What with winter lingering rather chillingly in the air and the inches of snow that some of the country have seen, the growing season has been put back by a couple of weeks. That's actually quite lucky for a late-starter like me though because it means I haven't missed the boat to get some early potatoes in the ground.
Not so very long ago, I imagined that you just dug a hole in the ground, stuck in some potatoes you had lying around that you hadn't yet baked, fried or mashed, and waited for them to magically sprout more little tatties. Surprise, surprise; there's actually a little more to it than that.
In order to get any harvest at all, you have to use chitted seed potatoes. (Chitted means potatoes that have little green shoots poking out them.) Each shoot is new growth and, once in the ground, will be where the new harvest of potatoes will grow from. A good number of shoots on each seed potato is 2 to 3- any more than that and there won't necessarily be enough food from the original potato to supply all the new growth.
So, I've had a delivery of ready-chitted potatoes and I'm ready to get going! Although I could have planted them straight into the garden, the ground is still a little bit cold (the ideal temperature to get them moving quickly is 9 degrees c. Anything lower than 4 degrees c and they stay dormant.) So, instead I've put the seed potatoes into egg boxes (one potato in each egg holder.) I've placed them with their green shoots facing upwards and set them all on a sunny windowsill in my kitchen. I also kept each potato variety seperated and labeled them, too- the theory being that I can do the same when I plant them out and be able to keep track of what I'm digging up.
Not so very long ago, I imagined that you just dug a hole in the ground, stuck in some potatoes you had lying around that you hadn't yet baked, fried or mashed, and waited for them to magically sprout more little tatties. Surprise, surprise; there's actually a little more to it than that.
In order to get any harvest at all, you have to use chitted seed potatoes. (Chitted means potatoes that have little green shoots poking out them.) Each shoot is new growth and, once in the ground, will be where the new harvest of potatoes will grow from. A good number of shoots on each seed potato is 2 to 3- any more than that and there won't necessarily be enough food from the original potato to supply all the new growth.
So, I've had a delivery of ready-chitted potatoes and I'm ready to get going! Although I could have planted them straight into the garden, the ground is still a little bit cold (the ideal temperature to get them moving quickly is 9 degrees c. Anything lower than 4 degrees c and they stay dormant.) So, instead I've put the seed potatoes into egg boxes (one potato in each egg holder.) I've placed them with their green shoots facing upwards and set them all on a sunny windowsill in my kitchen. I also kept each potato variety seperated and labeled them, too- the theory being that I can do the same when I plant them out and be able to keep track of what I'm digging up.
I'm using Maris Peer, Ambo, Orla, Charlotte and Colleen varieties. As it's my first go, I thought I'd try several different sorts to see if any grow better than others and also which I like the taste of. It's also no coincidence that these varieties are available on the Rocket Gardens website- but then I figure, there's got to be some benefit to working for the family firm!
Setting the potatoes in egg boxes is great because it keeps them upright and (hopefully) the shoots will grow nice and straight. Alternative holders would be egg cups or even cup cake holders. I ran out of egg boxes though and so I used a cereal box, clumping several potatoes together, and they don't seem to be any the worse for it. (I can tell I'm not going to be a particularly fastidious gardener!)
It's been beautifully sunny and spring-like over the weekend and the shoots have responded to the warmth already- I'm sure it's not my imagination and over-enthusiasm and the shoots really have got longer. I'll have to wait a couple of weeks, until the shoots have reached 2-3 cm in length and then I can plant the potatoes into the ground.
Partly because it's necessary and partly because I'm too excited to be able to leave my potato-related activity at that, I also started preparing the ground outside this weekend. I've dug over the raised bed, which is going to house them and also covered the ground in compost. I then dug in some organic worm cast fertiliser for good measure, in order to make sure the ground is full of nutrients when it comes to planting time.
Considering this has been my first full weekend dedicated to being a 'real' gardener, I think it went pretty well. It's been brilliant having an excuse to be outside, and digging up compost feels like a much more wholesome calorie-burning activity than going for a run. So far, so good!
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