Planting potatoes!
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It’s not too late to plant potatoes, but many people will have them in already. We tend to run a few weeks behind everyone else over here – we have heavy clay soil which gets waterlogged.
The upside is that after everyone else has finished their harvest, we are still enjoying ours!
Potato types
My favourite potatoes are Charlottes, closely followed by Nicola. This year we’re growing Nicolas because I left it too late to buy Charlottes. Note to self’; order early next year! I’ve just ordered them from the Organic Gardening catalogue and as soon as they arrive, we’ll be out there planting them.
We don’t grow maincrops for two reasons. Firstly we can buy local potatoes for less than £5 a 25kg sack during the winter; and second, with damp ground, potato blight can be a problem.
Blight – a natural cure
We have endured potato blight once, and we came through unscathed. We grow organically, so had to find a natural, chemical-free solution. With a little experimenting we came up trumps and I’ve never viewed my tenacious ‘weed’ horsetail in the same way since. We’ve now become firm friends and I try and remind myself how helpful it was to our crop when I’m pulling it out and stopping it choking our crops.
You can find out how to deal with potato blight, without chemicals here.
Potato council[amazon-product align=”right” small=”1″]1844765695[/amazon-product]
In addition to our family planting, Little Miss Green is tending to her own crop this year. Through the potato council website, we joined their ‘potatoes for schools‘ scheme. Home schools could register too, which is good news.
I’ll be telling you more about the potato council scheme soon.
What about you – Do you plant potatoes? Which are your favourite types?
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Do you grow yours right in the ground? I have heard some people discuss planting them in large trash bins, above ground. We haven’t tried potatoes yet and I’d love your tips on planting them…
Thanks!
Hi Michelle, I do grow my potatoes right in the ground. we have terrible soil here – it’s clay and it forms in hard clumps, no matter what the weather. The potatoes just push their way through quite happily and thrive in here!
You can plant them above ground though; in any sort of container, an old stack of tyres or even a black plastic bag. They grow anywhere. I even had half a bag potato in the compost heap that grew into a plant.
They are ensured to survive so it’s worth having a go!