{"id":1214,"date":"2016-02-22T02:02:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T09:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2016-02-19T04:26:59","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T11:26:59","slug":"grow-early-potatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/grow-early-potatoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow Early New Potatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"potato by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/5612338693\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5069\/5612338693_84a0308b7a.jpg\" alt=\"potato\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Quick Tips on Growing Early Potatoes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Aim for crops of new potatoes to lift\u00c2\u00a0 in May-July from &#8216;first early&#8217; varieties Rocket, Arran Pilot, Duke of York, Pentland Javelin, Rocket, Winston and\/or Lady Christl. they will be ready in 10-12 weeks.<\/li>\n<li>Buy small tubers (size isn&#8217;t so important) of seed potato from your garden centre or mail order<\/li>\n<li>Encourage sprouting,\u00c2\u00a0 &#8216;chitting&#8217;, by placing the potatoes in a cool light place with the bud eyes facing upwards. For a small number you can stand them in old egg boxes. You are aiming to get short, strong shoots at the rose end. If there are too many shoots I rub off some of the surplus to channel energy.<\/li>\n<li>A bit of warmth or at least a sheltered spot will bring them on. Avoid frost and cold as they grow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plant out 3 inches deep in mid February- March into organically rich, fertilised soil about a foot apart.<\/li>\n<li>You may wish to try growing in a pot or special potato sack or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.garden4less.co.uk\/seed-potatoes.asp\">barrel<\/a> where you can add soil as the plant grows to save earthing up.<\/li>\n<li>Choose varieties that have a subtle flavour and a good waxy texture such as &#8216;Accent&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>For a floury potato try &#8216;Red Duke of York&#8217; or old varieties Pentland Javelin, Maris Bard or Arran Pilot<\/li>\n<li>Water little and often adding high potash feed.<\/li>\n<li>Cut off foliage and leave in the soil for a couple of weeks if you want skins to set<\/li>\n<li>Eat new potatoes as soon as they are picked and take care they do not go into the water.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Related<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=potatoes&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thompson-morgan.com%2Fpotatoes1%2Findex.html\">Buy Early Potatoes<\/a> at Thompson and Morgan<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/search?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=potatoes&amp;tag=richardpettin-21&amp;index=blended&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738\">Potatoes <\/a>at Amazon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Main crop spuds <strong>take 14 weeks or so to mature<\/strong>. Some varieties flower and that indicates they are ready to harvest.<br \/>\nSecond earlies give you a chance to spread the cropping period. I do not bother preferring a range of varieties that achieves the same end.<br \/>\nI like the salad varieties Ratte, Pink Fir Apple and Charlotte.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Potato Planter by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/5558286896\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5307\/5558286896_f60eb89165.jpg\" alt=\"Potato Planter\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quick Tips on Growing Early Potatoes Aim for crops of new potatoes to lift\u00c2\u00a0 in May-July from &#8216;first early&#8217; varieties Rocket, Arran Pilot, Duke of York, Pentland Javelin, Rocket, Winston and\/or Lady Christl. they will be ready in 10-12 weeks. Buy small tubers (size isn&#8217;t so important) of seed potato from your garden centre or mail order Encourage sprouting,\u00c2\u00a0 &#8216;chitting&#8217;, by placing the potatoes in a cool light place with the bud eyes facing upwards. For a small number you&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/grow-early-potatoes\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vegetables-herbs","category-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}