few weeks, adding soil as soon as the plant reaches 10cm above the soil surface, until the container is full. If growing in the ground, pull the surrounding soil up around the potatoes. Repeat this process over the next few weeks, earthing up as soon as the plant reaches 10cm above the surface of the soil, until the ridge you create around your potato plants is around 30cm high. 🌱 Step 4 – harvesting Harvest first and second earlies 10-14 weeks after planting, when the spuds have reached a good size. You can dig these up as and when they are needed. Maincrop potatoes take 15-20 weeks to mature and ready to harvest when the leaves turn yellow. Cut back the foliage and leave in the ground for 10 days for the skins to cure which makes them store better. 🌱 Step 5 – storing Maincrop potatoes store best in a cool (but frost free), dry and dark place. We store ours in a custom-built wooden cupboard in our barn. We place them on paper to help absorb excess moisture. Check for spoilage every couple of weeks, as one rotten potato can spoil the lot! - @jess_happy_smallholding