Potatoes! Potatoes! Potatoes!
The facebook groups are full of people asking what they can sow or plant now and the answer to that question has a lot of variables in it. But one thing you can start planting – or getting ready to plant – now is potatoes. Late winter, early spring is a good time to have your seed potatoes sitting in a tray, an egg carton, on a tray lined with straw – in a warm spot to allow the eyes to sprout. Do this while you prepare your bed.
Everyone should have a row of spuds somewhere in their garden – especially if you are starting out. There is nothing nicer than harvesting and eating a plate of delicious new potatoes – and why not start your own tradition of producing the spuds for Christmas dinner?
I usually have a whole separate bed for potatoes but have started to put in at least a row into my raised bed – especially for the Christmas dinner crop. I do find the raised beds produce a nice clean crop of potatoes that are easy to dig out. You just have to make sure that when you harvest them, that you remove every little tuber – otherwise you end up with spuds sprouting for years afterwards
Preparing the ground.
Potatoes are gross feeders and prefer a slightly more acid soil so don’t add lime. As this is a root crop, you don’t want too much nitrogen either to avoid too much green growth at the expense of producing your spuds. Add well-rotted compost. If you use animal manures, make sure they are also well rotted as you will get scabby potatoes if the manure is too fresh. In New Zealand we can buy sheep pellets so that’s a good option. I mix in some blood and bone as well. There are specific potato fertilisers you can use so if you’re not sure, then use them.
Planting Methods
Traditional Inground Method
If you are planting straight into the soil, then space your holes about 30cm apart and your rows about 60 cms apart. Bury them about 10cm deep, then mound up the whole row so you can see where they are planted. You can keep mounding up as they sprout to keep the tubers protected from the light and to allow more delicious little tubers to grow. Protect the young shoots from frost by using frost cloth.
Tyre Method
If you don’t have a lot of space you can try planting into tyres. Not everyone has spare tyres lying around but a few kiwi backyards do! Place one tyre on an area where there is bare soil and plenty of light. I suggest that you avoid late afternoon sun as you don’t want to precook your potatoes. It can even be on the edge of the lawn. Add some good soil mixed with compost or potting mix and then plant 3-4 seed potatoes in that layer, making sure they are well covered from the light. Water and leave until sprouted. Once they have produces leaves, then add the next tyre, fill with soil and carefully press down around the leaves. Aim to leave some green showing. Then repeat another couple of times depending on how many tyres you have. When the time comes to harvest, then lift off one tyre at a time and harvest as you go!
Straw Bed Method
For those of you have accidentally grown a great crop of potatoes next to the compost bin or where you have chucked out old potato peelings, you will appreciate this method. It works well too if you are creating a raised bed from your lawn or paddock as it’s a good way of breaking up the ground. Mow the strip of land you want to use cutting the grass back as low as you can go. Place your potatoes on the ground, 30 cms apart, then cover with a good heap of stray or even a bale of hay. This is a form of no-dig gardening. If you happen to be doing this in a paddock, with some strong paddock grasses like couch, or heaven-forbid – kikuyu (my sisters’ north -Auckland gardens) – then an extra layer of cardboard under the straw would help. The potatoes would still be planted on the soil though.
So hopefully that will get you started for the season. I”ll talk a little more about what you can sow or plant in early spring in my next post but in the meantime, get some potatoes in the ground and you will thank yourself when you are eating salads over summer.
