Sunday 29 March 2009

Potatoes are in!

I didn't have as much success with the chitting as I did last year, for a start the bookshelf had more books on it so there was less room for potatoes, the addition of a dehumdifier seems to have left the potatoes a little wrinkly. Still I am thinking positive so lots of digging later and the area which was a nettle patch just 4 weeks ago has been turned into a potato bed. The potatoes should also help to prevent the return of the weeds.

This year I am growing lots of Charlotte, these did very well last year and kept us well supplied with lovely new potatoes. Being a salad potato and therefore a potatoe which holds together well when cooked I found Charlotte to be very useful for putting in Spanish Omlettes as well as for potato salads.

I am also growing Rooster and King Edward as my maincrops. Rooster is a red skinned variety which is very popular in Ireland, the Potato council rate it as a 6/10 for flouryness so it should be good for mashing. King Edward is also rated as a 6 but it is more suited for roasting. Both are good for chips.

Hopefully I will also have some volunteer Arran Victory potatoes overlooked in last years potatoe bed. If I do then these should crop much earlier than a normal maincrop, they might even miss any blight.

4 comments:

vegmonkey said...

Looks fab, we've also put King Edwards in...you really can't go wrong with them. My plan is that the earlies will be eaten in time for the maincrops to be ready and so on. Chances are though that the maincrops will probably not be ready in time. We'll see. Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Looking good!! Mine haven't chitted that well either this year - last year I couldn't stop them and they were nearly full blown plants before I planted them! This year, they're pitiful! I've only got Pentland javelin as earlies, not got mains yet - oh no!

Simon said...

No room on the bookcase! That made me chuckle. Good luck with your spuds.

Liz said...

I'm not growing spuds this year - can't seem to avoid blight at my allotment. I hope you have more success than I do!