new potatoes
A spell of mild, sunny weather has warmed the mid-March soil. Compost has been spaded onto the ground to be incorporated by worms.......... We are ready to plant our first early potatoes.
We have tried many different varieties of potato and have settled on Kestrel or Osprey as our favourite second early and Pink Fir Apple as our favourite (if wayward) maincrop salad potato.
This year we are trying Sharpes Express as our first early. Other varieties of first early have just not achieved that happy combination of flavour and texture we are looking for. So Sharpes Express, a good old variety, has been recommended and will be tried this year.
To get get a good early crop we have covered the ground with fleece. This should keep the soil warm and prevent frost damage when the foliage comes through.
2 comments:
I've got my seed potatoes ready to be chitted, but here, they all need to be early varieties, since we've got warm weather coming early. It sounds like you've got a great system going.
Lisa
Early and second early potatoes work best in our allotment (community garden) system because there is a greater problem with potato blight with us all growing potatoes.
Earlies miss blight and it is only in bad years that we suffer significant loss with second earlies.
Maincrop and second cropping potatoes are most prone to blight for us.
Good luck!!
Cheers
Rob
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