Home | Grow Your Own Potatoes

Welcome to Grow Your Own Potatoes

Whether you are taking part in GYOP or just looking for information about potatoes for your class, you will find everything you need.

Thank you

Things have been a little out of the ordinary for this year's project and we would like to thank all the schools that have managed to keep GYOP going with the children during lockdown and are now getting ready to harvest their potatoes next week.

As a thank you to individuals or groups who have taken responsibility for your growing plants during school closures, we have developed the 2020 Applause Award. A great way to show your appreciation for the help they have given.

We have made a few changes to the competition too this year, so make sure you carefully read the information on the competition page , there are some great prizes for your school to win.

Work has already started on next year's project and we think you will like what we are developing, so don't forget to sign up now for your free growing kit. Hopefully everything will be back to normal very soon and the 2021 project will be able to go back to normal, let's make the 2021 project bigger and better than ever.

Keep in touch

We would love to hear how you have done at harvesting. Share your pictures - Twitter @potatoes4school FB @potatoesforschools

KEY DATES

Register

Sign up NOW for GYOP 2021

Please note: There seems to have been some confusion when ordering kits for 2020. As in previous years, if you would like to receive more than one FREE growing kit for your school in 2021 (up to a maximum of 4 per school) you will need to register separately for each kit. You will also need to use a different email address for each registration.

Please be aware that ONLY Primary schools in England, Scotland and Wales (5 to 11 year-olds) are eligible to take part in the GYOP project and will be allocated kits.

Chitting

Start chitting your seed potatoes on Tuesday 18 February 2020, this will take about two weeks.

Chitting will speed up the ageing process of your potatoes, by exposing them to light and, more importantly, a bit of warmth. This will cause the eyes of the seed potato to start sprouting and should result in a better crop.

How to chit

Planting

Tuesday 3 March 2020

All schools taking part in the GYOP competition will be planting on this date. This year we have extended the project by 1 week to give you 15 weeks to grow a successful crop before harvesting on Tuesday 16 June 2020

By now, you should by now have chitted your potatoes but don’t worry if not, you can still plant them, just be extra careful not to over water them before they have had a chance to get established.

Also, don’t forget to label your grow-bags to help identify the variety growing. You could win a prize for your school by showing us how you labelled your bags.

How to plant

Growing

15 weeks from planting to harvesting.

To grow a successful crop of potatoes in your grow bags, your potatoes will need: light, water, food, space and air.

Make sure you find the perfect spot to stand your bag, keep the soil moist but not wet and don’t forget to top up your soil as the plant grows, to give the potatoes plenty of room.

Watch out for late frosts too, potato plants hate frost!

How to grow

Harvest

Tuesday 16 June 2020

Now is the exciting time when you find out if all of your hard work has paid off, just 15 weeks since planting.

If you remove the green tops from your plants, it makes them easy to pull out of the bag without damaging them, this means you can re-use the bags to grow something else.

Once out of the bags, the fun begins; roll up those sleeves and rummage through the soil to find your potatoes, just watch out for the mother tuber!!

How to harvest

Competition

All entries for GYOP 2020 must be entered before Friday 26 June 2020

Don't forget to keep your two crops separate and weigh them separately once you have washed the dirt off. Remember also, you must weigh your potatoes in grams