Potatoes have given us more pleasant surprises than any other vegetable these last few years.

Charlottes used as new potatoes brought back childhood memories of new Jersey Royals arriving with the herring season.   After a winter of steadily older potatoes, the first meal of "real" new potatoes was one of the best of the year.

Pink Fir Apples - old-style comedians of the family.   Small, ugly, odd-coloured; and truly superb tasting!

The joys of lifting a beautifully clean crop of early Red Duke of Yorks - this was the first real harvest my children had from the allotment, and that excitement kept them motivated for a long time.   It's the only crop where all four children join in - planting or harvesting.

We have all enjoyed discovering what all you can do with a potato in the kitchen, after years of gradually deserting it for rice and pasta.

Potato growing tips -

• Choose your varieties carefully for disease and slug resistance, especially in an allotment, which is a reservoir for all sorts of virus and other infections.   Also try for a good spread of harvest, if you have the space.
  • I keep a note of what has worked best for us here; our favourites are in bold.
    • Early potatoes are descended from a genetic oddball discovered by the indigenous peoples of South America - they were found to produce tubers independent of day length.   So the earlier you plant, the earlier you can get a crop - although hey can be planted any time!
    • Maincrop potatoes form tubers in response to decreasing daylength - they're building their store of food for next year's growth.   The bigger the plant by late July, the better your yield will be - then all you have to do is keep the plant healthy!
  • What works in my soil may well be entirely different for your own micro-climate - so do be adventurous in your selection; I enjoy browsing at our local Potato Day, and choosing just a few tubers of lots of varieties new to me.
• Potatoes are an easy crop to grow, but harder to grow well.   They are susceptible to
  • blight
  • slug damage
  • and frost damage.   Earth up the shoots if a late frost threatens.
• Buy good quality certified seed - cutting corners might be work for a small bed in a garden, but on an allotment (where you've got generations of potato growers, some more careless than others!) you could be storing up a lot of trouble for yourself.
  • Choose your supplier.   As far as I know, I've not "imported" any potato infections using the HDRA catalogue.   The potato varieties I got from our local potato day, however, almost all had signs of black scurf; fortunately it's only cosmetic, but a warning, nevertheless?
  • I personally would not use supermarket potatoes; they've been treated to stop them sprouting, and they've been sprayed with I don't know what.
  • And I would never use my own crop as seed the next year - I have no idea what allotment infection I may be encouraging!
• Rotate your potatoes - at least three years rest before you grow potatoes or tomatoes on the same plot; the longer the better.
• Potatoes will grow on most soils - dig it over in the autumn and add manure.   If you think your soil needs some lime, wait until AFTER your potato crop.
• Chitting - When you get your seed, lay them out in egg trays with a layer of compost, in a cool (frost-free) room, not too brightly lit - that north-facing bedroom you rarely use!   The seed potatoes will throw shoots, and will have a substantial headstart on potatoes planted direct.
• Planting - dig a trench at least 6 inches deep, and add a layer of fresh cut grass and/or comfrey leaves in the bottom.   Pop in the seed potatoes, shoots upwards, and cover over.   Earlies should be 12 inches apart, in rows 24 inches apart; main crop should be 15 inches apart in rows 30 inches apart; and second earlies about half way between.
• You can earth up a good ridge over them now - it will protect against any late frosts.   Or, especially if you are using the potatoes to clear new land, earth them up regularly through their early growing season.
• Potatoes are a thirsty crop, especially when tubers have started forming.   Explore one of your plants - if the new tubers are getting to the size of marbles, it's time to start watering generously; you may need to give a good soaking as often as once a week.
• Harvest
  • Earlies are usually ready when the flowers are fully open; harvest as you need them.   Otherwise, lift them when the greenery is starting to die back.
  • For later crops, wait until the haulms and leaves have withered, clear this off the bed (and burn it), and wait for a couple of weeks before lifting.
  • Newly lifted potatoes need a few hours lying on the ground, for the skins to dry and set.
  • Make sure you lift all the crop - even the tiny ones can give rise to "volunteers" the next year, and so act as a reservoir for any pest or disease problem.   Realism?   Next year, go over the bed and weed out the volunteers as early as you can!
• Cart them home, store them in potato sacks - paper not plastic! - in a cool dark place.   I check my sacks regularly through the winter, and rub off any shoots which may be developing.
• Good browsing
  • HDRA - lots of information.
  • Hampshire HDRA Group - maintains a listing of local Potato Days.
    • West Yorkshire Potato Day - Saturday 26th February, 2005, 11.00-3.00pm; in Shipley College, Exhibition Road, Saltaire, 11am - 3pm.   Around 40 varieties, including Sárpo varieties.

Back to top