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.

Late April on the Allotment

Late April on the Allotment

I’m pleased to see the rain, yes, really I am and, of course it is April, when we expect a bit of rain. I’m sure farmers and commercial growers are very relieved as water is needed on crops especially when they are trying to get them established. But! I really do wish it was a bit warmer and with a bit more sunshine between showers. The birds, nesting now, are desperate for food and my robins are waiting for me each time I come to the plot. They can be quite in my face!

I have had a nasty little, flu’ like virus for a couple of weeks and I feel it has put me somewhat on the back foot as far as my allotment work has gone, especially planting my main-crop potatoes. I have now managed to get my Sarpo Mira seed in the ground [ after several years of experimenting with different varieties, I’m really taken with these. They have an excellent balance of disease and pest resistance and good flavour... and... they keep well. I only finished my crop from last year in mid February and they were still good].  I bought all of my seed potatoes from Thompson and Morgan. While I have whinged, in the past, about T&M delivering seed potatoes far too late to chit properly, this year the service has been excellent. And, they do have an excellent selection. This year I have found it particularly difficult and wearisome planting the potatoes. I’m hoping this is just because I’m been a bit under the weather and not because I’m getting past it!  However, I was chatting to a fellow plotter in the last few days who has told me that he doesn’t dig ridges for his potatoes any more – he uses a large bulb planter instead. Now that might be a method worth trying next year – at least for some of them, as a trial.

My 1^st early potatoes in the polytunnel [Vales Emerald] are already putting on flower buds so, perhaps in a few weeks I will be able to start harvesting. I see the outdoor sown Vales Emerald are also well up – still under a protective layer of fleece to protect them from the frost. I have never tried this variety before – I had become quite fond of Accent as my 1^st early but, this year I was unable to get them. The Vales Emerald are not, at the moment inspiring me, they certainly don’t seem to be as robust as Accent and a couple of the plants have failed to grow or have died back though, I wonder if this is due to red-ant nests which are in the vicinity. I would prefer to live with the ants but, poly-tunnel space is precious and perhaps I need to be a bit more jealous of this space.

I moved most of my young tomato plants, and a few chilli plants to my polytunnel about three weeks ago [although I can propagate them at home, I can’t provide the young plants with enough light]. I covered them with fleece until they had settled in then took the fleece off. Unfortunately, on the same day I took the fleece off we had a really hard frost. The surprising part was that the chillies were fine, tomato F1 Fantasio was fine but, Alicanti was seriously hit by the frost. That said, I won’t resow as most of the affected plants have put out side shoots which will still be way ahead of any new sowing I would make.

I have now moved lots of my seedlings, including my first batch of sweetcorn, [F1 Earlibird from Dobies] to my ploy-tunnel but, am careful to keep them covered with fleece until this cold spell has passed. I hope the weather will have warmed up by the beginning of May and I can plant my first batch of sweetcorn out. I do have another variety F1 Rising Sun [ also from Dobies] which I will leave for another week before sowing. If they all germinate as well as the Earlibird and produce good crops I will have far too much sweetcorn. But, in the past I’ve been disappointed by some crops so I’m spreading my bets. Last year I tried an experimental plot of Butcher’s Blood [a red seeded variety]. I found germination rate poor but, those seeds which did germinate, grew into tall strong plants. Unfortunately, I found the cobs tough and rather tasteless. But you have to keep trying new stuff, you never know when you will come up with something magic.

Now, at last, I have found a courgette which I actually like – F1 Orelia [ Dobies seed]. It has a golden skin and the flesh is dryer and denser than the more common zucchini. Unfortunately, last year I only had one seed germinate and this year- so far – I have had three but, guess what, I’ve broken one ! It still survives and might just make it but, I’ve resown just in case. However, I’m losing faith in my ability to germinate them... they should be easy. What am I doing wrong? Is my propagator too warm? Perhaps too cool? Should I just try them on the window sill? Any ideas would be gratefully received. Perhaps I should just get my daughter to grow them for me!

Last year I had real difficulties germinating peppers and chillies. This year, of the three varieties I’ve sown, I seem to have about 100% germination and can give them away. I think last year, the temperature of my propagator may have been too hot. Any thoughts?

My daughter loves all the different varieties of chillies she grows each year. However she lost the label on one plant she gave me. It produced purple fruit about 2cm [1 inch] long which turned red when properly ripe. Of course I dried the chillies for use over the winter. These babies are absolutely lethal! I scrunched a little one up into a curry I was making and, of course, washed my hands well afterwards. An hour later I was working on my computer and rested my chin in my hands. My face started to burn so, I rubbed it again and the burning spread to everywhere I touched. This pain lasted for quite some time! Gosh I will never learn!

So far this year I have sown two different varieties of peas. On 6^th March I sowed 4 packets of Little Marvel, an early variety. I covered them with fleece, as much to protect them from predators as from frost. They are now about 15cm high [6inches] and I have staked them already. I also sowed Hurst Green Shaft on 20^th March. They are still under a layer of environmesh but in the coming week I will remove this also and stake them. They are looking good.

Following advice I was given a couple of years ago on growing a pea crop – I sow lots of seed into each trench. My plot is about 5 metres wide. I will create three trenches about 3 – 4 cm deep [1½ inches]. I have divided 4 packets among the 3 trenches which is really fairly dense sowing. However, compared with the advice often given on sowing pea seed, this method has had spectacularly successful results. Let’s face it, the seed is not so expensive that we need to be precious about each seed. My crop last year filled a complete drawer of my freezer with bags of frozen peas. I am just coming to the end of them now.

Autumn harvesting

I have just returned from a reasonably long holiday in Andalucia (southern Spain) well! It was long for me anyway, I’m not usually away for more than a couple of days. I returned in the middle of the night to a cat in tears as he had been mauled by (apparently) another cat and was desperately in need of a vet. Although not injured, my other cats were equally upset. They so put the guilt trip on me! Really I hadn’t left them unattended. My cat carer is very competent and kind, just not the person they wanted.

It is autumn. When I visited my plot I was dismayed by how overgrown it was. Grass paths are rampant, weeds have taken over, caulis have overgrown, cucumbers are overripe, runner beans are too mature, tomatoes are too, too many.

I have collected several buckets full of several varieties of tomatoes and have found homes for most of them, not least, several more tubs of frozen tomato pulp for use in the winter. I’ve noticed that the runner-bean poles on the plots of many of my neighbours have fallen over. Mine would have too if I hadn’t propped them up but, in any case, the beans are not worth harvesting – too mature, too stringy, too hard. No worries, I will dismantle the canes and compost the rest of the crop. I have already harvested and dried my Borlotto beans. They are good, though I think I will look for a climbing variety next year – so much easier to dry for winter use. I see that my Yinyang (Orca) beans are almost ready. I worry that the weather might be too damp for successful drying. I have not seen climbing varieties of these beans but, when they lie on the ground in damp weather they are more likely to go mouldy.

There is a load of stuff to deal with now. I have harvested most of my squashes and pumpkins. Really I’m not interested in the huge varieties for competitions, nor the large pretty ones for Hallowe’en lanterns. I am looking for the small fruits which will store easily for use as a winter vegetable. My favourites are butternut squashes. This year the germination rate was not good and from a couple of plants I have ended up with only 4 squashes. If you do have a good crop you mean to store, make sure they are dry and store in a frost free environment out of direct sunlight. Check them regularly for rot and don’t store in direct sunlight, on a wooden or on a carpeted surface. If they do break down they will destroy those surfaces. I intend to store mine in a dark attic room on top of cardboard. I do hope they will last for the winter as they are staple vegetable for winter.

Talking about staples for winter, I have now lifted all my potatoes including my Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which are both late maincrops. When lifting them, separate the damaged ones – slug damaged or by digging implement - and use these immediately as they will not keep and will damage your stored potatoes. Make sure they are dry before you store them in hessian or paper sacks and store in cool, dark frost free conditions. Mine are going into my attic room. Gosh, it is going to be packed when I have finished. Hopefully they will keep well into the new year, unless I have eaten them all first.

For the first time, this year, I have enough carrots to store. Goodness, this has never happened to me before. I do have some damage from carrot root-fly but, I have been harvesting Purple Haze from my raised carrot bed with little damage. Although not huge roots, they have excellent texture and flavour. My Resistafly and Flyaway have been good, although, obviously I hadn’t prepared the bed well enough as the carrots, although excellent flavour and strong roots are really very forked.

My carrots – Creme de Lite (F1 from Dobies) planted straight into a well prepared bed on the flat ground have been excellent. There has been some carrot root fly damage but the carrots have been huge, flavoursome and tender. I do recommend them. I will leave them in the ground as long as I can manage. I’m not yet sure how I will store them. If the winter is going to be as bad as has been predicted then I don’t think that a sand-pit or my shed will suffice. They might also have to go in bags in my attic room.