Picking your potato variety

You can't beat new potatoes freshly dug out of your own garden! Choose your perfect potato variety based on your harvesting and cooking preferences.

When should I plant

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Harvest in 90-160 days

Shopping list

Plant both early and main varieties for a continued harvest throughout the season. Seed potatoes are available in a wide range of varieties.

Potatoes in a flash - early varieties

If you’re after a quick crop these three will come to fruition in 90–100 days. Get them in right at the start of the season so you can have them on the Christmas table.

Rocket is the fastest producing of early varieties and provides a good yield. Great for growing in containers. Rocket is a good boiling potato with waxy texture.
Swift is fast growing with exceptional taste, great for growing in containers. Swift potatoes will not discolour or disintegrate on steaming.
Cliff Kidney performs best in soils that contain peat. An excellent, firm potato for early cropping. Great for growing in containers and best for boiling.

Main crop varieties

Main crop varieties are ready to harvest within 130-160 days.

Heather is a reliable and steady cropper. With long oval tubers and white flesh, it has excellent cooking qualities - in particular boiling, mashing and roasting and is ready in approximately 130 days.
Nadine requires adequate soil moisture at all times. It is a lovely round, white waxy potato particularly good for boiling and is ready to harvest in approximately 140 days.
Rua is a good producer that will adapt and produce heavily in most soil types. With a white tuber and white flesh, Rua has excellent cooking qualities - in particular roasting and boiling and keeps well. It is ready to harvest in approximately 160 days.

For a bumper crop - high yielders

Ensure a continued supply throughout the season with these varieties. Grow plenty for the whole family with the below varieties:

Ilam Hardy is very adaptable and will give a good yield over a wide variety of conditions. It has light blight resistance and is a great variety for growing in containers. Ilam Hardy has excellent cooking qualities, in particular boiling and frying.
Agria is high yielding and great for growing in containers. They have excellent cooking qualities – in particular boiling, and store well.
Moonlight is a very high yielder with excellent drought and wind tolerance. It has excellent cooking qualities – in particular boiling and frying.

Add some colour

If you are leaving the skin on your potatoes the below varieties add colour to your salads and roast veges.

Red Rascal as the name suggests has a lovely red tuber. It is a reliable steady cropper that is resistant to late blight and powdery scab and is suitable to be grown organically. Red Rascal has great all round cooking qualities.
Desiree likes reasonably fertile soils and has an oval pink/red tuber and offers good all round cooking qualities.
Purple Passion stands out with its oval purple tuber and cream flesh and has excellent cooking qualities – in particular French fries and boiling. Purple Passion has moderate resistance to blight and powdery scab.

Annabel Langbein’s picks

Annabel likes to try different heritage varieties of potatoes, and plant a variety to give a good harvest throughout the year. Her top picks are:

Jersey Benne and Swift potatoes are my favourites for early season – I like to get them in right at the start of the season so we can have them on the Christmas table. For main crop potatoes I find it hard to go past Agria, as they are so good cooked every which way, and they keep really well! If you get the chance to trysome heritage varieties look out for Pink Fir and the French Ratte potatoes.

Tui Tips:

Potatoes are gross feeders so need a lot of nutrients. To get the best from your crop, feed with a specialty fertiliser like Tui Potato Food. If your potatoes are planted in pots and containers, feed with an all purpose variety, such as Tui NovaTec Premium fertiliser.
Early varieties are ready to harvest when the flowers are fully opened, approximately three months after planting, (except for Nadine, Rocket and Swift which may have few or no flowers on them). Main and late cropping varieties are ready when the foliage dies off.

Follow our Potato Growing Guide here >

;