Crops › Potato › Red Duke of York
Red Duke of York
Potato in the UK
A lovely red-skinned first early with a good yellow flesh. If you fancy something a bit different for your early harvest, this one's a winner.
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How to grow it
First things first, you'll want to 'chit' your seed potatoes indoors from February, just stand them in an old egg box on a cool, light windowsill. This gets them sprouting before they go in the ground. Plant them out when the soil starts to warm up, usually March for first earlies, right up to May for maincrop, depending on where you are in the UK and what the weather's doing. Dig a trench about 10-15 cm deep, pop your chitted spuds in, about 30 cm apart for earlies and 40 cm for maincrop. Then cover them over.
Once your potato plants start to poke through the soil, you need to 'earth them up'. This means drawing soil up over the shoots, leaving just the top few leaves showing. You'll do this a couple of times as they grow, maybe up to 30 cm high. This protects the new tubers from light, which stops them going green, and gives you a bigger yield. They'll need a good bit of space, like I say, especially the maincrop varieties.
More Potato varieties
Track your Potato from packet to plate
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 3 September 2026.