POTATOES AND CULTIVATION
Part 1 – SOIL FOR POTATOES – (Available in the Spring 2025 Newsletter)
Part 2 – GROWING POTATOES
Seed Potatoes
Pre-orders for potatoes are available for pick up at the Hut. If you did not pre-order we have a variety of seed potatoes for sale at the Hut.
Once you get your potatoes it’s a good idea to “chit them” before planting. This gets them off to a head start to produce an earlier crop. Lay out your seed potatoes with the eyes facing upwards. Egg boxes or trays are ideal for this. Place the trays in a cool (but not freezing) dry light place until 1-2cm shoots have formed (4-6 weeks).
Potatoes – Plant Care
Protect early sprouted foliage from frost by covering with earth or compost and continue to earth up until the ridges are about 20cm high. Weed between the rows as required.
As the haulms (tops) grow they will shade out most weeds.
In dry weather, water well especially at flowering as this is when the tubers start to form. Occasional (every 10 days or so) heavy watering is preferable to frequent light watering as the latter encourages shallow rooting.
Yields
Obviously, yield is dependent on many factors, but a 3m row of
earlies will yield up to 5.5kg, while a 3m row of main crop will yield up to 9kg of potatoes
Harvesting Potatoes
You can see from the table in the first article, you can have your own spuds from the middle of May until your stored main crop potatoes run out. Start checking early potatoes once the flowers open; new potatoes are usually harvested when they are the size of hens’ eggs.
“We can never resist trying one or two new potatoes early. The spuds are never very large, but they taste fabulous and there’s something uplifting about the first potatoes of a new season.”
Thanks to
https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/vegetables/growing/planting-growing-harvesting-potatoes