The good old potato (Solanum tuberosum) is for me, and probably the majority of folk, their preferred staple source for dietary carbohydrates due to its versatility.

Of the thousands of potato varieties that are still cultivated in the Andes, relatively few are available in the UK.

They are conventionally divided into four categories:
First earlies
Second earlies
Early maincrop
Maincrop

The earlies are the easiest to grow but the maincrop varieties are the tastiest and under good conditions, can be stored for months.  As far as varieties go, the best thing to do is to ask fellow gardeners in your locality for their advice because potato varieties seem to do better in some soils and microclimates than others. Earlies can be planted out from, well… I suggest that you experiment. It all depends on the weather but December sowings, well sheltered, could give you spuds in May. You normally plant them at the end of February, later further north, for a June/July harvest. They are ready to harvest when they have flowered

Maincrop spuds are not as easy. You can plant them until the end of April and they grow at an astonishing rate, sometimes to waist-height by harvest in September but they are vulnerable to blight. Industrial crops are sprayed with copper-based pesticides, some of which are up to organic standards, so are worth considering. For an early maincrop King Edwards are good for baking and roasting and my favourite lates are the small and tasty Pink Fir Apple and Roseval.

Both my grandfathers used to grow spuds for village produce shows and were very competitive, using somewhat different methods. Grandpa Frost used nightsoil: the contents of the outside toilets, newspaper, straw and god knows what (he was a butcher by trade), composted for three years in earth
closets at the bottom of the garden. Grandpa Finbow, however, was blinded by science and used superphosphates, nitrates and ammonium salts to increase his yields. Grandpa Frost inevitably won but he used the double-digging technique, which is physically demanding. A nice maxim for spuds is: the more you put in, both in effort and input, the more you get out. Farmyard manure is as good
as anything for potato growing.

The soil on your plot should be very roughly but deeply dug in the autumn and covered with a mulch of compost or manure. This will inhibit weed growth and the rain will leach the nutrients into the soil, then the worms will get to work. A superficial digging for soil aeration is all that is required before planting.

Once you’ve chosen the varieties that you wish to plant, delivered or purchased from a local supplier, the tubers have to be chitted. Chitting involves putting the tubers into trays somewhere cool and dimly lit. They slowly burst into life after a couple of weeks when purple sprouts grow from the “eyes” on the surface of the tuber.

The easiest way to plant potatoes:
• Thrust your spade aided by your dominant foot, into the soil
• Push forward a few times
• Pull back a few times
• Insert potato to 100 – 150 mm
• Tread down and water if dry

They should be planted out in rows with 60 cm between potatoes and 60 cm between the rows. When the soil starts to warm, the tuber grows and their green leaves emerge from the soil. When this happens, the plants have to be “earthed up” by pulling up the soil from between the rows so as to cover the shoots to protect them from frosts. Repeat this until the risk of frost is over.

Harvesting is fun. I recall a good crop of Pink Fir Apples when it seemed that the deeper I dug, the more I found but you have to be careful how you harvest them; damaged tubers tend to rot quickly. A flat-tined fork is the best tool and you try to get as deep beneath the row as you can. Never eat a potato that is green, implying that it has been exposed to sunlight, because they are poisonous, as are the leaves and the fruit. Everything has to have a Heath & Safety warning these days, so don’t put that fork through your foot! 

Got any advice of your own? Know any tasty  recipes? Make sure you share
them with us all, simple click add comment. Rember it's an open forum and if
you can't find what your looking for, just Ask Finbow. Please see the full list of vegetables we have covered below.

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