Grow Perfect Potatoes Every Time

Want to grow your own tasty tatties? Sample home grown splendid spuds? In this week's video, Ben guides us through four options for growing potatoes, no matter what your growing space, from raised beds, to bare ground, straw and even in pots or bags.

Mashed, boiled, roasted, chipped, you name it, there's a potato for you! Ben explains which spud is which, when to plant and harvest and everything in between in this comprehensive guide to everything spud related!

For more on growing the potatoes of your dreams, check out this playlist:
How to Grow Potatoes

If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers:
and many more...

[jaytoney]

I bought a bag of organic red potatoes from the store for use as seed potatoes back in early January. I also had a partial bag of Russet potatoes that sprouted before I could eat them. I put them in a room away from sunlight, and let them be for two months. Last Saturday, I planted them in 30 fabric pots, 21 Red Pontiac, and 7 Russset. Last year, I planted potatoes in monthly successions from mid February through August. My best harvest came from the potoes I planted in March, followed by those I planted in April. The potatoes I planted in March produced more potatoes than the rest of the sucession potatoes added together. It gets hot in Alabama. My experience has the best yeilds coming from potatoes growing in cool weather. When temperatures are above 85F, 29C, the development and yeilds drop significantly. I'll get enough potatoes in June and July to last six months, maybe longer.

[bastiananuss]

your enthusiasm is absolutely beautiful!

[snifflestheclown]

we still have 2 ft of snow here in Ontario but I'm getting so excited for spring!!

[boscodiogigia]

Thanks for all the good tips! Let's grow potatoes 🥔🥔🥔

[honorwolfmoon]

Your videos are just amazing! I'm a city girl moved to a heavenly countryside plot and learning to be self sufficient. Its a journey! But you're making my veg growing so simple ❤ Thank you!

[FreddieMercury]

Holy chit !
I've currently got about 80 seed potatoes sitting in egg boxes, sprouting nicely. With the predicted shortages, I'm upping my potato game this year.
Some tips I heard:
You can use couples sheets of newspaper to protect foliage on frosty nights
Growing more than one variety to reduce risk of disease
Rubbing off some of the shoots produces fewer but larger potatoes

[andersonomo]

Potatoes are pretty cheap to buy and so I thought they were not worth allocating room in my garden - until I grew some! Threw in about 8, small, store-bought, accidentally sprouted, destined for the compost heap, into an unused corner, mostly ignored them except for the occasional watering, and I did chuck a bit of extra compost at them when they were starting to rise above the soil, and I dug up 6kg of beautiful spuds! Like the pokie player who hits the jackpot on their first try - I'm HOOKED. Such fun digging them up, great return for little effort, and they were delicious. I was always daunted by having to buy seed potatoes but what the heck - store bought worked really well. Totally agree Ben - the joy of digging them up alone is worth growing them for!!

[harukiito]

“In a process called chitting, careful how you say that” 😂

[janescott]

Thank you for explaining first earlies, second earlies and main crop. It all seemed a mystery but makes sense now.

[nadjafaris]

Celebrating the arrival of spring with Bens happy voice 🎉🥳🌸

[victoriasimpson]

My daughter has now got an allotment and has asked me to help her sort it out. After watching some of your videos, I am feeling more confident that we can make a go of it. Thank you for being very informative.

[Darktower_]

Thanks so much for this! As a very inexperienced alottmenteer I have got my first ever batches of seed potatoes chitting quite happily in my living room( I live in a small flat!), and I'm looking forward to getting the first and second earlies in as soon as this cold snap has passed. I love watching your videos, and how you explain things so clearly and with so much enthusiasm. Great spud video!

[stephenrodgers]

When i was young (7 or 8) my family was living on a farm in northwest Indiana. We had planted potatoes (among other things) in the garden. Our hay barn, which was next to the garden caught on fire towards the end of the summer and most of the debris fell in the garden. We assumed that the garden was a total loss until we went to plant the next spring. The potatoes had kept growing all winter and were still quite edible. And BIG.

[helen]

Thanks Ben! Potatoes are one of my successes. So easy to grow and the grandkids love digging them up!

[lexington]

7:10 I can confirm that the straw method works very well, they are very easy to harvest. Just make sure to put down the straw deep enough so that none of the potatoes get sun damaged.

[lindajacquot]

Just the video I need! Thank you for filling in so many gaps in the potato literature. Much appreciated!

[johnglad]

Assuming your havest is 5 kg, 11pds, thats 4 plants. Thats 2.75 pds per plant. Thats a good return, others say 1-2 pds per plant is expected. Happy gardening

[rebeccamulloney]

Thank you so much for your tutorials I really can't tell you how much I appreciate your time and hard work! Your energy is simply refreshing and inspiring. I'm so excited to start my very FIRST vegetable garden ever. Your videos have given me so much clarity and confidence and I'm no longer confused or scared that I will fail.

[echognomecal]

I NEED potatoes because some of my family can get terrible leg cramps if we don't get enough potassium. (Yes, bananas are good for potassium, but are popular for convenience, not for the shear amount they contain.) I appreciate all the help I can get in growing a good crop of them each year.

[JJONNYREPP]

Grow Perfect Potatoes Every Time 2125pm 3.7.23 did he mention curing taters? i hadn't thought about that... same with onions... but i left mine a week or so after digging up - should have left the taters a while longer in the soil, i feel. ... they were ok. not amazingly tasty. but when boiled they were pretty melt in the mouth and certainly acted as a diuretic as opposed to the mass produced supermarket tater...