Potatoes five ways

We put spuds to the test by growing them using five different methods to reveal which is best for high yields and your growing space

- SALLY NEX

Don’t let anybody say growing your own spuds isn’t worth it: one mouthful of sweet, buttery new potatoes, cooked minutes after you dug them up, tells you otherwise.

Grow your own and you’ll discover more variety than you knew existed, with dozens of richly flavoured, brightly coloured potatoes to choose from. Homegrown spuds are also chemical free and count food miles in metres.

Potato plants are big beasts, though, and as gardens shrink and awareness grows about how digging damages soil, gardeners are trying new ways to grow them. We put four techniques to the test to see if they’re up to the job, as well as growing spuds the old-fashioned way for comparison.

We assessed each method for effort, suitability, environmental impact and, of course, yield. What we discovered was sometimes surprising – but proved that wherever and however you grow, there’s space for spuds in every garden.

Raised beds

TRADITIONAL

Best for High yields

Traditional trench growing, handed down from gardener to gardener for generations, requires plenty of space and a sturdy back.

Dig a trench about 20cm deep then sit tubers along the bottom, 30cm apart for first earlies or 45cm for second earlies and maincrops. Backfill with soil. Once sprouts appear, earth them up, pulling soil over the stems with a hoe to encourage more tubers.

This method required the most work by far. It isn’t feasible in small gardens, and it doesn’t do the soil much good as you’re constantly disturbing it. But the rewards were high: we harvested more potatoes from this method than any other.