Maincrop potatoes

Season

Winter

Name

Maincrop potatoes

Common Name

Potatoes

Description

You can't beat the taste of freshly dug, home-grown potatoes, and they're hugely versatile too – boiled, mashed, chipped or baked.

Growing Tips

You will need:

• Chitted maincrop potatoes
• Gardening gloves
• Fork
• Spade / dibber
• Rake

What to do:

1. Make sure the area is weed free by weeding with a trowel or fork.
2. You can either plant the chitted potatoes in a drill or in individual holes 7–15 cm deep. The tubers need to be placed 38cm apart, place them with the sprouts pointing towards the sky.
3. Potatoes need a lot of room between the rows; make sure you leave 75cm between each row.
4. Draw soil up around the emerging leaves and stem using a rake in stages from when the leaves appear. This helps to suppress weeds and stops the potatoes turning green in the light, green potatoes are poisonous to eat. Draw the soil over the leaves if there is a risk of frost damage.
5. In September (or earlier if the leaves are diseased), cut the stems of each plant to about 5cm above the ground level and leave for another two weeks before lifting the potatoes. This allows the skins to harden. When lifted, leave the potatoes to dry for two hours on the soil on a dry day and store them in paper sacks in a cool, dark and frost-free place until you need to use them.