Potatoes

These potatoes were left in the vegetable drawer too long and they started without me.

No good for eating any more, as sprouted potatoes may contain toxins, but they're already proving their potential to grow.

There's not too much progress to report on just yet - in early March, it's still quite chilly out - I'm going to wait a little while longer, in case we get a late frost.

Meanwhile, I've put the potatoes in an old egg carton to stop them rolling around and getting their shoots damaged, and I've left them in an airy spot in the garage, which is cool, but frost-free.

The shoots on my seed potatoes had grown more robust and had darkened in exposure to light.

The danger of hard frosts should be gone now, so it's time to plant them.

I dug over the soil lightly and made a trench about 8 inches deep with a flat bottom.

I placed the seed potatoes in the bottom, shoots pointing upward, about 10 inches apart, then I covered them over carefully with the soil.

I'll protect the patch with agricultural fleece until the first shoots break the surface.

17 April 2010 - the shoots are beginning to break the soil surface now.

I'm keeping the fleece on for another week or so, just until the weather warms some more.

24 April 2010 -Looking pretty good - nice sturdy-looking little plants.

The fleece is coming off now - this allow more light to the leaves to help them grow faster and stronger.

30 April 2010 - Remarkably sturdy and lush growth now, thanks to a combination of gentle rains and bright, warm spells.

It was a bit windy today and the plants were starting to look battered, so I added a mesh windbreak - it's surprising how much it improves the shelter.

Further along the patch, to the back of the garlic, a potato plant has emerged all on its own - it must have grown from a piece of potato in the compost bin, or maybe it was just a missed one from last year's crop.

I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so this plant will be allowed to grow to maturity - meaning even more potatoes for me.

08 May 2010 - the plants have made good growth and I'll need to start earthing up the stems now.

I'm not sure if earthing up really does make a difference to the size of the crop, but it will help to keep the plants from blowing over.

More volunteer potatoes are appearing all over the place now - unless they're actually in the way of anything, I'm going to leave them and enjoy the bonus harvest.

29 May 2010 - the plants have now started producing flowers.

I always think potato flowers are a bit out of character with the rest of the plant - chunky, starchy tubers, robust coarse leaves and stems - beautiful, delicate little flowers.

20 June 2010 - the potato plants in the main area (that is, the ones I planted purposely) have begun to yellow and wither - that means it's time to harvest them.

I carefully unearthed them with a fork - they say that potatoes are good for breaking up the soil on a new vegetable plot, but really, it's the gardener that breaks up the soil in digging them up.

They look good, but there aren't as many of them as I might have hoped for.

The potatoes are just beautiful - the soil washes off them without any scrubbing, leaving pale, creamy white skins - almost flawless.

This is the crop from four or five plants - not bad, I suppose - they've multiplied about four times in comparison to the amount planted.