Garden Guide With James Kilkelly

Popping in the pops I HAD a great reaction to last weekâ€â„¢s column dealing with Michael McKillop (owner of Glens of Antrim Potatoes) and his mission to revive the Lumper variety. This was the potato that the poor were growing when the Irish potato famine struck. Glens of Antrim Potatoes are selling these reintroductions as eating potatoes, but I signed off last weekâ€â„¢s piece by suggesting that you could possibly pop a few egg-sized specimens into your own vegetable patch and grow them on. I received a few emails asking me how to go about this, so I thought Iâ€â„¢d oblige right here. The basic rules are the same for all potatoes. First off, select a sowing location that, ideally, is a sunny area of fertile and well-drained soil. Ideally also this area would have been forked over the previous winter, with lots of well-rotted compost/farmyard manure dug in at that time. This is preferable, but not essential, so donâ€â„¢t let it call a halt to your gallop at this stage. Materials and methods Next up, the materials. Ideally source certified seed potatoes, purchased from a local farmer, garden centre or online, as these will give you the best chance of growing a good crop. As mentioned, you can of course use shop-bought eating potatoes (like Lumpers) or potatoes you saved from last year. You will also need a few humble garden tools (a spade, hoe, garden fork) and should you be sowing 10kg or more of seed, youâ€â„¢ll also need a strong back. Get stuck in and loosen your soil by digging it over with a garden fork, removing any weeds and other debris as you go. Follow this by digging your planting trenches to six inches (15cm) wide and six inches deep, and the individual trenches can be spaced about three feet apart. Into the base of the trench, you should add some fertiliser to aid the growth of your new potato plants, as they are very hungry feeders. You can add a light shake of artificial potato fertiliser such as 7:6:17 or some shovels of well-rotted compost/farmyard manure. To prevent burning of the new plants and an increased chance of potato scab, both these additions should be covered with an inch or two of soil before the seed potatoes go in. Press the seed potatoes lightly into the trench at about 12-inch (30cm) spacings. Ensure that the eyes of the potato are facing up because it is from these small depressions found on each potato that the buds will sprout, if they have not already. Return the dug soil into the trench without disturbing the seed potatoes too much. Mark the exact location of your rows if you wish, with sticks driven into the soil at either end. Now, your crop of potatoes forms in the soil area between the crust of the soil and the actual seed potato you have sown. Because of this, your potato rows will require earthing up during the growing season, also known as hilling or mounding. This gives the potatoes a larger area of soil to grow in and prevents some of your crop appearing over the soil to become greened by the sun, ending up in a state where they become poisonous. Earthing up is simple enough. Look out for when the potato stems and leaves are about eight inches high, then you can get between the rows and break up the soil with a garden fork, removing any weeds as you go. Using a spade or a hoe, hill this loose soil up in a tent shape around the plants to a height of about six inches. Harvesting of your potatoes usually takes place sometime between June and September. The time to harvest early potatoes is just after they finish flowering (before the flower becomes a green fruit), whereas the main crop varieties are best tackled after the leaves turn yellow. Cut away these yellow stalks and wait for about two weeks before using a garden fork to gently loosen the potatoes from the ground. I will deliver another piece on the harvesting proper when it gets closer to the time, so keep reading. Until next week, happy gardening and remember that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.