Growing new potatoes throughout the year is quite a challenge.

In nature a potato will start to grow in the spring and have decent sized tubers in the autumn. But gardeners in the UK are trying to stretch the boundaries & some are now trying to produce new potatoes for Christmas day - but it is not easy.

This year we have grown 2 crops of early potatoes on one patch. The first potatoes are planted in a poly tunnel in February. As soon as these are harvested, they are replaced with more early potato seed. These yielded well in July.

Next year we are planning to grow 3 crops of potatoes in the same patch. The third crop will be new potatoes planted in July, but they will need to be covered with plastic.

The problems & difficulties in growing potatoes ‘out of season’ are:

• seed maturity,(the seed potato must have been produced in the previous calendar year - and to keep it from sprouting and growing, it has to be kept very cool) If potato seed is left in the light during the summer, it will age, and become too mature to grow when planted (even if it has not grown long shoots.) It is important to stop the potato seed from ageing, if it is going to be planted late (Sept-Oct). Keep the seed in the bottom of the fridge (cold & dark) to stop it ageing.

• warmth, (to allow the potato plant to grow well),

• daylength (which we are running out of) but needed for hours of growth

• frost (which is no good at all!)

But it should be possible for us to be growing new potatoes throughout next year!