Small Potatoes

I'm growing potatoes for the first time this year. I've tried an experiment with half of them sown much earlier and grown in pots to eat as "new" potatoes through the summer, and the other half sown in larger containers in the garden as "main" crop potatoes to store through the winter.

The potatoes in pots needed a lot more care and attention. Because they were sown so early, the temperatures were a little too low for them to grow happily. It was difficult ensuring they were warm enough and got enough light to grow healthy shoots. I spent a lot of time carrying them out into the garden in the morning and then bringing them in at night, in case there was a frost that would have killed them.

I think they were about this big, the last time I blogged about them. As the shoots start showing, you cover them in some more soil to encourage more layers of potatoes forming at each of the leaf nodes.

They were doing well: the shoots had reached the tops of the pots and I had filled the pots with compost. They'd survived the dangers of frost, and the foliage on each plant was about eighteen inches high.

Then we had several weeks of torrential rain which smashed the foliage, followed by searing sun, which dried out anything which had survived. I felt a bit sad - all that hard work and love and attention.

A few days ago, I decided to tackle the untidy looking pots and clean up the back yard. I tipped the first pot out into the wheelbarrow:

Much to my surprise, there were some beautiful new potatoes!

I raked through and found about 500g of new potatoes, some of them tiny - the sort they sell in Waitrose as "pearl new potatoes" at a terrific premium. I was as pleased as punch, as if I had grown them myself!

I had some boiled with mint for lunch, and some made into a potato salad for later in the day. They were scrumptious!

I have tidied up the other pots and put them in a safe place in the garden. I thought the potatoes would store better left in the soil. Now, when I want some new potatoes for my supper, I can pop out to my pantry in the garden and up-end another pot.

There were meant to be more potatoes - I should have got a kilo or so from each pot - but given the terrible weather we've had, I'm very pleased with any. The ones in the containers in the garden are doing well, too. I keep earthing them up, there's about another layer of soil to go on in a week or two's time when the tubers have started to form just under the surface.

Not a bad experiment and I'm moving a little more towards growing at least some of my own food.