When to Harvest Potatoes
Digging up the first potatoes of the year is one of the real pleasures of growing your own. Knowing when each type is ready, and how to lift and store them properly, means you get the best from every plant, from tender new potatoes in June to sacks of maincrops that keep well into winter.
Quick answer
First earlies can usually be dug in June and July, and flowering is a good clue that they're ready. Second earlies follow in July and August. Maincrop potatoes are ready from late August into October, once the foliage turns yellow and dies back. Earlies are best dug and eaten fresh. If you plan to keep maincrops, remove the dead tops first and give the tubers roughly 10 more days underground to harden their skins.
Potato harvest times at a glance
First earlies: dug June to July, eaten fresh.
Second earlies: dug July to August, eaten fresh or stored briefly.
Maincrop: dug late August to October, and stores for months.
The exact timing varies with the weather and when you planted, so use the plants as your guide.
Harvesting early potatoes
Earlies tend to be worth checking once the plants are in bloom, or when the buds fall, which is roughly three months after planting. At this stage the potatoes are small and tender, about the size of a hen's egg, and perfect for eating straight away.
Before digging a whole row, check one plant. Scrape away some soil at the side and feel for the potatoes. If they're still very small, give them another week or two.
There's no need to lift all your earlies at once. Dig them a plant or two at a time as you need them, as new potatoes taste best freshly dug and don't store for long.
Harvesting maincrop potatoes
Maincrops stay in the ground much longer, and are ready when the leaves and stems turn yellow and start to die back, usually from late August. You can dig them for eating straight away at this point.
For potatoes you'll keep through the winter, snip off the faded stems at soil level and wait about 10 days. This gives the skins time to toughen up, which helps them keep. Then lift them on a dry day.
Don't leave maincrops in the ground too long into autumn, though. Slugs tunnel into potatoes left in cold, damp soil, so lift them once they're ready.
Harvesting carefully
Start with your fork a good 30 cm out from the stem, and ease the soil upwards so the potatoes rise with it. Digging closer than that risks spearing the crop.
Work through the soil carefully and pick up every potato, however small. Any left in the ground will sprout next year as unwanted plants, which can carry diseases such as blight from one season to the next.
Throw away any green potatoes. The green parts are poisonous.
Drying and storing potatoes
Harvest on a dry day if you can. Let them sit on the ground in the sun for an afternoon, then rub off the dry soil. Don't wash them, as damp skins encourage rot.
Store only undamaged potatoes, and use any that were speared or bruised first. Breathable sacks made of paper or hessian, or slatted crates, are ideal, kept somewhere cool, dark, dry and safe from frost, like a garage. Darkness stops them turning green or sprouting, and frost ruins them. Go through them regularly and take out any that have gone soft, as one rotten potato spoils its neighbours. Aim to use them up before early spring.
Harvesting after blight
If blight strikes in summer, leaving brown, collapsing leaves, clear away all the affected stems and leaves at once. Then wait two weeks or so before digging, which helps stop blight spores on the leaves reaching the tubers. You can usually still eat the crop, but blighted potatoes don't store well, so use them first.
For more on leaf problems, see why potato leaves turn yellow
Harvesting container potatoes
Pot-grown potatoes need no digging at all: empty the container onto a tarpaulin and sift through the compost for every last tuber.
For container advice, see growing potatoes in containers or grow bags
For planting advice, see when to plant potatoes in the UK
For growing advice, see how to grow potatoes in the UK
Common questions
When are potatoes ready to harvest?
Look for flowers on early varieties, usually in June and July. Maincrop potatoes are ready from late August to October, when the foliage has yellowed and died back.
How do I know when maincrop potatoes are ready?
Once the plants have died back, stop checking the calendar and dig them up. If they're for storing, clear the dead tops and give them around 10 days to set their skins. Don't leave them too long in wet autumn soil, as slugs will move in.
Should I cut potato plants down before harvesting?
Only if you're growing maincrops for storage. Remove the yellowed tops and leave the tubers in the soil for another week and a half or so before digging. Earlies can be dug straight away.
How should I store potatoes after harvesting?
In a dark, cool, dry and frost-free place, in bags that let them breathe. Check them regularly, and remove any that start to rot. Only store undamaged potatoes.
Harvest timings based on RHS guidance.