Opening Hours - Burston Garden Centre

January and February

9am - 5pm

March through to December

9am - 6pm

Late nights until 8pm every Thursday in April, May and December.

Please see Restaurant page for our restaurant opening times.

Sunday Trading hours  remain the same

10.30am - 4.30pm

 

Burston Garden Centre,

North Orbital Road, St. Albans,

Herts, AL2 2DS  

Tel   01727 832444 / 866784   

Email info@burston.co.uk             

Registered office as above No1352981   

VAT No 301854190

 

Seed Potatoes

Preparing the seed potatoes for planting
To get your potatoes off to a flying start it is often recommended that you ‘chit' them before planting. This allows strong chits (sprouts) to develop on the tubers before planting. Whilst this process is not essential it is strongly recommended.

 

To chit seed potatoes, place them just touching in a seed tray or individually in the sections of egg boxes. Make sure the ‘rose' end (where most of the ‘eyes' are) is uppermost. It is these eyes that will form the chits. Place the trays in a cool, light frost-free environment.

 

 

Planting seed potatoes

You will need 60L of Westland Organic Vegetable Compost. Put approximately 40L into the bottom of the potato bag. Then place 3 to 5 sprouting seed potatoes on the top of the compost with the sprouts face up. Then cover the potatoes with between 10cm and 15cm of compost.

 

Water the tubers and keep the compost moist. The seed potatoes will then begin to root and shoot. Leave them until the shoots and leaves push up through the top layer of compost.

 

 

 

Earthing up
As soon as shoots start to appear above the compost, it's time to start ‘earthing up' the seed potatoes. This means covering the shoots with a new 10cm layer of Westland Organic Vegetable Compost.

 

Repeat this process a second time and when the leaves are about 20cm above the top of the bag begin feeding every 7 -10 days with Growmore.

 

 

 

Harvesting and storing
The potato shoots start to flower at usually between 9 and 12 weeks after planting and you can then carefully remove the whole plant and the new potatoes and cook them.

 

For the perfect storage solution for all your homegrown vegetables we have a natural jute vegetable sack. It is 100% biodegradable and helps to preserve all your hard work by keeping the vegetables cool and allowing a free flow of air.

 

 

 

 

Our Jute Vegetable bag is on offer for only £1.99, don’t grow vegetables without it.

 

(Only available while stocks last.)

We also have summer flowering bulbs in stock.