Harvest
When to harvest maincrop potatoes
The short answer
Maincrop potatoes are ready from late August to October, once the leaves turn yellow. For potatoes you want to store, RHS cuts off all the top growth at that point and waits 10 days before digging, because tubers with well-developed skins store best. Healthy plants can stay in the ground until mid-autumn.
Earlies are dug young and eaten fresh. Maincrops are different: the point is a crop that keeps until spring, and that depends on the skins setting before the fork goes in.
When it's ready in the UK
RHS gives late August to October for maincrops, and says harvest times vary across the UK and from year to year with the weather. Garden Organic adds variety, planting date and growing conditions to the list.
Vercro's catalogue holds one potato row for every type, so the strip below covers earlies and maincrops together. For earlies, see when to harvest early potatoes.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potato: plant outMarch to May | January: no | February: no | March: yes | April: yes | May: yes | June: no | July: no | August: no | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Potato: harvestJune to October | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: yes | July: yes | August: yes | September: yes | October: yes | November: no | December: no |
Months from Vercro's crop catalogue, the data the Vercro app plans with. It allows about 10 to 17 weeks from sowing to the first harvest. Weather, variety and where you garden move every one of these.
294 UK gardeners had recorded potato in Vercro by 19 September 2026. What Vercro gardens are growing.
How to tell it's ready
How to harvest
- Cut off and remove all the top growth, then wait 10 days. Tubers with well-developed skins store best, which is the point of the wait.(RHS, Garden Organic)
- Push the fork in at least 30cm from the base of the plant and lever the soil up, so you spear as few tubers as possible.(RHS)
- Leave them on the surface in the sun for a few hours to dry, then brush off the soil.(RHS)
- Sort as you go. Set aside any damaged tubers to use first, and discard any that are green: they are potentially poisonous.(RHS)
What moves the date
- Weather and region. Harvest times vary across the UK and from year to year.(RHS)
- Variety, planting date and growing conditions.(Garden Organic)
- Healthy plants give you slack. If the crop is healthy it can stay in the ground until mid-autumn.(RHS)
- Pests bring it forward. If the crop is being damaged by pests, lift earlier.(Garden Organic)
If you leave it too long
- Green tubers. Potatoes exposed to light turn green and are potentially poisonous. Discard them.(RHS)
- Pest damage. The longer a damaged crop stays in, the more it loses; Garden Organic lifts early in that case.(Garden Organic)
After picking
- Store only undamaged, dry potatoes.(RHS)
- Use paper or hessian sacks, or slatted trays, somewhere dark (to stop sprouting), cool and frost-free.(RHS)
- Not plastic sacks. The humidity inside is too high and sets them sprouting.(Garden Organic)
- Aim to finish them before early spring, when they start to sprout and shrivel.(RHS)
More on sacks, temperatures and checking a store: how to store potatoes.
Where the sources differ
Two good sources, two answers. We show both rather than picking the convenient one.
| Question | RHS | Garden Organic |
|---|---|---|
| How long to leave them after the tops die | Cut off all the top growth, wait 10 days, then dig. | Leave the tubers in the ground for two to three weeks after the haulms die back. |
Keep a record of what each bed gave
Log what you pick, and how much, bed by bed. Vercro keeps the record, so next year you know what worked where, and Today shows what your crops need next.
Keep going
Where this comes from
Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.
- Potatoes: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Potatoes, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
- Harvesting and storing vegetables, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.