Standing Jersey Royal seed

Standing is a huge operation that kicks off in October and runs through until mid December, and is then finished off in the New Year.

The Jersey Royal Company concentrates its efforts on grading and standing the seed into two sheds in order to maximise efficiencies.

As a company we manage circa 120,000,000 seed potatoes each year that are stood in boxes and managed over the winter months to be at their optimum stage of development for planting in the New Year.

Following harvest, the seed potatoes are put into sheds around the island. We then take them all out and go through the process of grading and standing. This entails knocking off the shoots that have started to grow and separating similar sized seed into boxes. The reason behind this is so that when we plant a field we use the same size seed potatoes. This promotes uniformity in terms as when the crop comes to maturity and ensures a more even tuber size when lifting.

Stacks of seed are stored in sheds around the island and the seed is then managed using fans to maintain good air flow and lights to train the shoots.

By the time the seed is ready to plant the new shoots will all be about 1 inch long.