It was late in the season when I arrived back in this country
in mid April, and frankly I would not have thought about growing much in the
way of vegetables had I not been given a bag of seed potatoes by a friend’s
dad. This bag, which was surplus to
requirements in his own garden, was not entirely promising. All the potatoes were sprouting vigourously and
the skins were soft and wrinkled. By the
time I had let them lie around in my kitchen for a couple of weeks they were
even worse.
Nevertheless I didn’t want to look ungrateful, so eventually
I prepared some ground and got around to planting the seed potatoes, more in
hope than expectation. First I cut off all the
shoots leaving only one on each potato. Then I planted them with the remaining shoot
facing upwards, in rows about 18 inches apart.
The only other thing I did for them was to keep them watered during the
driest weeks of the summer.
After about 10 days they started to show above ground.
Fourteen spuds came out of that bag and all fourteen plants came up. After 8 weeks they flowered. This is the point at which the tubers really start to swell and ideally you should start administering a liquid feed. I didn't have any available and my nearest garden centre is about 12 miles away, so I didn't bother. You can start to harvest the potatoes from this point on, but they do continue to grow for some weeks depending on conditions. I generally wait until the leaves begin to turn yellow.
The only reason to
lift potatoes is if you are worried about slugs or disease. My soil is exceptionally quick draining
alluvial sand. Digging is a joy and
slugs are not a problem, so I left them underground for a couple more weeks. I finally harvested them yesterday.
Now I’m not suggesting that this is the best way to grow potatoes. I am led to believe that I may have been quite lucky in avoiding pests or disease, and perhaps by feeding and earthing-up I could have improved the crop, but it does show how you should never let ignorance or fear put you off getting stuck in to the garden. After all, what’s the worst thing that can happen?
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