Chips? hadtheir

As we enter potato season John argues that last year’s warnings there was a shortage of the crop is merely a thing of the past

T he potato planting season is not too far away, so now is a good time to give it some thought and decide what varieties to grow and get them ordered, so there is time to chit the seed potatoes in advance of planting.

Prepare and make sure the land intended for potatoes has been dug and well manured or composted. Potatoes grow best in fertile and well drained soil, especially if it has had a green manure crop grown on it. Ensure the soil is dug in well ahead of planting in March for any earlies, and April for main crops.

VARIETIES

There is a wide selection to choose from so individual taste determines whether you prefer a dry or wet potato.

Blight is always a problem especially in a wet warm year like 2017, though every year is different so maybe 2018 will be just fine.

But if you don’t want to take the risk, go for Sarpo Mira which has some resistance to blight. It also produces huge tubers, meaning it is perfect for roasting and peeling.

There are also quite a few blightresistant varieties in the Sarpo range.

Another potato with large tubers is Lady Christl, an early variety. But if you prefer an early salad potato then choose from Casablanca or Charlotte, both with excellent flavour.

Tuber size is a bit lacking with the early salad varieties, however the flavour more than makes up for this and I was picking some decent spuds of Casablanca at the end of June last year.

A couple of years ago I tried Gemson, another salad early variety, but even as a salad potato size was desperately not in its favour.

My heaviest cropping maincrop potatoes last year were the Sarpo Mira, Lady Christl and Amour, which had massive tubers though was not a good keeper as it started to sprout in storage in December.

Most others will keep a lot longer, especially if you can store them in a cold but frost free, dark place with good ventilation.

CULTIVATION

The practice of chitting the seed potatoes in a light, but cool location, to encourage formation of short sturdy green sprouts is often under debate.

I have always been in favour of the practice and start mine upright (rose end up) in seed trays as soon as I receive Clockwise from main picture: Planting Casablanca potatoes; Chitting seed potatoes; Early potato Casablanca looking great; Two favourite large potatoes; and earthing up. Pictures: John Stoa.

Space rows about two feet apart for earlies and a wee bit wider for main crops with the tubers getting spaced a foot apart