I want to make life as easy as possible when planting our seed potatoes so I use my ‘potato planting tool’. Ok so it’s not the real tool (they do exist look them up), rather the handle of what was once a perfectly useable spade until I broke it during our allotment days. Now it is used for making potato-size planting holes by pushing the pointy end into the soil, moving the handle from side to side to widen. I’m sure a long-handled dibber or similar would do the job just as well, have a rummage in your shed or garage and see what you come up with.

How we plant our seed potatoes:

Position seed potatoes on top of the soil leaving approximately 15 inches between each one and 18 inches (or so) between each row, this distance works fine with early salad varieties but you might want to increase distance between rows for maincrop varieties. Once you’re happy with the arrangement make a planting hole (approximately 5 inches deep) for each potato and drop it in, eyes (shoots) up.

Fill the planting holes in (apply organic fertiliser beforehand if you wish) and mound each row by simply drawing soil over the top of the newly planted potatoes or by adding fresh compost to form the mounds. From our experience this helps to prevent haulms from toppling over later on, although it’s not necessary to mound until the first leaves start to show. As the potatoes grow, keep mounding or earthing up to protect foliage from frost damage and prevent the developing tubers from turning green and poisonous from exposure to light.

Potatoes also do well in containers. Deep tubs or special grow bags, anything really as long as it’s deep enough and has drainage holes.