Develop Your Private New Potatoes for Christmas

It might seem uncommon to start out out talking about Christmas in July. Nonetheless summer season inside the Northern Hemisphere is when gardeners wish to begin out critical in regards to the colder months to come back again.

This month or subsequent, it is doable you may be sowing a wide range of leafy greens and additional to see you through winter and into spring. And that’s moreover the time to plant some potatoes in pots in order to have the benefit of some new potatoes over the festive season.

The place to Develop New Potatoes for Winter

To have the ability to develop potatoes to reap at Christmas time, you may seemingly need an undercover rising house in most temperate climates. If in case you will have a greenhouse or polytunnel, it’s best to be succesful to develop new potatoes in containers as long as you make it possible for these keep frost-free until you harvest them in December.

Container rising is normally most interesting besides your house is frost-free in winter. Since containers can merely be positioned and moved undercover when the first frosts arrive.

I exploit huge reclaimed buckets by which to develop my Christmas cropping potatoes, though it’s possible you’ll use a wide range of containers, along with huge pots, barrels, sacks, or develop baggage of some kind.

When deciding how huge containers must be, a tricky rule is that you want 10 liters 9roughly 2.5 gallons) of home for each potato tuber you plant. So in a 50-liter (10-gallon) container, you can plant 5 seed potatoes.

To fill your containers, any peat-free potting mix is perhaps constructive.

I exploit a hand-crafted combination of:

• 1/3 loamy soil
• 1/3 hand-crafted compost
• 1/3 leaf mildew

Which Potatoes to Develop

Any first early or second early potatoes (first and second earlies seek the advice of with potatoes that are harvested early inside the season) are good for rising to eat as new potatoes. I similar to the varieties Maris Peer and Charlotte personally, though there are many that you just might try.

When to Plant Potatoes for a Trip Harvest

New potatoes—first earlies or second earlies—are usually planted in spring and harvested in June or July. Nonetheless as long as you can keep them frost-free, you can plant potatoes in summer season for a harvest throughout the festive interval in mid-winter.

I uncover that the place I dwell in Scotland, the easiest time to plant potatoes for Christmas is in late July in my polytunnel. People who dwell farther south or in hotter areas sometimes uncover an August planting time is most interesting.

When precisely it’s best to plant your potatoes will rely on the place you reside and the date of your first frost.

One of the best ways to Plant Potato Tubers

To plant your potatoes, first, fill the container to a depth of spherical 15 centimeters (6 inches) with the rising medium. I moreover like in order so as to add a layer of comfrey leaves onto which I set the potato tubers, with their shoots/eyes upwards. Cowl the tubers with one different 15 centimeters or so of your rising medium.

A great deal of home should nonetheless be inside the container in order to “earth up” your potatoes as a result of the vegetation develop.

Caring for Christmas Potatoes

Potatoes are sometimes easy to develop, nonetheless it will be finest to look at these pointers to verify success.

1. As a result of the vegetation develop, they have to be earthed up a couple of cases, merely as you may when rising potatoes inside the flooring. To do this, merely mound up the soil throughout the stem.
2. Water persistently, significantly all through dry spells, remembering that vegetation in pots need further frequent watering than these rising inside the flooring.
3. To supply vegetation a elevate, it is also doable to take into consideration feeding with an pure liquid plant feed 2-3 cases over late summer season and early autumn. I prefer to make use of compost tea or a seaweed liquid feed for the goal.
4. Throughout the late autumn, take away ineffective foliage after the vegetation die once more. Nonetheless go away tubers inside the container until you have to harvest them. Merely look out for rodents, squirrels, or completely different pests that will try and get to your tubers sooner than you do.
5. When you wish to harvest, you can merely attain into the container to retrieve specific particular person new potatoes only a few at a time. Or you can tip out the complete of the container to retrieve the entire tubers from inside.

Whereas you may also have saved maincrop potatoes ready to your Christmas dinner, there’s one thing specific about having up to date, new potatoes ready for the festivities. So should you occur to can keep containers of potatoes frost-free, why not try rising some potatoes for Christmas cropping this 12 months?