Time to Plant Potatoes

Planting Potatoes

Although I have been trying to keep up with essential work on the allotment throughout this bitterly cold ‘spring’ it has been difficult to persuade myself that it is a good idea to plant stuff. I have been trying, within reason, to assume that spring will eventually come so have been planting with only half a mind to the very unseasonal weather.  

I did actually plant a ridge of 1^st Earlies – [Accent] - in my Poly-tunnel in the middle of February, as I have done for the last few years since I first got my tunnel. In previous years I have planted a couple of ridges taking up one side of my tunnel but, I did find that some of them were still there when I needed the space for other crops.

I also chanced putting a ridge of 1^st Earlies [Epicure] outdoors, as soon as the ground became workable, at the beginning of March. Yes, this is a little early even for me but, The ground is very heavy this year and I need to start the process early so that I have a chance of getting all the planting done – the very early plantings will either work or they won’t – I will report back on this strategy later. Traditionally, where I come from, potato planting starts on or around St Patrick’s day [17^th March], depending on the weather. Many people in England will plant, traditionally, from Good Friday. However, as this can be as early as March or as late as May – with little reference to the weather, I find this an unreliable guide.

While I start planting my Early potatoes first, there is no reason why all the potatoes can’t be planted more-or-less at the same time, as the harvesting time relates to the length of time for the plant to grow and produce a crop, and its keeping qualities, rather than the time of planting. Guidelines usually recommend planting Early potatoes any time from mid March with an expectation of harvesting from June [depending on your situation]. These varieties will not store well and are best eaten as soon as they are about ‘egg sized’. The longer they stay in the ground, the larger they are likely to grow so, if you like your new potatoes fairly small, don’t plant too many and harvest them as you mean to eat them.

Second Early potatoes can be planted any time from the beginning of April – expect to harvest from July.

There are Early Maincrop, Maincrop, and Late Maincrop potatoes. Plant any time from Mid-April [depending on your situation]. Harvesting time can be up until late October or even into November. These are the potatoes which should store for over-winter use [to do so, make sure they are undamaged, have no lumps of earth attached to them – though it’s fine if they are dirty and are dry on the surface. Stored potatoes should be checked regularly to ensure there are no rotten ones which will affect the whole crop.

Everyone has their own favourite method of planting potatoes. Many of my allotment neighbours dig little holes, put in some well rotted manure and drop in the potatoes. I like to serve as many operations as possible in my planting and potatoes, as a crop, lend themselves particularly well to this.

·        I achieve [hopefully] a crop which is important to me;

·        Potatoes are great at ‘tilling’ heavy ground [breaking it up and making it workable];

·        As I add a lot of manure to my potato ridges, that part of my allotment is effectively manured for the next couple of years as well.

I have gradually been planting all my potatoes over the last few weeks and have only one ridge of late maincrop [Sarpo Mira] to plant.

 So far this year there had been little sign of any growth [apart from early bulb flowers like daffodils] until, suddenly, on Wednesday 10^th April, our first fairly pleasant, mild day, plants started appearing above ground. I noticed my first potatoes peeking above ground in the tunnel and two rows of early carrots, also in the tunnel, have germinated. Now I’m waiting for something to appear outdoors.