Seed Potato 'Picasso'

Potatoes are a rewarding crop for any garden, producing generous yields from just a few seed tubers. With the right preparation and care, they can thrive in most soils and provide delicious harvests from early summer into autumn.

Chitting Seed Potatoes
To give your potatoes a strong start, chit the tubers before planting. Place them in trays or egg boxes with the ‘rose end’—where most eyes are—facing up. Keep in a cool, bright, frost-free spot at around 7°C until short, sturdy shoots about 2.5cm long form. Avoid warm, dark places, as this leads to weak, white shoots. Chitting is most beneficial for first earlies, second earlies, and salad varieties.

Planting Out
Prepare the soil in late autumn or winter by digging in plenty of compost or well-rotted manure. Choose a sunny, well-drained site and avoid areas used for potatoes in the last few years. Plant seed potatoes 10cm deep, spacing early varieties 30cm apart in rows 45cm apart. Maincrop types need 40cm spacing and 60cm between rows. Position rows north to south to ensure even sunlight.

Care and Maintenance
When shoots appear, ‘earth up’ by drawing soil over them to form ridges about 20cm high. This protects from frost and encourages more tubers to form. Water well during dry spells, particularly at flowering time, and feed with a specialist potato fertiliser if desired. Some growers cover rows with black polythene instead of earthing up, cutting small slits for emerging shoots.

Did You Know?
Chitting encourages strong, early growth—meaning you can enjoy an earlier harvest and a more uniform crop of healthy, flavourful potatoes.

Seed Potatoes

Our seed potatoes are meticulously graded to sizes ranging from 35mm x 35mm to 55mm x 55mm. This grading ensures that the smallest seed potatoes in the sample are unable to fall through a 35mm square, offering you consistent quality. While more modern varieties tend to have a more uniform size, our focus on unique and heritage varieties means you may encounter greater size variability within each pack. Rest assured, we will always provide the stated weight in your order.

The harvest you achieve will ultimately depend on your specific growing conditions. Generally, smaller potatoes yield smaller crops, while larger ones produce more abundant harvests. However, it’s important to note that regardless of size, 1kg of seed potatoes will yield a comparable overall harvest, whether the seed potatoes are small or large.

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