Potatoes

A staple ingredient that’s easy to grow!

Potatoes are classified as either earlies or maincrops. Early varieties (new potatoes) spend a lot less time underground than maincrop varieties which produce larger potatoes. Potatoes are grown from ‘seed potatoes’ (or tubers) and should be grown from late Winter onwards. The growing process starts indoors where you leave them to sprout shoots, before planting.

Stand the tubers rose end up in egg boxes or similar in a bright and frost-free environment. When the shoots are about 3cm long, they are ready to be planted. Dig a narrow trench and space the tubers 30cm apart for earlies and 37cm apart for maincrops.

When the stems have grown around 23cm high, draw soil up to the stems to produce a ridge approximately 15cm high – this is the process of ‘earthing up’ and prevents frost damage. As the stems grow, repeat this action until the ridges reach a height of around 20-30cm.

Top tips

– Locate a sunny site avoiding frost pockets.

– When it comes to the second earthing up, maincrops can benefit from a nitrogenous fertiliser.

– With earlies, wait until the tubers are the size of hens’ eggs before harvesting.

Key timings