the Simple Spud........

By Plot58 @plot58
The other day the wife and I were looking for bargains at our local garden centre, but what made me start thinking was in the entrance were LOADS of potato seeds, is that time already I asked myself, last year was a bit of a rush for me as we didn’t get the plot till late in the year, May in fact so we didn’t really think about potatoes until late spring.
So this year I want to be ready as they make up a good bulk of your allotment also are great for braking up the soil.
I only grew 3 varieties last year all main crops: ·   Sante
·   Maris piper
·   King Edwards
We didn’t really chit them and just put them in and hoped. To my surprise we had a really good crop of potatoes the Sante I was practically surprised with as they were very prolific and tasted great. this was last years Sante Crop from 2 rows 2m long about 30KG! So this year I wanted to give them a bit of attention so started thinking and actually didn’t really know much about “chitting” and why it’s done so I consulted my friends at Uk Veg Gardeners and I was directed to a company called JBA seed potatoes the site was AMASING the chef in me was getting excited about all the old heritage variety’s and the gardener in me was just plain getting carried away!. I started making a list which when I finished consisted of 19 different varieties, hhmmmmm………. Needed to narrow it down a little so goggled them all to find what was good and what needed more TLC than others and managed to narrow it down to 9 they are:
·   Winston First early
·   Ulster Classic First early
·   Dr McIntosh Second early
·   Doon Pearl Second early
·   Maxine Main Crop
·   Majestic Main Crop
·   Sante Main Crop
·   Ryecroft Purple Main Crop
I got 10 tubers of each the plan is to grow 1 row of each and see what does well and what needs changing for 2013. Putting my chef hat on some of these are old varieties need to be brought into the main stream to keep some of our heritage from vanishing all together. And by purchasing some I hope to play my part in it and I will be singing from the rooftops to all my friends and family and fellow Allotmenters about how great they are. So the date set in the Calendar is Wednesday 25th January that’s the delivery date! I have started collecting Egg trays from work in readiness!