Medwyn Williams explains his new way to grow show potatoes
I’m trying out the AutoPot Spyder system and hoping for super spuds this year
The potatoes I had growing for Chelsea (when it was still going to be in May) were started off in pots during December last year and were very tall and more than ready to move on when the call came to say that show had been postponed. However, I still carried on to plant them up for eating.
I then had to plant some more for the new Chelsea date in September. I’ve been trying to use less peat and use other alternatives, so I’ve decided to slowly convert over to Canna Coco Professional for as many things as possible.
I’m going to try the AutoPot Spyder system. The Spyder is a plastic container to which you attach capillary matting strips, or wicks as I call them. You create a raised bed and fill it with Canna Coco (or compost), creating a slight mound in the centre with the Coco gradually sloping downwards towards the outer edges of the bed. There’s room for 12 strips of matting to run from the Spyder down the slope and this will take the nutrients from the tank straight into the growing medium. The strips are finally covered over with the same growing medium.
This system, together with the AutoPot system for the onions and leeks, will save me an enormous amount of time, as the beds will be self-watering and feeding as and when the growing medium requires it.
I’m hoping to harvest some good quality potatoes with a beautiful, smooth skin finish from around the second week in September. I’ll remove the haulms a week or so prior to that to allow the skin to set on the potatoes, enabling you then to wash them with a sponge without worrying about the skin peeling off.
As they’re lifted, we examine and grade them, with the best shaped and sized ones kept in the same medium they were grown in and stored in the dark. They’ll be washed a few days before the display and each potato dried and wrapped individually in kitchen roll. I have six baskets to display with 30 to 35 potatoes in each – 210 potatoes take some washing and packing!
■ Follow me on Twitter as I grow vegetables for my show displays – @medwynofangles.
Medwyn has been awarded 12 Chelsea golds and an MBE!