Potato Week!
If you don’t get one of our potato pots, read on for more info about potatoes and ways to grow your own!
ICFN Potato Week March 14th-20th 2026
Building on the success of our previous two years of running ‘Potato Week’, we are giving away 300 pots of potatoes for people to grow at home! Pots will be given out to community gardens and groups and to 15 nursery schools across Inverclyde. We hope people have fun growing some flavourful home grown totties (you won’t taste better!) and inspire our community to think about growing more veg at home!
We will be kicking off the week with a potato pot give away at Parklea Branching Out on Saturday 14th March 10am-12pm to coincide with Green Tangerine’s Big Clyde Clean Up. You can also pick up pots 16-20th March at Craigend Community Centre, The Drying Green garden, Broomhill Hub, Branchton Community Centre and Belville Community garden. Pots are limited so it’s ‘first come first served’. We will post days and times on our socials.
What’s in the ICFN potato pots and how do I look after it?!
In our pots we have planted two potato tubers (seed potatoes). The potatoes are a variety called CASABLANCA.
If you receive your pot with potatoes to plant yourself, plant one potato tuber about 5cm from the bottom and one half way up the pot.
Casablanca potatoes are First Earlies (see below for more information about that!)
They are a white skinned potato, great all rounder - Chip, bake, boil, mash or roast it, it really is a chef's dream!
Edible size crops can be harvested from about 60 days from planting - June-July.
CARE INSTRUCTIONS:
Keep watered and frost-free - use fleece, an old towel or upturned cardboard box.
These potatoes shouldn’t need ‘earthing up’ as they are a ‘determinate’ variety (see below for more information about that!) but if you see any near the surface, cover with soil to prevent them turning green.
HARVESTING INSTRUCTIONS:
First early potatoes are harvested in June and July, when the potatoes are about the size of a large hen's egg (gently rummage around in the soil to check). Cut the potato plants (also known as haulms) to the ground, then gently prise the plants out of the pot.
We hope each pot will produce about 12-20 potatoes. Ideally the pots would be bigger for a larger yield, but we are limited by using recycled pots and our compost supplies. If you want to grow more potatoes at home here are some suggestions on varities and ways to grow them.
Simple Potato Growing Method
Chitting:
Before planting, place seed potatoes in a cool, bright place for a few weeks to allow them to sprout (“chit”); when planting, set the potato with the sprouted eyes facing upward, keeping about three strong sprouts per potato and rubbing off the rest to focus gro
Basic container planting instructions for determinate potatoes:
Add 5 cm compost to container
Place one seed potato with eyes(sprouts) facing upward
Cover with soil to half way up the pot. Add another seed potato and cover to the top of the pot
Keep soil moist but not waterlogged
Basic container planting instructions for indeterminate potatoes:
Add 10cm compost to container
Place two seed potato with eyes(sprouts) facing upward
As stems grow, add more compost (the top of leaves just showing)
Repeat until container is full
Keep soil moist but not waterlogged
Growing in the ground:
When plants reach about 15–20 cm tall, mound soil around the stems in the garden so only the top leaves show, which protects developing potatoes from light and encourages more tuber growth. This is called ‘earthing up’. Some people dig a trench and plant the potatoes and gradually add soil into the trench as the potato stems grow.
Cheap Ways to Grow Potatoes at Home
You do not need expensive pots!
Carrier bags: Use strong supermarket bags. Add small drainage holes. Fill with 10 cm compost. Add tuber and cover with soil as it grows.
Old compost bags: Lay flat and cut planting holes in the top. Fill with compost and plant through the holes.
Cardboard boxes: Line with bin bag with drainage holes. Fill with compost. Good for one season
Buckets or storage tubs: Drill drainage holes.Very durable container option.
Compost to Use
Best options: Multipurpose compost; Garden soil mixed with compost; Multipurpose + manure mix
Do Potatoes Need Fertiliser?
Potatoes benefit from feeding but don't need much.
Best options: Tomato fertiliser (high potassium); General vegetable fertiliser; Composted manure
Feed: Once plants are 15–20 cm tall. Then every 2–3 weeks
Avoid high nitrogen fertilisers, which produce lots of leaves but fewer potatoes
Scottish Potato Growing Guide
Earlies are the first potatoes harvested in the season.
Plant: March–April Harvest: June–July Time to harvest: 10–12 weeks
Why grow them?
Fast harvest; Usually escape Potato blight; Great for new potatoes with thin skins; Ideal for containers
Second earlies grow slightly longer and produce larger crops.
Plant: March–April Harvest: July–August Time to harvest: 13–15 weeks
Why grow them?
Higher yields than first earlies; Still fairly early harvest; Good balance of flavour and size
Maincrop potatoes grow the longest and produce the largest yields.
Plant: April Harvest: September–October Time to harvest: 18–22 weeks
Why grow them?
Highest yield; Good for baking, roasting and storage; Stores well through winter
Scottish Potato Varieties
Arran Pilot
Type: Determinate Harvest: 10–12 weeks
Garden planting: Depth: 10 cm; Spacing: 30 cm; Rows: 60 cm apart
Pot planting: 1 tuber per 10–15 L pot; Cover with 10 cm compost and add more as it grows.
Sharpes Express
Type: Determinate Harvest: 10 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; Space 30 cm apart
Pot 1 tuber in 10–15 L container
Epicure
Type: Determinate Harvest: 11 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 30 cm spacing; Earth up once stems appear
Pot 1 tuber per 12–15 L pot
Second Earlies: Usually harvested around 13–15 weeks, sometimes when plants are still green.Tubers are more mature than first earlies, but you can harvest before full wilting.
Maris Peer
Type: Determinate Harvest: 13–15 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 30–35 cm spacing; Earth up once or twice
Pot: 1–2 tubers in 20 L pot
Charlotte
Type: Determinate Harvest: 14 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 30 cm spacing
Pot: 1–2 tubers in 20 L pot
Nicola
Type: Determinate Harvest: 14–15 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 30–40 cm spacing Pot 1 tuber per 15 L
Maincrop: Can be harvested after plants have flowered and sometimes after foliage dies back.Waiting until the foliage wilts helps tuber skins toughen for storage. For immediate eating, you don’t need to wait for complete wilting.
King Edward
Type: Indeterminate Harvest: 20–22 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 40 cm spacing; Rows 75 cm apart; Earth up multiple times
Pot: 1–2 tubers in 30 L container
Maris Piper
Type: Indeterminate Harvest: 20 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 40 cm spacing; Earth up regularly
Pot: 1 tuber per 25–30 L pot
Golden Wonder Scottish heritage variety.
Type: Indeterminate
Harvest: 20–22 weeks
Garden: Depth: 10 cm; 40 cm spacing
Pot: 1 tuber per 30 L container