35. Growing Potatoes
There is nothing like home grown potatoes, freshly dug up that day. They have a really fresh, firm texture, with a wonderful earthy taste that you just can’t get in shop bought ones. And they are surprisingly easy to grow.
For the first season I used one of the metal raised beds for the potato crop. I chose “Charlotte” variety - salad potatoes are my favourites, and ordered them from DT Brown. The Scottish seed potatoes were delivered in early April and spent a couple of weeks chitting on the windowsill of my light, airy bathroom before being planted out. The raised bed was 1/3 filled with growing medium, leaving plenty of room for earthing up. The plants grew quickly, and were mounded up 2-3 times with every 10cm of growth. This allows a longer growing stem for the tubers, which in turn means more potatoes per plant. Keeping the bed well watered during a very hot summer was a problem, and the plants wilted sometimes, but the crop was good, averaging 20-30 potatoes per plant.
The next season I decided to try out the large Air-pot potato towers. These are deep 50L wrap-around pots with very good aeration to the roots. I chose 5 different varieties of potatoes this time: “Kestrel”, “Nicola”, “Shepody McCain”, “Maris Peer” and “Royal McCain”, a mixture of salad, early, main and second croppers. Each variety has its own potato tower with about 8 plants per tower. The pots have convenient markers showing planting levels, leaving room for mounding up. They do need good regular watering, but are otherwise pretty low maintenance, and the crop from all of them is great.
One of the best things about the air-pots is the ease of harvesting of them. I lift the whole pot onto a wheelbarrow, unwrap the sides and then easily sieve through the soil to find the potatoes. Ii is simple to refresh the growing medium left in the wheelbarrow by adding manure and compost, and then refilling the pots again, ready for the next crop.
I have planted a late batch of seed potatoes hoping for a Christmas crop, but they are not looking hopeful, and I think it might need to be back to shop bought roast potatoes for Christmas this year.