Information, Articles And Tips
Articles and Information
How to grow potatoes in a potato barrel, bag or container
Potato varieties - which to choose
Growing without planters - ten tips
Top Potato Recipes by Variety
Top Tips - In No Particular Order
1) If you have a comfrey patch cut of some leaves and let them wilt for a day and then just place them on the bottom of your trench, covering with a little soil. Comfrey will quickly rot down to provide fertiliser and it is almost perfect for potatoes (and tomatoes).
2) Make sure that none of the tubers are exposed to light as this can turn them green, poisonous and inedible, so every time new leaves poke up through the top of the soil you bury them a little further, encouraging the plants to put out new roots on the ends of which you’ll get more potatoes.
3) Handle your seed potatoes carefully when planting. A little care when planting and making sure the shoots are pointing upwards will pay dividends later.
4) On cold nights when frost threatens cover over with some fleece.
5) Bright and moist. Potatoes love the sun and like lot’s to drink. Never let the compost dry out – but don’t waterlog them either.
6) Potatoes are usually planted out in early to mid March onwards. But If you have a cool greenhouse get a jump on your neighbours and start them off under glass in February.
7) Plant in 4-6 week intervals to spread your harvest.
Did you know?
1) One average potato contains approximately one third of your daily vitamin C need.
2) Potatoes are 80% water.
3) Astronaut spuds! Potatoes were the first Vegetables to be grown in space (well as far as we know!) in 1995 on the American space shuttle Columbia.
4) The world’s largest potato weighed in at 18 pounds, 4 ounces or 8kg (Guinness Book of World Records). That’s enough for 73 portions of medium fries @ Macdonald’s!
5) They are an ‘immigrant’ vegetable – first grown in the Andes mountains centuries before Europeans ever set foot in the new world. The Inca people of Peru were growing them as far back as 200 BC. They were was brought over to Europe in the 16th century by Spanish explorers (and not Sir Walter Raleigh as widely believed).
6) The humble potato is a vital crop to help feed the world. It is the most important non-cereal crop in the world, and fourth most important crop overall. Only corn (maize),wheat and rice are more important.
7) The average Brit consumes some 228 lbs (103 kg) of potatoes per year. That’s about 500 medium sized spuds.
8) During the Second World War in the UK fish and chips were one of the few foods not to be rationed.
9) Their botanical or ‘Latin’ name is Solanum tuberosum.
10) Crisps were an accident. In 1853 railway magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt sent his potatoes back at a posh restaurant in Saratoga Springs, USA. The fact that he'd rejected them for being too thick enraged the chef, George Crum who responded by slicing them incredibly thin, frying them in hot oil and throwing salt all over them before sending them back. To everyone's amazement, Cornelius Vanderbilt absolutely loved his "Saratoga Crunch Chips" and potato crisps have been a big hit ever since.