If you love chips then this is supposed to be one of the very best chipping potatoes!

Potato ‘Yukon Gold’ – 20 tubers £4.99
Second early. ‘Potato ‘Yukon Gold’ could win you over on appearance alone. ‘ This attractive variety produces oval tubers with gorgeous golden skins with buttery yellow flesh of a delicious, rich flavour. ‘ This second early variety is superb baked, roasted or fried. ‘ Height and spread: 60cm (24"). ‘

The telegraph says so in their article about picking the right seed potatoes

“If you want the best chips, then ‘Yukon Gold’ is the one to choose. Great boiled and baked too, its buttery, bold yellow flesh takes to deep frying like no other. They are usually ready to harvest in early summer, almost always dodging the arrival of blight.”

Lots of other potato info in the article!

Seed Potatoes – Accord 1kg (First Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Vivaldi 1kg (Second Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Valor 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Anya 1kg (Salad) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Rooster 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Rocket 1kg (First Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Bonnie 1kg (Second Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Red Duke of York 1kg (First Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Cara 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Purple Majesty 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Casablanca 1kg (First Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Pentland Javelin 1kg (First Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Charlotte 1kg (Salad) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Osprey 1kg (Second Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Desiree 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Maris Piper 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Foremost 1kg (First Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Maris Peer 1kg (Second Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – International Kidney 1kg (Salad) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – King Edward 1kg (Maincrop) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Kestrel 1kg (Second Early) £4.99

Seed Potatoes – Kestrel 3kg (Second Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – International Kidney 3kg (Salad) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – King Edward 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Foremost 3kg (First Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Maris Peer 3kg (Second Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Desiree 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Maris Piper 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Charlotte 3kg (Salad) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Osprey 3kg (Second Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Casablanca 3kg (First Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Pentland Javelin 3kg (First Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Cara 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Purple Majesty 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Bonnie 3kg (Second Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Red Duke of York 3kg (First Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Vivaldi 3kg (Second Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Rocket 3kg (First Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Anya 3kg (Salad) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Rooster 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Accord 3kg (First Early) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Valor 3kg (Maincrop) £8.49

Seed Potatoes – Beginner’s Collection £12.99

Seed Potatoes – All Season Collection £15.99

It’s often said that planting potatoes will clear new ground.
This isn’t the case. It’s the person who digs the ground and then weeds it, earths up the potatoes and removes more weeds who clears the ground.
By applying well rotted muck to newly cultivated soil and then weeding it and having a healthy canopy of leaves across the soil to discourage weeds can help – but it’s not the no effort method you’d expect.

I have seen potatoes planted in a much easier way: weedkill the area you want to use. Allow the weedkiller time to work. Repeat if it is persistant weeds there – and then put potatoes on the top of the soil. Apply copious amounts of well rotted muck on top. Apply straw as the potatoes grow. Harvest the spuds when the foliage dies back.
Result is a potato crop, without digging and clear soil that’s got plenty of organic matter on top and the worm population should be in good spirits!

If you’d like to learn more about no dig gardening then this book is probably the best one to read: Organic Gardening: The Natural No-dig Way
– Charles Dowding grows organicly using a no dig method.
Respect and encourage life as much as your can, chiefly by spreading good compost or manure.
There is no need to dig in compost and manure – just spread it on top and let worms take it in. Digging can harm soil structure, and is not helpful to plants.
You can reduce weeding to a little hand-weeding or hoeing every ten days.

I’ve mentioned on a forum that slugs have been eating my potato tops. Someone said they didn’t think slugs did this! Well take it from me they do!

In fact don’t just take my word for it, but look at the photos I’ve taken.

interestingly they’re on the maris piper potatoes most. I’ve got two lots of Maris Pipers and the second lot I put in are worst affected. There are also some first earlies affected – Sharps express.
I’ve never been troubled by slugs eating potato tops before – although it might be that I’ve just never picked a variety they found so delicious! It’s interesting to see how they can devastate plants – when a few yards away courgettes are sat there untouched!

I should go and save the plants and sprinkle some pellets round but it’s absolutely peeing it down right now!

The white one looks like Deroceras agreste,the orange Arion subfuscus says Dr Noble who very kindly offered to look at photos of the slugs on my allotment.

Got to be closer to actually digging some up.


Whilst you can count in weeks you’re best waiting until they have flowered and the flowers are starting to finish.
You can always have a test scrape around carefully with your fingers and see what you can find. If you only find tiny ones then leave them a bit longer.

Generally main crop spuds are ready in August or September.

Remember that 2012 has been a strange year weatherwise (And we’re only at July) so things aren’t going quite as they would do normally. Be patient.

First earlies can be ready in 12-13 weeks – they are meant to be quite small.

Pick your potatoes just before you want to eat them – vital for getting the best flavour from first earlies – or new potatoes as they are known!

If you get a poor crop then you can blame it on several things. There are several pests that attack potatoes – slugs will eat tubers. This year we have had lots of potato foliage eaten – we think by slugs as we have seen slugs on plants.

Putting a fork through a spud when you are digging them up is annoying.

When harvesting main crop pick a nice day and leave them to dry in the sun. This hardens the skins a bit and makes them store better.

Storing – empty out periodically and remove any soft or manky ones.

The potato council has a page showing incidents of potato blight

The page has a map as well as info on the level and postcode.

Using potatoes with a grass mulch – this is the first year I’ve done this. I started on the last section of my allotment to be dug over. I got some top soil to help me – it was being thrown out of a garden so I asked if I could have it. This top soil was put on top of the bed I’d dug over. There’s a lot of couch grass on my plot so I know this is a problem that I will have to work on. Hopefully having potatoes on and earthing them up and mulching will really help though.
This section has grass mulch on. I’ve got another section with straw mulch, muck and a layer of hops. It’s not a very scientific test – and they’ve been applied at different times – and only some parts of the bed had extra top soil. The areas with the extra top soil are doing best though!

The grass mulch is being nibbled away by worms and breaking down which means it should be enriching the soil as well as helping to stop weeds. You can keep topping up the mulch with a thin layer of grass clippings each time you mow your lawn.

It really is time to think about planting potatoes – here are some at T&M incase you need some ordering.

Lots of potato collections at Thompson & Morgan

You don’t need to chit potatoes – some people believe you get better results if you do though. North facing window best.

Gourmet Potato Collection and Planters – 15 tubers – 5 of each variety £7.99
 Customer RatingIntroduced exclusively by Thompson & Morgan- Best In Class – for gourmet potatoes- Bumper crops of evenly-sized attractive potatoes- Growing mouth-watering potatoes couldn’t be easierSecond early, early maincrop.Colin Randel, Chairman of the RHS Vegetable Trials Committee has tried and tested hundreds of potatoes over the years. With his specialist knowledge he has picked three tasty potato varieties as his top rated for flavour. Our wicker-effect planters make an attractive and convenient way to grow the best potatoes that you have ever tasted. Height and spread: 60cm (24″).Collection comprises: Potato ‘Blue Belle’ – Early maincrop. Increasing in popularity for the home grower, this versatile and attractive looking potato produces good yields that are suitable for a wide range of culinary uses.Potato ‘Inca Bella’ – Second early/ early maincrop. From ‘Mayan Gold’ parentage, with a pink-blushed cream coloured skin and golden coloured flesh. The distinctive nutty flavour makes this variety a superb salad potato, or harvest later as an early maincrop if larger tubers are required. Cooks approximately 30% quicker than your usual potato.Potato ‘Piccolo Star’ – Second early. Very high numbers of mouthwatering, oval baby new potatoes, with a firm waxy texture and bright, creamy skin and flesh. Absolutely superb as a boiled ‘new potato’ or left to cool as a salad potato.Useful links:How to grow potatoes in the ground Potato Selector GuideHow to grow potatoes in bags     How to stop blight

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The Potato Council website has a database of all potato varieties.

Growing potatoes in different ways

Container potatoes – lots of bags available, or solid built containers,
or even old tyres.
Top up soil or compost as the leaves grow. Water regularly and heavily.

Earth up – requires dug beds in ground. Earth soil up around stems as
they grow to protect them from the frost and ensure the potatoes don’t
get light on them and turn them green. Put on as much muck as you can.

Mulch method – don’t dig the bed, but put mulch layer of newspaper
down first. Put potatoes on and cover up with compost or soil. Cover with more
soil or manure as they grow.
Some people like to put the potato in the ground a few inches and then heap
materials on top. Straw can be used as a mulch but will maybe require more watering
than you’d like.

Potatoes are often seen as a good first crop on new land. They don’t
have magic powers about clearing weeds but the traditional earthing up process
helps eliminate many weeds. The addition of lots of manure also helps break
down the soil. I have found that growing potatoes in this way can transform
soil but it is still hard work!