VEGETABLES > POTATOES > WINTER - CROPPING
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Potatoes are a staple crop for many home growers , and most will plant genus Tuber in spring to harvest in summertime or fall .
However , what many do not realize is that if you have an undercover develop orbit such as a glasshouse or polytunnel , you could enjoy not only stored maincrop potatoes for your Christmas dinner – but also potentially delicious new potatoes too .
Christmas cropping potatoes are the first or 2d early tater varieties that are plant not in the spring , but in mid - later summertime or autumn .
These potatoes will create a craw of new potatoes that you’re able to harvest over the festive stop .
In society to be able to grow spud late into the twelvemonth , you will generally require an underground growing area .
However , this job may also be potential in some more sheltered and warmer percentage of the UK if you use cloches , row masking or other forms of protective cover .
If you would like to grow sassy potatoes for Christmas , here is what you need to do :
Plant Them In July Or August
When precisely you plant Christmas cropping potatoes will depend on where you exist and the consideration to be set up there , and when the first frosts are expect .
Generally speaking , this is a line of work that you take in charge either in the second half of July or in August .
Here in Scotland , I tend to get a better crop if I plant Christmas cropping potatoes cheeseparing to the end of July , while for growers in most of England , August planting in a polytunnel or greenhouse is typically recommended .
1) Choose Your Potatoes
My favorite Solanum tuberosum for Christmas cropping are ‘ Charlotte ’ and ‘ Maris Peer ’ , but any first - other or second - early spud varieties can be used .
It is important to mention that you could not simply take summer - reap tubers and replant these .
The genus Tuber go through a long period of quiescence after harvesting so they will not grow .
What you need to do is either purchase cold - lay in potato tubers from a commercial-grade vendor in the summer or nurse back tuber purchase in spring by keeping them in a cool light place throughout the warm months .
The latter is more difficult because these held - back tubers will explicate long and rather flimsy shoot , which can get aphid problems and must be tick off often for issues .
I sometimes nurse back some Tuber to plant but have go through miscellaneous result .
2) Find A Suitable Location
Once you have chosen a diversity and sourced the ejaculate potato genus Tuber , you involve to determine where to plant them .
As mention above , maturate new Irish potato for Christmas will ordinarily involve secret growing in a greenhouse or a polytunnel or , at the very least , giving outdoors - grown plants more trade protection to keep them frost - detached in fall .
Container growing is generally the leisurely option , since containers wo n’t take up much infinite in your grow region and can be protected more easily as the atmospheric condition grow dusty .
There are a turn of different container alternative to consider .
you may use large pots , cask , pail , sacks or grow base .
I use declamatory reclaimed buckets to grow my Christmas - cropping murphy , placing these outdoors and then move them into my unwarmed polytunnel which , with added thermic mass , stays frost - free in all but the most extremum of winter where I live .
3) Plant Your Tubers
Once you have decided on a container for your Christmas cropping white potato vine , place a little of your grow medium in the alkali ( around 15 centimeter cryptic ) , then place your Tuber on top .
Cover them over with another 15 atomic number 96 or so of the growing medium so your container are around 1/3 full .
Any peat - barren multipurpose potting mix will be fine , and I apply a homemade mix of 1/3 loam soil , 1/3 compost and 1/3 leaf mould .
I also lay the tubers on a bed ofcomfrey leaves , to cater additional nutrients upon planting .
A rough guideline to follow when make up one’s mind how many potato to place in a container is that you should provide 10L of capacity for each tuber you plant .
So , in a container with a 50L capacity , you could aim 5 seed potatoes .
Using this as a rule of thumb can help you determine spacing , but use common sense as well .
4) Earth Up Potatoes
Once shoot emerge from the top of this growing culture medium , you will gradually ‘ terra firma up ’ the murphy plants as they continue to rise , just as you do when develop white potato vine in the ground .
think of to water consistently , watering at the base of the plants rather than from above , for good resultant .
Do n’t allow the growing mass medium to dry out but head off waterlogging .
To give potatoes a boost you could also consider water with an organic fluid plant provender .
I practice a seaweed liquid feed or compost Camellia sinensis when watering around 3 times over previous summer and early fall .
The most authoritative affair , however , when growing newfangled potatoes for Christmas , is to check that that the area where you are keeping your potato remains frost - free .
pick out steps like increasing thermic lot and adding insulant can help keep an unwarmed secret grow arena devoid from frost as winter approaching .
5) Remove & Compost Dead Foliage
In late autumn , the foliage on your potato plants will snuff it back .
Once this happens , remove and compost this cloth ( as long as it is disease free ) .
6) Keep Tubers In Pots Until Required
The tuber should remain safe below the airfoil in your containers .
However , look out for squirrels , gnawer or other pests , and where necessary , underwrite the tops of the container to make indisputable no one gets to the Tuber or unearths them before you do .
When you want to harvest , you’re able to just delve into the container to get hold potatoes to harvest if you need only a few at a time , or you’re able to tip out the whole container and glean the tubers from within it all at once for a peculiar festive repast .
“ I have never grown spud for Christmas but maturate in a container in my glasshouse looks like a viable option , ” partake Master Horticulturist Colin Skelly .
“ I may involve some alloy meshing to keep out the mice as they would unquestionably take an participating interest . ”
