Medwyn Williams starts off his early potatoes
And you’ll be the envy of your neighbours tucking into tasty new spuds in spring!
If you’re heating your greenhouse at this time of year, it’s worth trying to find a small space on the bench for growing some early potatoes. These are not for exhibiting, but for the sheer joy and pleasure of eating your own new potatoes during early to mid-May. My favourite early is ‘Lady Christl’ and seed potatoes should be available now at your garden centres or from ourselves.
Now that I have my seed potatoes, I select some of the smallest to chit in order to get the eyes on the rose end to throw up some shoots. To do this, lay the potatoes out in a seed tray with the rose end up – that’s the end where the most eyes are congregated. The opposite end is called the heel end, where the potato was attached to the mother plant last season. Cover the tray with black and white polythene, black side up to keep them warm. The idea is that the dark and warmth will get them to shoot early so the roots will develop quickly at the base of those shoots.
Once the white shoots are prominent, pot each potato up in a 12cm (5in) pot using Humax multi-purpose compost. Plant with the shoot slightly below the compost and water well. The pots won’t take up too much room on the bench and in the warmth of the greenhouse the haulms will quickly grow to 23cm (9in) around early March. At this point I’ll take them to the polytunnel where they can be planted up.
The one thing you have to be aware of is frost and I’ve some fleece that I use to cover them over to get them growing away. From March onwards, if there’s no sign of frost, just keep the pots uniformly moist throughout and you should be the envy of your neighbours with the earliest new potatoes around!