Growing Potatoes.

If you have taken on a new plot, potatoes can be one of the easiest crops you can grow.

They like a sunny position and protection from early frost, as this can damage the foliage. They will also benefit from plenty of manure dug in over the winter. They also need plenty of moisture.Potatoes need plenty of moisture, particularly round about flowering time which is when the tubers start to form. Last year we had one of the wettest summers for years so watering wasn’t a problem. However watering potatoes can be a tedious task at Longbarrow as you have to water by hand, so I would advise to mulch your crop to retain as much moisture as possible.

If you want a continuous crop through the growing season, you plant first earlies, followed by second early varieties and lastly main crop.

Chitting

First of all you will need to chit your potatoes, once you decided on the varieties you want to grow. Chitting is a means of allowing the potatoes to produce small shoots before planting. This is achieved by storing in egg trays in a cool frost free area with very little light. Start this process as soon as you purchase your stock, normally in January

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Planting your Crop.

Look to plant your potatoes once the soil has warmed up, normally March onwards; however earlier planting has been achieved on our site. Dig out your trench, you should space your potatoes about 12″ apart for first earlies. Seconds and main crop by about 15″.  Spacing between rows needs to be about 18″ for earlies and up to 30″ for main crop - these will be your biggest producers.  Before planting add some general purposes fertiliser to the trenches. A tip that was given to me was that if you have any comfrey on your plot, break off some leaves and add to the trench, comfrey is an excellent fertiliser.

Plant your chitted potatoes with the shoots facing upwards and cover carefully trying not to break the shoots.

As the shoots emerge you will need to earth up the crop, bringing up the earth between the rows to produce a ridge.

Feeding

Apply a high potash fertiliser which will increase yield. Avoid fertilisers that are high in nitrogen these will delay maturity of the crop.

Harvesting

You should expect to harvest your crop about late May onwards, depending on when you planted.  As a rule first earlies can take approximately 10 weeks to produce depending on variety. They are normally ready once flowers have begun to show, if you unsure just uncover a few to check. Try doing this on a sunny day; it will help to dry them off, then continue to harvest.  Don’t leave them in the soil to long as slugs can do damage to your crop. Second earlies and main crop take longer as they are the slowest to form.

A serious problem for potatoes is Blight.  The foliage goes dark and wilts, cutting it down and burning the foliage will help to slow it down, but if the blight gets to the potato underground the tuber will rot, so try picking varieties that are blight resistant to avoid this problem in the first place.

Storing you crop in hessian sacks or brown paper potato sacks that are available from the shop will help to keep them in good condition.