Lesson 1: Preparing to Plant Potatoes

No Pain, No Gain
You have got such a treat in store when you harvest your first crop of home-grown potatoes. But, before you get to the yummy bit, you'll need to work up a sweat! Potatoes, like any root crop, find it difficult to grow in compacted, stony ground. Choose an open, well-drained, sunny spot and dig over the soil, breaking up clods of earth and removing stones. Work in plenty of compost and manure. Avoid excessively limey soil.

Pioneer Potatoes
Ideally, you should dig your potato patch in the winter, allowing it some time to settle before planting. But spuds are a pretty forgiving crop and you can do this job in the early spring if you have to. In fact, many gardeners use potatoes as a "pioneer" crop on new vegetable plots. Don't plant potatoes where they have been grown in the past three years. This encourages disease.

Head Start
There are three types of potato: early, 2nd early and maincrop. The easiest way to grow any variety is to buy seed potatoes especially raised for the purpose and certified free from disease. Earlies should be "chitted" before planting. Find a light, airy position indoors and place the tubers in a seed tray or old egg box with the sprouting ends uppermost, around six weeks before planting. The green sprouts that result give earlies a head start. Chitting is not normally necessary for 2nd early or maincrop potatoes.

Try These
There are hundreds of potato varieties. Experiment to see what works best for you. Earlies include "Pentland Javelin" and "Arran Pilot"; "Estima" and "Kestrel" are reliable 2nd earlies; try "Cara" and "Maxine" maincrops.