Potatoes are one of the easiest crops to grow and will (usually) give you an abundant harvest every time! There are so many varieties to grow and so many way to use them in our cooking. Once you grow potatoes you’ll never want to buy them from a shop again, they taste amazing when grown in the garden and are just the crop that keeps on giving!
Fun fact about growing potatoes, they can actually help to improve soil structure! So if you have inherited an allotment or a garden with poor soil structure, whack in a few spuds. As they grow they help to break up the soil under the ground and create a much better structure!
There are three categories of potato. Early, second early and main crop. What does it mean??!
Early, Second early, Main crop?!
Ok, it’s actually really simple. Early potatoes mean they are ready the earliest. They take about 3 months to harvest from planting to picking. Second early potatoes take between 4 and 5 months, while main crop will be ready somewhere between 5 to 6 months after planting.
Main crop potatoes tend to store better than early and second earlies, and they tend to be a bit bigger too. Think of the early varieties as your salad potatoes and your main crop as your big roasting ones!
You can start potatoes in the ground as soon as the risk of frost has passed, which for me is sometimes in Late March. They hate the cold but can tolerate a bit of shade.
When to Plant Main Crop Potatoes
Plant your main crop in about April time. If it’s still a bit frosty, cover with some fleece. They are not frost tolerant at all and will die if the frost gets to them.
Plant in a free draining bed that has had lots of lovely natural organic material dug in or mulched over with. You can even do them in pots or grow bags, which makes life a bit easier when harvesting as you can simply tip them out. The approach to growing them is pretty much the same, but you’ll have the added benefit of being able to move them about or even inside if the weather takes a turn!
To Chit or not to Chit?
Chitting is the process of encouraging your potatoes to start growing before planting them out. To do it, you place them on a window sill out of direct sunlight and wait for the little chits to grow.
However, it’s not totally necessary to do this. I’ve grown potatoes that I’ve chitted and not bothered to chit and both seem to grow equally well.
If you do choose to chit, it’s a good idea to reduce the number of chits coming off them to one or two that are growing in the same direction before planting out. Just flick the off with your hand. That will make sure they grow big and strong and in one direction!
How to Plant Main Crop Potatoes
The first thing to do is to make some trenches. Dig your trenches out with a shovel and pile the soil up along the side.
Plant your potatoes chits facing upwards, about a foot/foot and a half apart from each other.
Next, cover the potatoes with about half the soil piled up along the trench. The rest of the soil will be used for earthing them up later on once they’ve started growing.
Once your potatoes have started to grow a few inches tall (in about a months time), bring down the remaining soil and cover the leaves again. You can do this a couple of times as they continue to grow over the next few months.
The potatoes will be ready to harvest once the leaves have all died back. Just dig them up carefully with a fork and enjoy or store. You can even harvest them as and when you need them, just keep an eye on that first frost date!!
Pests, Disease and Protection
The main pest for potatoes is the Colorado potato beetle. This is a black and yellow striped bug that is sometimes imported into the UK on certain potato varieties. It can be removed by hand or by covering potatoes with cloche.
The biggest potato problem is late blight. This is a devastating disease that will just wipe out your entire crop. I’ve had it a couple of times and it’s just awful. You can protect against this by mulching around your potatoes with straw, only watering first thing in the morning or choosing blight resistant varieties to grow.
Once blight gets hold of your potatoes, they are pretty much gone. I’ve tried spraying them with all sorts of concoctions, picking off infected leaves, covering… nothing really works I’m afraid. Best to pull them up and count your losses.
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