This year I am going to grow potatoes for the first time. I have purchased a kit which contains Pentland Javelin, Charlotte and Maris Peer (second early) along with growing bags, as well as Pink Fir Apple and Charlotte and a second type of growing bags. All the potatoes will be grown in these container bags.
I am quickly learning that there is a whole new language to learn ranging from how to grow them to describing the various varieties of potatoes. Potatoes are classified as being either earlies or maincrops. Early varieties being ready to harvest much sooner than maincrops and are also called ‘new potatoes’. First early potatoes should be ready to harvest in June and July, with second earlies in July and August. The maincrop varieties are in the ground for much longer and thus produce a larger harvest with bigger potatoes, these should be ready to harvest from late August through to October.
Varieties that I am trying
Pentland Javelin is a first early variety with good all round disease resistance. They are a soft waxy-textured new potato with white skins and flesh which is ideal for boiling as a salad or new potato. It bulks up slightly later than other first earlies to produce a high yield.
Charlotte is a second early salad variety which produces pear shaped, yellow skinned potatoes.
Maris Peer, a second early, has subtle flavour and is ideal for boiling, steaming or roasting. They have a light skin, creamy firm flesh which doesn’t disintegrate during cooking.
Pink Fir Apple is a late maincrop salad variety with pink skin and cream waxy flesh. They are long and knobbly, introduced in 1850s from France and have a distinctive nutty flavour.
Chitting
The first step is to ‘chit’ the seed potatoes (these are potatoes which are certified virus-free), which means letting them start to sprout shoots before they are planted in soil. I have stood mine in egg boxes and wooden trays on a windowsill which isn’t near a radiator and gets plenty of light. They should be ready to plant in March when the shoots are about 2cm long.
Next update will be in March when the potatoes are ready to be planted out in their containers.
April update
We had a cold and wet March and start of April so I didn’t plant out my potatoes until 15 April. I planted out the early varieties of Pentland Javelin, Charlotte and Maris Peer. I won’t plant out the maincrop of Pink Fir Apple until later in April. I filled the various containers with 15cm of compost and planted three potatoes in each container, setting them just below the surface.
