Record number of schools grow potatoes

School children are growing record numbers of potatoes this year. In June around 300,000 children at 10,000 UK schools will be harvesting home grown potatoes, possibly for the first time in their lives.

This record number of children has been achieved by the Potato Council with its Grow Your Own Potatoes 2008 campaign. The children are growing the cultivars Rocket and Vales Emerald which they planted in buckets at the beginning of March. They have been able to see how other plants are getting on via the campaign website Potato Photo-Cam. Plants are also being grown at RHS Garden Wisley.

In Ireland 4,000 schools are taking part in the Potato Growing Challenge and across the world events are taking place to celebrate this vital crop in the United Nations International Year of the Potato.

For more information see:

The international Year of the Potato website