HOW TO GROW MAIN CROP POTATOES

Potatoes are one of many best crops to develop and can (often) offer you an considerable harvest each time! There are such a lot of varieties to develop and so many method to make use of them in our cooking. When you develop potatoes you’ll by no means wish to purchase them from a store once more, they style superb when grown within the backyard and are simply the crop that retains on giving!

Enjoyable truth about rising potatoes, they’ll truly assist to enhance soil construction! So when you have inherited an allotment or a backyard with poor soil construction, whack in a couple of spuds. As they develop they assist to interrupt up the soil underneath the bottom and create a a lot better construction!

There are three classes of potato. Early, second early and most important crop. What does it imply??!

Early, Second early, Most important crop?!

Okay, it’s truly actually easy. Early potatoes imply they’re prepared the earliest. They take about 3 months to reap from planting to selecting. Second early potatoes take between 4 and 5 months, whereas most important crop will probably be prepared someplace between 5 to six months after planting.

Most important crop potatoes are inclined to retailer higher than early and second earlies, and so they are usually a bit greater too. Consider the early varieties as your salad potatoes and your most important crop as your massive roasting ones!

You can begin potatoes within the floor as quickly as the danger of frost has handed, which for me is typically in Late March. They hate the chilly however can tolerate a little bit of shade.

When to Plant Most important Crop Potatoes

Plant your most important crop in about April time. If it’s nonetheless a bit frosty, cowl with some fleece. They aren’t frost tolerant in any respect and can die if the frost will get to them.

Plant in a free draining mattress that has had a number of beautiful pure natural materials dug in or mulched over with. You possibly can even do them in pots or develop baggage, which makes life a bit simpler when harvesting as you’ll be able to merely tip them out. The method to rising them is just about the identical, however you’ll have the additional advantage of having the ability to transfer them about and even inside if the climate takes a flip!

To Chit or to not Chit?

Chitting is the method of encouraging your potatoes to start out rising earlier than planting them out. To do it, you place them on a window sill out of direct daylight and look ahead to the little chits to develop.

Nevertheless, it’s not completely mandatory to do that. I’ve grown potatoes that I’ve chitted and never bothered to chit and each appear to develop equally properly.

If you happen to do select to chit, it’s a good suggestion to cut back the variety of chits coming off them to at least one or two which are rising in the identical path earlier than planting out. Simply flick the off along with your hand. That may be sure they develop massive and robust and in a single path!

The way to Plant Most important Crop Potatoes

The very first thing to do is to make some trenches. Dig your trenches out with a shovel and pile the soil up alongside the aspect.

Plant your potatoes chits going through upwards, a couple of foot/foot and a half aside from one another.

Subsequent, cowl the potatoes with about half the soil piled up alongside the ditch. The remainder of the soil will probably be used for earthing them up in a while as soon as they’ve began rising.

As soon as your potatoes have began to develop a couple of inches tall (in a couple of months time), convey down the remaining soil and canopy the leaves once more. You are able to do this a few occasions as they proceed to develop over the subsequent few months.

The potatoes will probably be prepared to reap as soon as the leaves have all died again. Simply dig them up rigorously with a fork and revel in or retailer. You possibly can even harvest them as and once you want them, simply control that first frost date!!

Pests, Illness and Safety

The primary pest for potatoes is the Colorado potato beetle. It is a black and yellow striped bug that’s typically imported into the UK on sure potato varieties. It may be eliminated by hand or by overlaying potatoes with cloche.

The most important potato downside is late blight. It is a devastating illness that may simply wipe out your whole crop. I’ve had it a few occasions and it’s simply terrible. You possibly can defend towards this by mulching round your potatoes with straw, solely watering very first thing within the morning or selecting blight resistant varieties to develop.

As soon as blight will get maintain of your potatoes, they’re just about gone. I’ve tried spraying them with all types of concoctions, selecting off contaminated leaves, overlaying… nothing actually works I’m afraid. Greatest to tug them up and depend your losses.