Good Old Potatoes

Who doesn't love a potato? Thankfully we do, they are such a most versatile veg; whether boiled, baked, roasted, chipped, fried or mashed they are definitely a firm favourite in our household (oh, and I might be slightly addicted to crisps). I know these days there is much interest on low carbohydrate diets and the humble potato is often viewed as a no-no. However, I prefer the approach of 'everything in moderation' as even an extreme excess of water can be detrimental to your health. If you take away the deep fat frying preparation then the humble potaot can be really healthy, if you don't believe me have a look here for all the proper scientfic info. Well, mini lecture over and on to how we got on with our potato growing this year.

Last year we grew potatoes in the main veg bed and despite a bumper crop we were mightily disappointed that we lost about 50% to slug damage and strangely, wasp damage. This year we had another plan and, as with the onions, we decided to trial a few different planting schemes.

February


We bought 3 varieties of seed potato: Casablanca (1st Early), Charlotte (2nd Early) and Cara (Maincrop) which arrived in early February.


The seed potatoes were placed in trays for a few weeks in a cool, light room in the house to chit.


In the meantime both veg beds were covered with black plastic. (Note: this is pre-polytunnel days) This was our plan to warm the soil and prevent it from getting too waterlogged over the winter and early spring.

March


In an attempt at crop rotation we planned to plant the potatoes in the newer veg bed, trying some in the bed itself, some in tubs and some in wooden boxes which M built. They were later to become know as the coffins, you'll see why soon.

A cheap offer came through the post with a few (5) Charlotte seed potatoes and 5 small plastic bags and although dubious as to their potential we thought we'd give them a go too.


Three seed potatoes were planted in each 'coffin' with one 'coffin' for each variety. We could only find 5 tubs to use so there were 2 for the 1st Early - Casablanca, one for the 2nd Early - Charlotte and the last 2 for the Maincrop - Cara. The coffins and tubs were filled with compost while the remaining seed potatoes were planted directly into the veg bed.

April


As last year we covered the ground and containers when first planted as there was still a risk of frost and it was also to keep the soil warmer.

By mid April we had started to see little potato shoots poking through the soil in both the coffins and tubs.

Just a few little green shoots.

Unfortunately we probably left the black plastic on a little too long and were slightly dismayed at the pale shoots trying desperately to find some light in the veg bed.

     

Under the white plastic the coffin and container plants were thriving, this was them looking good on the 23rd of April.

May


Thankfully the veg bed potatoes recovered really quickly and by the 18th of May we had something resembling proper potato plants, all ready for earthing up.


The second tier of the coffins were put on and using some of our own compost the plants were earthed up. We also use our own compost in the containers and just pulled up earth around the plants in the veg bed.


The potatoes were obviously loving their home as they didn't even look like they had been earthed up after only about 10 days.


In an attempt to save on compost I did a bit of research on line and through a facebook group found this excellent article by Alys Fowler on using grass cuttings. I had imagined that it would become slimy and create a wonderful home for slugs and snails but we decided to give it a go.


We were amazed that the little plastic bags seemed to be producing lovely green healthy plants. The only issue was that at first we sometimes forgot about them but their watering routine did improve once the plants were visible.

June


I have always felt that wonderful sense of achievement when plants are growing well. Whether it's from a small seed I planted or a seed potato or a bought plant, yes there can also be the frustration when things don't go quite to plan but then that is how we learn to do things better next time. (Finn does love to be in a photo!) 

One important lesson we learned from last year was the need to be meticulous in removing even the tiniest baby potato when harvesting or you'll end up with unwanted plants in the wrong place. This was our June haul from some rogue potato plants which emerged in between the onions. Still, it was a nice early harvest of spuds which didn't go to waste.


By the end of June we had flowers appearing on the plants and were looking forward to lifting the extra earlies.

July


About halfway through July we cut back the green growth of the extra early Casablancas in preparation for harvesting. The recommendation is that the tops are cut about 2 weeks before lifting to enable to potato skins to toughen up and increase the storage. We managed to wait about 10 days before beginning the harvest.


The extra earlies were looking good and we got some reasonably sized potatoes from the containers.

The coffins were the easiest to harvest. The tiers just lifted off we sifted through the compost with our hands to remove the spuds.

As expected we didn't get a great deal of potatoes from the extra earlies, this trug load from 3 plants. However, they were in great condition and showed no sign of damage from slugs, worms or wasps.

The harvest from all the First Early plants was pretty good, you can see the difference between the lovely clean potatoes from the coffin and the muddy ones from the veg bed. Apart from the cosmetic contrast there was no significant variation in size of condition between the 3 different planting situations.


Despite containing 2nd Earlies (Charlotte), the plants in the plastic bags started to deteriorate and so we harvested them at the same time as the 1st Earlies.

These harvests were the individual results of the plastic bag experiment with one seed potato in each of bag.

It was not a massive success as this was the total from 5 plants. If you have a small family and have room for these little plastic bags then it may be worth it. However, we didn't feel that there was sufficient room for the plant to grow and the roots to develop and felt, all in all, it was a waste of time and compost.


Despite the poor showing from the plastic bags we had a pretty good harvest from the 1st earlies and the few 2nd earlies we had harvested.

August


During August the potato bed was beginning to look a bit sparse as the plants began to get past their best and so it was time to harvest the 2nd earlies. Ignoring our previous advice we didn't cut back the shoots and instead went straight in for the spuds.


Again we had a pretty decent haul with the only difference being the cleaner potatoes from the coffin. The spuds were of a good size and showed no signs of infestation - result!

September


You may well ask why I have included this photo of our very sorry looking potato bed. Mmm, is it to show you how poorly the main crop plants were looking, or how my regime of hoeing and weeding failed due to harvesting and storing other veg. Either way this is how the potato bed was fairing at the start of September. Due to poor weather and a significant amount of rain we abandoned the plan to cut the tops again and went straight for the harvest. 

The potatoes were excellent with only a few binned due to rot or having been munched by beasties. Yet again it was possible to see the difference between those grown in lovely compost and those directly sown.


The Cara potatoes were wonderful, these were destined for chips, with skins on and cooked using an Actifry they are at least slightly healthier than the old fashioned deep fried chips.


Usually we would chuck any tiny potatoes but I managed to convince M to keep these little ones and we had then boiled (with skins on). They quickly became one of my favourites, so tasty and melt in the mouth and of course it helps that we also had less waste.

Now the potatoes are all washed and stored in the dark of the barn and will hopefully see us through the winter.

Lessons learned:
1. We don't need quite so many potato plants for a family of 2.
2. It would be better for us to have 1st earlies and maincrop and do without the 2nd earlies.
3. We would love to try some different varieties and especially some old heritage ones.
4. The coffins were the best way to successfully grow our spuds. They keep the beasties out, we can balance out the cost of compost by using our own homemade compost and they were by far the easiest ones to harvest.
5. Grass cuttings are brilliant for earthing up and thankfully we tend to have a lot of them.
6. Cutting the tops does work but it wasn't a disaster when we didn't manage it.
7. We still love love love potatoes we have grown.

Here's hoping your harvests have been bountiful and you have much to enjoy as the evenings draw in. Now we are clearing up, tidying things away and starting the planning process again as we look forward to next year.