They're easy to grow, and if you plant them early, you'll be eating new potatoes by midsummer, writes Jane Powers
If you have a spare patch of garden that you can't make up your mind about, then plant potatoes while you are thinking it over. Choose a "first early" or "second early" crop, and you'll be harvesting your own new potatoes by midsummer. At that point, there will still be plenty of time to turn the space over to whatever scheme you may have hatched while your spuds have been growing. Or, you could use it to plant a whole rake of other, later vegetables: beans and peas, courgettes and pumpkins, leeks, brassicas, and all manner of salad crops.
You can give early potatoes a head start by "chitting" or sprouting them in a cool, frost-free place - a porch, or unheated spare bedroom is ideal. Nestle them into old egg boxes, or a seed tray, with their "eyes" pointing upwards. It may come as a surprise to find that potatoes have a top and a bottom, but indeed they do. The top is the part with the most eyes, and is known as the "rose" end. When the shoots are two to four centimetres long, which usually takes about four to six weeks, the potatoes are ready for planting.
We'll get to the planting in a minute. But first, a few words on potatoes in general. The simple spud is a crop that comes with a lot of complicated baggage: there are numerous varieties (from Accent to Zov), classifications (first earlies to late maincrops), rules (too many to mention), diseases (ditto), and a whole host of myths, traditions and opinions. And of course, there is the deep and awful association with the Famine. Despite all of this weighty stuff, if you just plonk any old potato into a hole in the ground, it will most likely make more potatoes.
Potatoes, in other words, just want to grow - a fact that is borne out every time you throw a shrivelled one in the compost heap and it produces pale, snaky shoots, or leave one in the soil after harvest and it thrusts out a hairy muzzle of purply-green leaves in spring.
Potatoes are classified into early and maincrop groups. Earlies mature more quickly (about 10 to 15 weeks from planting to harvest), while maincrops take longer (15 to 22 weeks). First earlies are ready the soonest, while late maincrops come along much later. It is traditional to plant earlies early in the season and maincrops later, but you can usually plant any potato at any time between mid-March and mid-May, as long as it doesn't get caught by frost at either end of its growing season. It makes sense, however, to plant earlies first so that you can be eating toothsome new potatoes as soon as possible, and making room for other crops in the garden. Furthermore, some early kinds (including Duke of York, Rocket and Home Guard) are not very blight resistant, so it's safer to get them out of the ground before the warmer days of summer - when the spores of the dreaded disease are out and about.
Speaking of blight - the fungus Phytophthora infestans - there are now a couple of almost blight-proof maincrop potatoes, Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona. These are the fruits of a decades-long breeding programme that has been carried out in Hungary by the Sarvari family. The variety name, Sarpo, is a contraction of "Sarvari" and "potato". Both are red-skinned tubers, and have high "dry matter" (meaning they are floury spuds, the kind beloved of the Irish), and are also reputed to be resistant to slugs, wireworms and viruses. Such formidable armour makes these potatoes ideal for organic growers, as they require no spraying with fungicides or pesticides. Expect to see more über spuds from the Sarvari stable in the future.
Potatoes can be martyrs to hordes of pests and hosts of diseases: slugs, wireworm, eelworm, rot, spraing, scab, gangrene, wilt, mould and, of course, blight. Equally, they can survive all of the above, just because they have a will to grow. But your chances of raising a successful crop are increased if you have good stock and are careful about growing conditions and timing. The first defence is to buy certified seed potatoes, rather than planting leftovers from the bottom of the vegetable store in the kitchen. The latter may give you no problems at all, growing and multiplying like rabbits, but they might also carry viruses, or may have been sprayed with a substance to inhibit shoots forming. In short, you're taking a bit of a gamble. Because potatoes can carry such a large load of pathogens and pests, it's important not to grow them on the same patch of soil each year. Practice a four-year rotation if possible, and remember, they are the same family (Solanaceae) as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, so are vulnerable to some of the same diseases.
So, let's plant them. Well-organised gardeners may have prepared their soil last autumn. But never mind if you didn't. Potatoes are perfectly capable of growing through a layer of organic matter (well-rotted manure, garden compost, seaweed) and feeding themselves that way. Everyone's potato-growing method is a little different from everyone else's, but here's the one that works for me - on very dry soil, with not a lot of rainfall. Dig a trench about 15-20cm deep. Lay the chitted potatoes along it (30cm apart for earlies, 40cm for maincrop - although, to be honest, I don't bother with the later potatoes). Cover them with a little soil, then a layer of organic matter, water really well, and then add another layer of soil (to keep the organic matter damp and more active). As the shoots appear, earth them up to encourage more tubers to form. Eventually your trench grows into a ridge.
If all of that seems too much work, then just dig a hole and throw a potato in it. Either way, chances are that within three months you'll be harvesting your own spuds.
SPUDS YOU LIKE
Where can I buy seed potatoes?Seed potatoes are available from all garden centres. Mail order from Mr Middleton, 58 Mary Street, Dublin 1; 01-8731118; www.mrmiddleton.com(27 varieties in three kilo bags, including five organic selections); and from Fruit Hill Farm, Bantry, Co Cork; 027-50710; www.fruithillfarm.com(all organic potatoes: 12 varieties available in 2.5 kilo or larger quantities, and a further dozen available only in large 25 kilo bags.)
Potato outing:The annual Potato Day will take place at the Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim on Sunday, March 18th (11am-5pm). There will be organic seed potatoes for sale, advice for growers, and potato dishes galore in the Grass Roof Cafe. There will also be a demonstration of "coping" - turning sods to make a lazy bed; and Mayo potato expert Dave Langford will present an exhibit of more than 150 potato varieties. Admission is €5. www.theorganiccentre.ie; 071-9854338.