Plant spuds in containers for a super-early harvest of sweet new potatoes a whole month earlier than those grown outdoors. You’ll find all the kit you need in our garden centre from easy-to-store collapsible potato bags to more substantial barrel planters with special design features to make harvesting easy; plus of course the all-important seed potatoes to start off your crop.
You’ll need the fastest-maturing variety you can for this method of potato growing: ‘Swift’, ‘Rocket’ and ‘Mimi’ are all super-fast early varieties with small, sweet tubers. Cover the base of your potato planter with a good layer of multi-purpose compost about 10cm deep. Place three or four tubers on the surface and cover with another 5cm of compost. Water well and pop your potato pot in a sunny spot in a frost-free greenhouse.
Once shoots have appeared, add more compost until the tips are just showing, and repeat as the plants grow until you’ve filled up the container. Remember to keep well watered and frost free, and start feeding weekly with dilute liquid seaweed after the first six weeks. Once your plants flower, dig down to find out how big the tubers are: once they’re hen’s egg size, they’re ready to harvest.
