Choosing the Right Seed Potatoes for Bag Growing

Choosing Seed Potatoes for your garden needs and the time of year, type of potatoes is much easier than you think! Check out of simple guide below.

Growing potatoes in bags is an excellent option for those with limited space. I grow mine in Potato Sacks, an ideal method to minimise the space that they take up in the kitchen garden and ensure that I can have delicious potatoes during the growing season. The key to a successful harvest lies in selecting the right type of seed potatoes. So I’ve put together a small guide on the choosing seed potatoes to grow in your limited space.

Growing Potatoes in Bags

Growing potatoes in bags offers a fantastic opportunity to cultivate your own potatoes, even in limited spaces. By selecting the right variety, you can enjoy a bountiful harvest no matter the size of your growing area. Our guide below will give you more information about picking the right seed potatoes for your growing needs.

Once you have picked the type of seed potato you wish to grow it’s time to prepare them for planting in your bags – read our guide on Chitting and Planting Your Seed Potatoes.

I purchase my seed potatoes from Dobbies Garden Centre in the UK as they have a a large selection and you can buy individual seed potatoes making it easy to choose which ones you would like. Online they have a selection of different sorts available in packs of 1 or 2kg.

Choosing Seed Potatoes

Seed potatoes are categorized based on their growing and harvesting times. Where I live in the UK I have a variety of different types of seed potatoes that I can grow, some are more suited for growing in bags than others. If you have more space on an allotment or with a large garden then you can explore all the different types of potatoes and decide which of the varieties you like the most.

There are 4 types

• First Early
• Second Early
• Main Crop
• Second Crop

First Early Potoates

These are the quickest to mature usually and are ideal for bag growing as they tend to produce small potatoes in larger quantities.

This year I am growing Maris Baard in our bags and have started to “chitting” process at the end of January with the plan to plant them in around 6 weeks so late February/early March.

They are typically read to harvest in about 10 to 12 weeks after that.

Second Early Potatoes

Second early potatoes take a little longer to mature but are again great for growing in bags.

There are lots of different varieties of second early and I will be growing our favourite Charlotte which makes an excellent new potato in the summer months ideal for salads.

You can plant these slightly later from March through to May and then they take around 13 weeks to harvest.

Main Crop Potatoes

These are the least likely ones that I will grow in a bag. They tend to be slow to mature and are the more traditional larger potatoes.

If you wish to grow these in bags or pots then using something like a trug would work the best so that you have plenty of space for them to grow.

They can be planted from March until later in May but do take around 20 weeks to mature due to the size of the potatoes.

Second Crop Potatoes

This year will be the first year that I will be growing these these are the same potatoes as the second early potatoes but you plant at the end of the summer to give you fresh potatoes for your Christmas dinner.

Charlotte or a Maris variety will be what I will chose come the summer months.

Plant them in August and then they will be ready to harvest in around 11 weeks just in time for Christmas dinner.