Late Season Planting for Autumn or Christmas Potato Harvest
Late season varieties for summer planting to give a late autumn harvest for Christmas
These varieties are hand picked for high disease resistance as well as a range of looks and cooking styles. We have lots of advice
Late season Varieties 2023
Our 2023 Late Season range is impressive! We have some lovely varieties for you to grow for an autumn harvest – perhaps even for your Christmas Dinner. We know that people like to experiment with smaller quantities and so have created these patio packs with three tubers of three varieties for you – Christmas Dinner Sorted! Bags are optional extras.
An All-Organic Pack SOLD OUT
🥔Casablanca – 1st Early, Smooth
🥔Charlotte – 2nd Early, waxy
🥔Twinner – 2nd Early, waxy
And our late season Variety pack SOLD OUT
🥔 Nicola – 2nd Early Waxy
🥔 Maris Peer 1st Early, smooth
🥔Pentland Javelin- 1st Early waxy
We have a pack with all cooking types waxy, floury and smooth SOLD OUT
🥔Sharpes Express – First Early, Floury – great for your roasties
🥔 Twinner – 2nd Early Waxy – for your boiled spuds
🥔 Red Duke of York – Red skins – lovely for Christmas. First Early, smooth, perfect for your mash.
There are discounts if you buy 2 or more and so you could try all 9 varieties! Discounts are automatic and apply if you buy the packs with same bag option.
Our Late Season Patio Sets
Casablanca
Chefs and cooks will love the versatility of the potato Casablanca. Good for all uses from boiling and chipping to mash and roasting.
This potato variety has been awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit because it has proved to be reliable in appropriate conditions and a good performing plant.
We have had this before as one of our late-season varieties.
Charlotte
Charlotte is best known for its culinary excellence, of course it is French. Best eaten fresh as a salad it can be stored up till Christmas. It is noted for good resistance against slugs and common scab leading to good appearance. Charlotte potatoes have a fresh flavour which tastes great either hot or cold. They are ideal boiled as part of a salad as they hold their shape well and can even be roasted whole.
This has been a staple in our late season range.
Maris Peer
A medium sized potato with good disease resistance which can be grown easily in a shady spot in the garden or container. In the kitchen cooks like its versatility of being good boiled and eaten hot or cold or even cooked as wedges.
This has been a staple in our late season range.
Nicola
Variety which produces a high number of well-shaped oval tubers with yellow skin and yellow flesh. It has a high resistance to common and powdery scab. Great for boiling and wedges as well.
This has been a staple in our late season range.
Pentland Javelin
Pentland Javelin potatoes were bred by a young Jack Dunnett back in 1968. For years they have been considered to be one of the finest first earlies that you can grow. Pentland Javelin produces heavy crops of short oval white-skinned tubers with pure white tasty flesh. A great potato to put into the pan and boil and use for salads, Pentland Javelin also has good all-round disease resistance to common scab and blackleg. It can be left in the ground longer than most first earlies to mature further giving a more floury potato.
This has been a staple in our late season range.
Red Duke of York
Red skins and creamy white flesh tubers are produced from a fast growing plant. Used for colour in cooking when the skins are left on. It has a great flavour when mashed with ample amounts of butter.
This is a new variety for our late season range, introducing a bit of colour to your plate.
Sarpo Una
Multipurpose variety which can produce nice waxy salad potatoes if harvested early or can be left in ground for a heavy crop of baking potatoes. It has good resistance to late blight as well as a range of other diseases.
This has been a staple in our late season range.
Sharpe’s Express
Long oval tubers of cream flesh and white skin make this mealy potato good for boiling in the kitchen. An old flavour for an early crop make it a long standing favourite.
This is a new variety for our late season range.
Twinner
Rather large, oval tubers with a yellow skin- and flesh colour. Rather firm cooking with good consumption characteristics, a rather good dry matter content. Late blight resistant in both foliage and tubers.
This variety is new to our range of late season potatoes
We will have a broad range of late-season potatoes for you again in 2024
We will have a broad range of late-season potatoes for you again in 2024 and the exact varieties will be decided upon late spring. Join our newsletter to be the first to hear about our news.
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What is late Season planting? Can I grow my own potatoes for Christmas?
Late Season Planting was an area that we first ventured into in 2020 and what a success it was. We did not know what to expect and we sold out! For 2021 and 2022 we again kept some potatoes back in cold storage ensuring the seed potatoes were in top condition for our customers and we sold out both times. In 2022 we introduced patio packs – a great way to try several varieties in a small scale and are delighted to be selling this again.
For 2023, we kept more stock back for this year and once again, we picked some great blight-resistant varieties for you with a range of cooking types.
For 2023 we had Casablanca, Charlotte, Maris Peer, Nicola, Pentland Javelin, Red Duke of York, Sarpo Uno, Sharpe’s Express and Twinner. These are available in 6 tuber and 1kg nets to buy individually, and new for 2022, we introduced our Christmas Patio Sets – 3 tuber nets of 3 varieties with optional bags. We suggest that mid August is the latest to be planting and really would advise that the end of July is better for the majority of our customers to give enough heat and light to give a good harvest. However we had some customers planting in early September in 2022 and this is possible if you are further south, or have a good greenhouse/polytunnel. All our late season varieties are included in our bulk deal buy 5 or more nets or grow bags and get £1 off each net (not the variety packs).
We are on a learning curve with our customers and would appreciate any feedback you may have.Â
Late Season Planting. Christmas Dinner 2024 - lets start planning!
The delight of homegrown, tender new potatoes on Christmas Day is closer than you may think and possible with a little know how.
It’s useful to know what makes a winter seed potato. The simple answer is that they have been in cold storage all spring to delay their growth and taken out from June so that they are ready to start their plant-to-harvest cycle. The timings are usually given for spring planting and it must be remembered that there is not as much heat or light in the autumn and so plants will take longer and the yields may be less. A potato planted in the summer can produce your ‘roasties’ and new baby potatoes for Christmas Day! Depending on where you are, we would say mid-August would be the latest you could plant, however, we envisage most customers will plant by the end of July. But of course, rules are made to be broken - we had customers planting in early September in 2022 with great results . This could be done in a greenhouse or polutunnel. Your feedback on growing late potatoes is most welcome as we are on a learning curve with our customers.
It’s also useful to know that potatoes harvested in summer require a period of dormancy before they can be used as seed potatoes, so replanting any harvested straight away won’t work. Potatoes planted in late summer do not need to be chitted as the ground is warm enough to start growth, however you could chit them for a week or two if desired.Â
Potatoes will be dispatched twice a week during the summer.
Last year, many journalists and bloggers were interested in this venture with extremely positive feedback. Please see our news page for further details.
How to grow potatoes indoors for Christmas harvests
- Use a container at least 30cm (1ft) deep and wide, with drainage holes in the base. Our Grow bags are ideal
- Add a layer of potting compost or garden soil mixed with garden compost or well-rotted manure. A layer 10cm (4in) thick is sufficient for 30cm (1ft) deep pots, but larger containers can be half-filled.
- Plant one to three tubers per pot, each with about 30cm (1ft) of space, and cover with 15cm (6in) of compost or soil.
- As the foliage develops, earth up the potatoes with further compost or soil until the container is full to within 5cm (2in) of the top. Leave a lip to aid watering.
- Keep well-watered and feed with a general-purpose liquid fertiliser.
- Ensure the greenhouse remains frost-free as the season progresses, as potato foliage would be damaged by frost.
- The foliage will yellow and die down in late autumn and can then be removed and composted.
- Tubers can be left in their pots in compost (kept fairly dry) until needed at Christmas.
How to grow potatoes outdoors for Christmas harvests
- Follow general instructions for growing potatoes, including planting them in a trench and earthing them up as they begin to grow.
- Take measures to protect against potato blight and slugs.
- Once foliage dies down in September or October, remove and compost it.
- On light soils in a sheltered garden, piling some earth up over the row where you know the potatoes are and covering it with straw to insulate tubers may be sufficient protection to store them in the ground until Christmas.
- In cold areas, or where soils are wet and heavy, it is better to lift tubers by the end of October and re-bury them in coarse sand or soil in a frost-free place (such as a garden shed) until you need them.
- Lifting and storing potatoes in the fridge, or in bags in a cool shed, is possible but will cause the skins to harden and the desirable, delicate ‘new-potato’ flavour and texture will be lost.
Late Season Seed Potatoes and Grow bags
Grow Bags
£4.95 – £5.95Problems
We'd be lying if we said that growing potatoes this late in the season is without problems. Although even a beginner can have tremendous results, this isn't guaranteed. There is much less light and heat in the autumn months and so everything will take longer than in the spring and summer. We're here to help and are always available to answer questions.
- Slugs and snails can damage foliage, stems and tubers underground
- Potatoes grown outside in summer and autumn are especially prone to potato blight. Those in containers indoors are not usually at risk
- Keep an eye on the weather forecasts as early frosts will blacken foliage and weaken plants; fleece protection may be needed for outdoor crops.
So what are YOU having with your potatoes this year? Side dish of turkey, ham or nut roast? Or perhaps more potatoes?!
Let the potatoes take centre stage.
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