Christmas potatoes are ready in 12 weeks or 3 months.

• Planted in July = Ready October,
• Planted in August = Ready November.

Signs your Potatoes are a few weeks away from harvesting:

• Yellowing leaves,
• Stems bending over,
• Stems dying off,
• It’s 12 weeks after planting the tubers.

Why are they called Christmas Potatoes, if they don’t last until Christmas?

Christmas Potatoes are 1st or 2nd Early in type and their foliage does not like the cold or frost. This is why they can be grown in the 3-4 months between July and before the frost begins in the UK, normally November.

These potatoes can be stored to use for Christmas in the soil in pots in a frost free shed or garage. They can also be harvested and used in the kitchen in October.

How to Harvest your Christmas Potatoes in Containers

You will need:

• A tarpaulin, sheet or old compost bags to turn out your potatoes and soil onto so as not to ruin your patio. Alternatively you can turn out the containers on the lawn, or over an empty raised bed,
• Secateurs to cut the stems off.
• A harvest bowl or basket for the potatoes.
• A container of compost – if you need to store the potatoes until Christmas, you can store them in soil in a container in your shed.

Method

1. Cut off the stems with secateurs and add to compost bin or green waste bin.
2. Lay out your protective sheets and tip the container upside down.
3. Lift off the container and put to one side.
4. With your hands, go through the soil to find your potatoes and put them in a bowl or harvest basket.
5. Flatten the soil by spreading it out and use your fingers to go through the soil so find the hidden ones.
6. Spent potato soil can be re-used in raised beds, flower borders and containers. Mix new compost into the spent soil for new nutrients.
7. The only thing that shouldn’t be grown in potato’s compost is tomatoes, aubergines and sweet peppers because they are in the same nightshade family and if a disease is in the soil it could transfer to the plants in the same family and affect them.
8. Store your new potatoes in the fridge in a paper bag or open plastic pot. Wash before cooking.

How to Store Christmas Potatoes

• 1. When harvested, put them back in the soil in a container and put it in the shed or garage. Make sure all the potatoes are under the soil and do not see the light otherwise they will go green and have to be thrown away.
• 2. When harvested, bring inside and store in a paper or hessian bag in the fridge or a plastic pot in the fridge. They will last for up to one month.

The Christmas Potato Growing Recap

26 August – Planting

Planted ‘Red Duke Potatoes’ x 4 tubers to each container.

Link:

Holidays are Coming, Tis the Season for Growing Christmas Potatoes in Containers

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The Potato Series

February – Chit you Potato Tubers & How To Plant Your Potatoes 

July & August – Holidays are Coming, Tis the Season for Growing Christmas Potatoes in Containers

October & November – Are you Christmas Potatoes ready to Harvest yet?