Taking part
Fill in the registration form
By 8th February
Complete the registration form so your school receives its free growing kit, containing Vales Emerald and Rocket seed potatoes and a £5 voucher for a container and compost.
We are supplying a second variety of potatoes to celebrate the International Year of the Potato. This can add to the learning experience.
Planting your potatoes
4th March 2008
You need to plant 3 seed potatoes of the same variety in a container. Read the factsheets to see how to plant your potatoes. Visit the ‘grow it’ section for more information on how to grow the biggest weight of potatoes. Read the Grow Your Own Potatoes teacher’s notes (PDF) for lots of suggested activities.
Growing your potatoes
At this stage there are lots of resources on the website that can be used, these include potato cam, video clips, a PowerPoint presentation and worksheets.
If at any stage you notice that one of your plants appears to be going mouldy, click here for more information.
Harvesting your potatoes
By 24th June 2008
See what your hard work has produced! Turn out your containers, harvest and weigh your crop. Don't forget to enter the competition and you can also download a colourful certificate to mark your achievement and put up in your classroom. Click here for yours.
Now you have successfully completed the project, why not really celebrate with a photo in the local paper? Getting good publicity for your school is often easier than you think and many schools achieved great coverage last year. Click here for useful tips and a draft press release.
Enter the competition
By 10th July 2008
To enter the competition you need to submit details to the Potato Council of your school and the weight of your crops. Don't forget to wash and weigh your potatoes and if you have grown both Rocket and Vales Emerald, you must keep the crops separate and submit a weight per variety. Click here to enter the competition! Good luck!
Curriculum links
The Grow Your Own Potatoes project supports the curriculum, providing lots of interesting ideas to support your teaching
