The potato lowdown please!

I'm a completely novice gardener and I'd like to grow my first potatoes this year. I've done some research but it all seems rather complicated! I'd be grateful if someone could explain to me (in language a stupid person can understand) what I need to know and also provide a terminology guide
I'm planning on digging them a patch at the end of my garden which is currently rough grass and would like as long a cropping season as possible (stupid question - do you have to dig them all up at once??). Can anyone reccommend a good all rounder to grow? Many thanks in anticipation!
Lindsay.

 

Lindsay I'm no way an expert on spud growing and I've only grown them in sacks my self but I have read a great deal on growing them and from what I gather they are quite easy tho grow. If you remove the turf and work plenty of organic matter like compost or well rotted manure into the top soil the spuds should do a good job of breaking up the deeper soil. You can also give them a feed of an organic potato fertiliser which you would be able to pick up in your local garden centre or nursery. As for leaving them in the ground I'm not sure about but I'd say you would be leaving them susceptible to blight. Try look for a good storer I think the main crops store quite well. But like I say I'm no expert and I'm sure some one a bit more knowledgable will be along to help/ correct me
Dan

 

Hi Lindsay,

Potatoes aren't that hard, just a few things can mess them up though.

Firstly, the grass is likely to contain Leather Jackets, which live off the roots so if you take the grass away they'll have their eye on your spuds instead.

Potatoes are not frost hardy, so if the tips get frosted they will have to grow back from the tuber again, which costs the plant energy & will reduce yield. Have some fleece standing by for when a frost is forecast.

Buy "seed" potatoes from a nursery or garden centre, these are tubers grown usually in Scotland where the winds sweep disease carrying insects away from the plants. Don't be tempted to plant spuds from the supermarket, you might be lucky, but you could loose the whole crop to diseases like the blight.

You'll see that the seed potatoes are marked up as First & Second Earlies and Maincrop.

This refers to the length of time to maturity, 16 weeks for the Earlies & 20 for the maincrop. So you could plant them all at the same time, it doesn't mean you have to plant the earlies first.

It pays to "chit" the seed potatoes, this means putting them in a tray, maybe egg boxes & leaving them on a light but cool windowsill till they grow sprouts.

Dig a trench and plant the spuds in it a foot apart & 2 feet between rows. As they come up, gently earth the plants up with the soil from the trench, you're aiming at eventually having the plants growing out of a mound.

As for varieties, I grow Aaran Pilot as a first early, Charlotte as a second. My maincrop varies, i'm sure others will recomend others.

You can grub around for a few tubers as the plants are growing, they are ready when they've flowered.

If you want to store them, leave them in the ground for 2 weeks after the haulms (foliage) have dropped so that the skins harden. Store in a cool frost free place, most importantly, keep them in the dark or they will go green, which makes them poisonous.

 

Dan has got a good point about the blight

When the season starts we'll get a sticky thread together in Edible Gardening that will have links to the Blightwatch service, you can get email & txt notifications specific to your post code, so you know when best to spray.

I'm normally organic but blight is so devastating I use the shortly to be withdrawn Bordeaux mixture, which protects the plant but only sits on the surface. Can be washed off.

 

Everything Zig said, plus this.

You don't need to dig them all at once. Start at an end of a row and dig one plant worth as and when you want some. The customary time to declare them ready is when you see the tops start to die, but after flowering, there'll be some delicious newies already there.

Dig with a fork, never a spade, because you will slice some. A fork does less damage.

There are always 3 times as many spuds on the plant as the first turn of the fork reveals. Dig again, then have a good rummage in the newly loosened soil.

Any you accidentally damage with the fork should be used up first. Those ones wont save well.

One potato per plant will be slightly darker and more dull than the rest. Throw it at your other half for a laugh, bin it, burn it, do whatever you like with it. Just don't eat it. It is the original seedy and it will be Horrible (note the bold capital H in Horrible, that's important).

 

You sound as if you've eaten one Dave They often turn to a nice smelly mush too.

 

When I was a kid my dad built a house on a hillside that had been rough pasture. He planted potatos by first sything off the long grass and then cutting out turves, turning them upside down with a potato beneath. It helped clear the ground for future veg planting as the potato leaves smothered any weeds. i can't recollect though if there was any problem with leather jackets.

 

This link with a few pictures might help;

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Potato/Potato.htm

 

Thank you so much everyone, that is so helpful! It's great to have found a forum where people are capable of giving simple, helpful advice without sounding patronising. That website is also good. One last question, the website mentions 'earthing up' which sounds like burying your plants after they have started to grow. Do you have to do this and what does it achieve?

 

If you had clicked on the Planting out in the related links you would have got some pictures.

To save you time click here;

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Potato/Planting potatoes/planting potatoes.html

It is not absolutely essential to earth up but what this does is increase the potential of getting more potatoes.

Potatoes emanate from the stem so the more stem that is covered the greater the crop potential.

Some people earth up as they plant I don't!

The reason being; sods law says the stem will grow up through the side of the earthing up (its shallower) whereas earthing up later allows you to cover more stem ,as the stems come through the apex of the ridge ( the deepest point)

 

I've previously used a bulb planter (and spade) to put my seed spuds in, but now use an azada to cut a narrow trench for planting them in (and adding some comfrey leaves) plus I use it to pull the soil back over them creating useful ridges to identify the rows. The same tool makes extremely short work of earthing up the spuds.

 

I have a mattock which I believe is similar to an Azada.

Depending upon when I manured the bed decides whether I use the bulb planter, or the mattock.

If manured in autumn I use the bulb planter if I have to manure and plant at the same time I use the mattock.

I also use the mattock to earth up.

You can see two mattock version here;

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Tools-Hoes/Tools - Hoes.htm

I use the one without the pick head!

 

Earthing up is not strictly necessary, and the jury is still out as to whether or not it gives you a greater yield. My experience is that it makes little difference in terms of quantity, but a big difference in terms of quality.

I earth my spuds up. Here's my reasons:

* If you don't, then as the potatoes swell in the ground, some will break out of the surface. Then those exposed ones turn green and are ruined.
* Potatoes like moist but not soggy conditions. Earthing up helps keep the soil loose around the roots and the lower part of the stems.
* Regular disturbance of the soil surface makes it harder for weeds to get a foothold and compete with your potatoes.
* One of the biggest threats to your spuds is slugs. Regularly disturbing the ground makes life much easier for the blackbirds and starlings to rummage about looking for a tasty treat.
* Come harvest time, the fact that you've kept the soil loose makes life much easier when it comes to lifting the plants out.

 

Thanks guys!
That gardeners almanac website is great, I've just learnt all sorts about tools!
I'll keep you posted with my potato progress...