The Self-Sufficiency Handbook: Potatoes
Potatoes are arguably the most popular vegetable. They are relatively easy to grow and to store, they are nutritious (very high in vitamin C and potassium), they can be cooked in many different ways (roasted, mashed, chipped, baked in their skins, boiled, sliced and fried) and they are altogether tasty. Of course, fresh homegrown ‘spuds’ – new potatoes with mint sauce or old potatoes roasted – are many times tastier and more nutritious than shop-bought ones. In the UK and the USA the average adult eats about 130 lb of spuds a year. So a family of four would need 520 lb of potatoes. The good news is that most kids like potatoes. In the context of self-sufficiency, potatoes are an important food crop. The different varieties are grouped according to optimum planting time, so there are ‘first earlies,’ ‘second earlies’ and ‘maincrop’ potatoes.
Chitting is a method of forcing seed potatoes to sprout prior to planting out. In late winter, take your organically grown, disease-resistant seed potatoes and arrange them on end in shallow boxes so that the end showing the most ‘eyes’ – the ‘rose’ end – is uppermost. Store the boxes in a light, airy, frost-free room for about 5–6 weeks. When the potatoes show lots of shoots, rub the weak ones off to leave the strongest 2–3 sprouts per potato.
Dig a shallow trench, or make holes about 1 ft apart and about 2–3 in. deep. Set the chatted potatoes in place with the sprouts uppermost, and gently cover them with a ridge of soil to a depth of about 5–6 in.
When the foliage appears – called the haulm – take a hoe and gently draw the earth up around the plants until all but a few inches are covered. Repeat this ‘earthing up’ every few days or so during the growing season, until you finish up with a ridge about 1 ft high.
Chit the seed potatoes as already described. In mid-spring, nestle the chitted potatoes directly in place on prepared ground, and cover them with a low ridge or mound of earth. Cover the ridge with black plastic sheeting and secure it by burying the edges in the ground. As soon as you see evidence of the potatoes pushing up under the plastic, take a sharp knife and very carefully cut a cross through the plastic so as to reveal the shoots.
Earlies In early to mid-spring or mid to late summer, depending on the variety, wait until the flowers are fully open, and then use a fork to gently lift and ease the potatoes from the ground.
Maincrop In early to mid-autumn, wait until the tops have completely died down and fork them up as already described. With the no-dig system, you can simply roll back the plastic sheet and take potatoes as and when needed.
Potatoes can be stored in a clamp – that is piled up in a dry corner of the garden and then covered with straw and buried – or they can be put in sack and stored away in the dark in a dry frost free shed.
Potato blight Brown, rust-like patches appear on the leaves; also sometimes white mould on the underside. There is not much you can really do about this disease, other than to burn the plants, grow on another plot the next time around, and use a disease-resistant variety.
Slugs Large, soggy, gray holes run through the potatoes, and there is plenty of slime, at its worst in late summer. Avoid growing potatoes in wet soil and to avoid digging in too much manure – there is nothing slugs love more than a low-lying, boggy area with lots of wet manure.
Cyst eelwormsBrown, withered leaves and colonies of minute, ball-like cysts on the roots. Avoid growing potatoes on the same plot, only use resistant varieties, and encourage natural predators by following the no-dig system.