Best new potatoes to grow
Discover the best new, or early potatoes – grown and taste-tested by us.
Early, or new potatoes are fast and easy to grow. Dug fresh from the garden, they're a melt-in-the-mouth delight that taste so much better than shop bought ones.
They also require much less space to grow than later varieties, so are ideal for small gardens. Try growing in the ground, in large containers or potato growing bags.
January is the time to buy seed potatoes, but with so many varieties out there, it's worth knowing which ones have the best flavour and biggest harvests.
To help you decide, we grew and taste-tested 12 varieties. We chose mix of old and new varieties that are readily available and have reasonable pest and disease resistance. Most varieties hold the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
Discover the best new potatoes to grow and eat, below.
Advice for buying potatoes
- Potatoes are available from a range of garden centres and nurseries, with many offering online sales. If you're a member of an allotment association, you may be able to buy potatoes direct from the 'allotment shop' at a reduced price
- Check the seed potatoes thoroughly when they arrive/before you buy. Make sure they're firm and avoid any with very long roots or any with signs of mould
Where to buy seed new potatoes online
Growing method
We planted five tubers of each variety. Seed potatoes were set to 'chit' or sprout, placed with 'eyes' at the top in egg boxes, indoors on a cool windowsill at the end of February, to start the growing process.
The tubers were planted in the ground in late March. Harvesting was done on on the first of July. Our tips for growing great new potatoes are shown at the bottom of the page.
1st choice: 'Vivaldi' AGM
High yield of good-sized evenly shaped tubers and the favourite with our tasters, who loved the texture and flavour. Also the winner of our jacket potato trial in 2014, so a great all-rounder.
Type Second early
Yield 6.1kg
- Buy Potato 'Vivaldi' from Suttons, Dobies and Thompson & Morgan
2: 'Accent' AGM
Second for taste and the waxiest with nice texture and good flavour. A heavy yield of attractive pale yellow tubers that included some very large potatoes.
Type First early
Yield 6.9kg
3: 'Charlotte' AGM
A high yield of potatoes with long, smooth tubers and yellow skin. Has a good waxy texture, though our testers felt it was let down by flavour, which wasn't strong enough.
Type Second early
Yield 6.5kg
- Buy Potato 'Charlotte' from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
4: 'Jazzy' AGM
A new variety, this produced a middling yield by weight, with a large quantity of small tubers. Came third for taste with a good flavour, nice waxy texture and very well-flavoured skin.
Type Second early
Yield 4.6kg
- Buy Potato 'Jazzy' from Suttons, Dobies and Thompson & Morgan
5: 'Casablanca' AGM
Although by far the highest yield, including a good proportion of large, round, white tubers, our tasters rated it second from last with a bland flavour and fluffy texture. There was a little slug damage.
Type First early
Yield 7.6kg
- Buy Potato 'Casablanca' from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
6: 'Lady Christl' AGM
A middling yield with a mixture of large and small tubers: attractive looking, smooth and oval in shape, with yellow flesh. A nice flavour and good, firm texture, but more prone to slug damage than most.
Type First early
Yield 4.6kg
- Buy Potato 'Lady Christl' from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
7: 'Winston' AGM
An excellent crop of extremely large tubers with an attractive creamy white colour. Bottom for the taste test though, dissolving in the mouth and with a bland flavour.
Type First early
Yield 6kg
- Buy Potato 'Winston' from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
8: 'International Kidney'
This is the variety sold as 'Jersey Royals' in the shops. Handsome, yellow tubers with thin skins, though a bit too fluffy and bland when it came to taste. More prone to slugs than most.
Type Second early/early maincrop
Yield 4.6kg
- Buy Potato 'International Kidney' from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
9: 'Red Duke of York' AGM
A great looker with red skin, yielding good-sized tubers although with thicker skins than most. Fluffy texture, with nice buttery flavour, and our testers thought they'd be good for mashing.
Type First early
Yield 3.8kg
- Buy Potato 'Red Duke of York' from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
10: 'Sharpe's Express'
An older variety giving a lower yield of moderately-sized white tubers. Just average for flavour and our tasters disliked the thick skins.
Type First early
Yield 3kg
11: 'Epicure'
Not popular for taste; thought to be really fluffy and flavourless. The tubers were on the small size with some slug damage, and plants were showing signs of blight, too.
Type First early
Yield 3.7kg
- Buy Potato 'Epicure' from Amazon and Thompson & Morgan
12: 'Vales Emerald' AGM
This was the first variety to show signs of blight both on foliage and tubers, which contributed to the low yield. Moderate for taste: reminiscent of a jacket potato with a buttery flavour.
Type First early
Yield 2.1kg
Avoiding potato blight
To avoid potato blight, try growing blight-resistant new potatoes like 'Desiree', 'Rocket' and 'Orla'.- Buy Desiree from Suttons, Crocus and Thompson & Morgan
- Buy Potato 'Rocket' from Crocus, Suttons and Thompson & Morgan
- Buy Potato 'Orla' from Crocus, Suttons and Thompson & Morgan
Tip for growing great earlies
- Choose a sunny site, ideally sheltered, with well-drained, fertile soil. For the best yields, dig during autumn/winter, adding well-rotted compost or manure. Alternatively, when planting new potatoes, dig a trench and put garden compost into the base
- Incorporate a specified potato fertiliser before planting
- Buy your seed potatoes from a reputable source
- Chit potatoes for an earlier crop. Potatoes are frost tender, so can't be planted too early
- Plant 15cm deep. Optimum spacing is 30cm, with 45cm between rows, but closer spacing still gives decent yields
- Use a rake or hoe to draw up the soil around newly developing shoots into a ridge along the length of the row. This is called 'earthing up' and increases yield. Need a new hoe? Check out our guide to the ten of the best garden hoes.
- Keep some fleece to hand to cover the crop if frost threatens
- Water thoroughly once or twice a week during dry spells
- Protect from small slugs, which tunnel into tubers. Try a biological control watered onto the soil and environmentally-friendly slug-killer granules
- Start harvesting when the first flowers open. Eat when fresh; early potatoes don't store very well
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