EASY PEASY POTATOES

The humble spud is a mainstay for Irish dinner plates so why not grow your own? It’s easy, and now’s the time to do it...

THERE’S nothing like the taste of a new potato but why not skip the trip to the shops and grow your own? It’s easy, and now’s the time to do it. In fact, I have planted potatoes with success from midFebruary to early June.

There is a ritual about potato planting that has more pomp than any other vegetable. Perhaps it’s because there is something agricultural about it that brings back the rhythms of our farming forefathers into the garden and allotment.

The soil should be warm to the touch before planting and the warmer the weather — as long as there is sufficient water — the better they will grow before the first frost kills all the foliage.

‘First Earlies’ mature quickest, in about 90-100 days from planting and tend to be exceptionally sweet. Unfortunately, they store rather badly so are best left in the ground and dug as required.

‘Maincrop’ take three or four weeks longer to mature and are less sweet but store well and can be left in the ground until the first hard frosts.

It follows that ‘first earlies’ tend to be planted as soon as possible in spring for a midsummer harvest, and that maincrop varieties can wait for another month as long as they are lifted before winter.

‘Second Earlies’ fall between these two extremes and will serve in either capacity. However, they will not store for as long as maincrop so should be dug by the end of summer and eaten before Christmas. To my mind, second earlies include some of the very best potatoes of all for the gardener. My favourites are ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Belle De Fontenay’, while ‘Sante’ is a good, all-round, fairly blightresistant maincrop variety.

Planting is straightforward. I line the bottom of a deep drill with some garden compost and place the seed potatoes (tubers that sprout) about 60cm (2ft) apart directly onto this cushion, to give them a good start in life.

I then fill the drills in, leaving a good layer of soil over the seed, making prominent ridges. The rows need to be at least 90cm (3ft) apart to allow for earthing up. ‘Earthing up’ simply means drawing more soil over the emerging foliage to protect them from late frosts, and to ensure the tubers are completely covered as they grow since any tuber exposed to even the smallest amount of light will turn green and become poisonous.

The ridge of soil burying the tubers also acts as a barrier to the water-born spores of the fungus Phytophthora infestans, or potato blight. Blight needs sustained warm, wet weather to grow so tends not to occur until July or August. It is recognisable from chocolate patches appearing on individual leaves that quickly spread.

HOWEVER, if you immediately remove all foliage and the tubers have sufficient soil over them, the waterborn spores will not reach them, and as long as they are stored properly dried they should be OK.

You can grow potatoes in any container, from a medium-sized pot to the one-ton sacks that most building materials are now delivered in, as long as it has drainage holes.

Put at least 23cm (9in) of good compost in first, space the seed potatoes so they have at least 30cm (1ft) to grow in every direction and cover them with another 15cm (6in) of compost.

As the foliage appears, ‘ keep adding more compost until you are within 2.5cm (1in) of the top.

Give them a good weekly soak, especially as they flower, because this is when the tubers form.