Potatoes
Potatoes: chitting, when to plant earlies and maincrops, earthing up, harvesting and storing.
Potatoes at a glance
Solanum tuberosum
- Position
- Open and sunny, away from frost pockets
- Soil
- Rich and fertile
- Soil pH
- Around 6.5 or lower
- Spacing
- 60 cm between rows, 30 cm apart in the row, for earlies; maincrops 37 cm apart in rows 75 cm apart (RHS)
- Plant
- Late March to early May, by type
- Harvest
- June to October, by type
- Watering
- In dry weather, often in containers
- Difficulty
- Easy
When to sow and plant
Growing and care
Diseases and pests
Potatoes through the year
Every job for growing potatoes on one chart. Click a row to open the full guide.
Common questions
What does potato blight look like?
The RHS describes a rapidly spreading, watery rot of the leaves, which collapse, shrivel and turn brown, with whitish growth underneath in wet weather. Stems get brown lesions, and tubers a reddish-brown rot under the skin. More
When should I earth up potatoes?
When the shoots are about 15 cm (Garden Organic) to 23 cm (RHS) tall. Repeat every few weeks until the ridge is 20–30 cm high. More
Is it too early to plant potatoes in March?
Not for first earlies. The RHS plants them in late March and Garden Organic from mid to late March. In the north and east, wait until the soil is at least 6 °C. More
In this section we use these sources: Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Garden Organic, BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, Met Office. Each page lists its own sources at the bottom.