Sowing & Growing Potatoes
Potatoes are one of the most common vegetables to be found growing, and are one of the most valuable vegetables to have in the garden as they form part of most of our meals.
Seed potatoes are readily available at this time of year. Our Second Early potato seeds include British Queen which are a high yielding variety and produce a floury potato, and Catriona which produces a good crop with great flavour. The Main crop selection includes a blight resistant variety Sarpo Mira, Pink Fir Apple great for salads, King Edward high yielding crop and Kerrs Pink a high yielding traditional crop.
Potatoes prefer to grow in light sandy soils, if you have a heavy soil in your vegetable plot dig in plenty of coarse sand. Seed potatoes can be started indoors by encouraging them to produce sprouts from their eyes (depressions in the skin) also known as chitting. Ideally you need to cover in the potatoes in a shallow layer of compost or straw, with the eyes facing upwards, in an area with a lot of natural light to encourage short strong buds. This can take up to 4-6 weeks for planting out in April.
If you are only planning your potato crop now sow Seeds directly into the soil about 5 inches deep. As the seed potatoes will send shoots both down and upwards, you will need to encourage shoot growth above the tuber, as the longer the shoots the bigger the potato crop will be. You achieve this by earthing up the soil at either side of the rows, so that a mound of soil is heaped up around the shoots leaving only the green growing tips on show. This should be repeated regularly over a six week period. As your crop grows keep a watchful eye for any signs of blight and treat crop with a fungicide when necessary.
Harvest your potatoes when the leaves start to turn yellow don’t wait until the have died off completely. Turn the soil several of times with a fork and pick out your fresh potatoes and enjoy..
Claire Hayes, ManagerPowerscourt Garden Pavilion
Potatoes prefer to grow in light sandy soils, if you have a heavy soil in your vegetable plot dig in plenty of coarse sand. Seed potatoes can be started indoors by encouraging them to produce sprouts from their eyes (depressions in the skin) also known as chitting. Ideally you need to cover in the potatoes in a shallow layer of compost or straw, with the eyes facing upwards, in an area with a lot of natural light to encourage short strong buds. This can take up to 4-6 weeks for planting out in April.
If you are only planning your potato crop now sow Seeds directly into the soil about 5 inches deep. As the seed potatoes will send shoots both down and upwards, you will need to encourage shoot growth above the tuber, as the longer the shoots the bigger the potato crop will be. You achieve this by earthing up the soil at either side of the rows, so that a mound of soil is heaped up around the shoots leaving only the green growing tips on show. This should be repeated regularly over a six week period. As your crop grows keep a watchful eye for any signs of blight and treat crop with a fungicide when necessary.
Harvest your potatoes when the leaves start to turn yellow don’t wait until the have died off completely. Turn the soil several of times with a fork and pick out your fresh potatoes and enjoy..
Claire Hayes, Manager
Powerscourt Garden Pavilion 
