Ever heard of a potato day? Well basically it's an idea that has gained huge following in the last few years as growing your own has become more popular. Potato days (or in this instance an entire weekend!!) are events where a nursery sell around 100-200 different varieties of potato by the tuber or by weight. Obviously there are lots of different types of spuds available to the home gardener and this is a brilliant way to be able to buy just a couple of a variety to try out rather than having to buy an entire sack.Our local potato day was held at Dundry's nursery between Gloucester and Cheltenham a fab small nursery that is a rare small nursery that seems dedicated to the gardener and very unlike one of those huge 'garden centres' that seems set on selling you perfumed candles and has an overpriced bistro cafe.
We went on Saturday afternoon not long before they closed and we were greeted by a HUGE selection of spuds in one of their glasshouses, I'd worked out before hand roughly what I wanted but I still ended up buying more than I had planned, the list as follows...
Earlies
Belle de Fontenay (10)
International Kidney (Jersey Royals 10)
Winston (10)
Main Crop
Cara (10)
Pentland Squire (5)
Picasso (5)
Chitting is the process that now follows, this is the process of allowing the spuds to sprout in a cool place before planting them, some people disagree that this does any good but others swear that this helps produce quicker and better plants. One of the best ways to put spuds out to chit is to put one per section of an egg box and then put them into a shed, greenhouse or garage to form shoots, then plant them out in March (sheltered areas) or April in more exposed areas.
Potatoes in egg boxes ready for chitting
1 comment:
lol, snap! You are very lucky to have 2 allotments, i would kill to have one, but the waiting list on the nearest one to me is well, well oversubscribed, so we'll be sticking to the back garden for now!
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