Medwyn Williams explains how he is growing a new potato variety

We’ve cut one tuber into six pieces to get more spuds

My son Alwyn was given a new potato during early November from a breeder who had planted a huge number of different seedlings in a field and this particular tuber was just one from a single haulm. It was less than 5cm (2in) in length but what did appeal to me was the smooth skin condition, bearing in mind that it had been grown in a field with no special conditions. Another appealing thing were the shallow eyes and the lovely pink colour around each eye.

As these were grown initially from seed I’ve no idea if it’s going to be an early, second early or a maincrop variety. But as soon as I saw it I immediately thought I should try and grow some for Chelsea.

Now, I imagine you’re wondering how I was going to do that when there was only one potato! Well, this is what I did. I found there were six eyes on the potato, so I very carefully cut through sections of it, making sure there was an eye on each piece. From the eyes you get the shoots that develop into haulms and the next generation of potatoes. I dried the cut edges on some tissue close to my central heating boiler for two days for the cut edges to thoroughly dry out and form a skin over the surface.

I then planted these up in some Levington F2S, making sure the eyes were well under the surface. The tray is now in my heated glasshouse and I can already see that I’ve at least four developing. I really hope that I’ll be able to harvest enough tubers for a small dish of a brand new variety to stage on my display at Chelsea next year.

It’s getting to the time for planting shallots. I’ll be planting ‘Hâtive de Niort’ and ‘Aristocrat’, which unfortunately are susceptible to rotting during storage. However, a lot of it is to do with the way that they’re stored and I always give them a feed high in potash a couple of weeks prior to lifting, which helps them store better.

■ Why not follow me on Twitter throughout the season as I grow vegetables for my show displays – @medwynsofangles.

Going through the dried shallots before planting into pots

The potato tuber cut into six pieces, each with an eye, ready for planting