Some poatoes are cracked when they are dug out of the ground in the vegetable garden. The cause of the cracking is usually irregular rainfall or watering.

This year the UK experienced dry conditions in the spring. The first rains to end the drought caused a spurt in growth, which caused the potatoes to crack.

Some gardeners are finding that when they dig a root of potatoes out of the garden, the large ones are cracked, but the smaller potatoes are perfectly formed. The potatoes in the photo above are all from the same root of potatoes, the variety is Estima.

The reason for the big potatoes being cracked and not the smaller ones is that the smaller ones were not initiated until after the drought, whereas tuber initiation of the larger potatoes had occurred when it was still very dry in the vegetable garden.