Learn to grow the perfect potatoes

Potatoes are delicious, easy to cultivate, and even help clear the ground of weeds. They also come in dozens of varieties, each with different harvest times and properties. We'll help you plant the perfect potatoes for you.

• Potatoes are bred to mature at different times in the year and to resist diseases such as scab and blight, along with pests like wireworms.
• Select for disease-resistance first. If you want to enjoy your potatoes nearly all year round, choose earlies for the early and mid summer as well as main crop seed potatoes, which are harvested in late summer or early autumn for winter storage.
• Chitting: In the late winter, set seed potatoes nose-end up in cardboard boxes or slatted trays. Leave them in a cool, light place for about six weeks until strong, short shoots develop.
• Planting: Dig trenches about 10 centimetres (4 inches) deep and 45 to 60 centimetres (18 to 24 inches) apart, using composted soil.
• Rub off all but the strongest two or three shoots and plant shoots uppermost along the trenches 25 to 30 centimetres (10 to 12 inches) apart.
• Earthing up: Use a rake to draw the soil up over the row into a ridge. Continue to earth up when leaves appear and as foliage grows.
• Cover any potatoes near the surface or they will turn green and be inedible.
• Harvesting: Harvest after flowers appear. Use a fork and work from the edge of the row to avoid piercing.
• Before lifting the crop, test one or two potatoes by rubbing the skin with your thumb. If it doesn't rub off, the crop is ready.

• Grow new potatoes in a barrel with holes in the base for drainage.
• Put in a 15 centimetre (6 inch) layer of compost, then add the potatoes and cover with an additional 7.5 centimetres (3 inches) of compost.
• Once the stems have grown so that they protrude about 15 centimetres (6 inches) above the surface, add another 7.5 centimetre (3 inch) layer of compost.
• Keep your potatoes watered well and continue adding compost layers until the barrel is almost full. Then harvest!

If you love store-bought potatoes, you'll be amazed at how much more delicious and robust they are when you grow them yourself. And with these instructions, a bountiful harvest is just a few steps away.