Rocket & Pink Fir Apple Arrive

I was most excited today on my return from a trip across the Midlands to discover a jiffy bag sitting patiently by the front door.  My youngest and I have been to Leicester today as he had an interview at De Montfort University.  We had a jolly day despite it being absolutely freezing and the journey taking much longer than the ever optimistic google maps predicted!

So what was in my jiffy bag, I’m pleased to say it contained the first instalment of my seed potato order with Thompson & Morgan (plus some shallots).  I haven’t grown potatoes before, apart from a couple of years ago in bags which was not a success due to the amount of water needed and not provided.  As time has ticked on since my late  night online purchase I have begun to wonder when the seed potatoes were going to arrive as the gardening gurus say you should start chitting them 6 weeks before planting.  The T&M website says that they dispatch in time for planting and it was right.

For a newbie edibles grower chitting falls into the same category as crop rotation,  successional showing and catch cropping.  If you read the wrong book the whole thing sounds more mystifying that before you opened the book.  In the case of chitting the idea is that you start the potatoes shooting so they get off to a quick start.  I have got the impression from various gardening magazines and gardening TV programmes that the general  consensus is that it isn’t worth chitting main crop potatoes but it is worth the effort for earlies.  Well who know, certainly not me but it isn’t really any hardship to chit 15 potatoes.

As you can see from the photo above my earlies are Rocket and Pink Fir Apple.  I apologise for the quality of the photo but when you return home in the dark, having left in the dark, good quality photos are somewhat challenging! I went for Pink Fir Apple as I have heard so much about them through all sorts of sources.  My intention with the allotment is to grow things that are expensive to buy in the supermarket or not offered at all.  So I have decided to grow new and salad potatoes which I love and some varieties which I probably won’t encounter in my local supermarket and I am pretty sure this is the case for Pink Fir Apple.  My other new potato is Rocket.  I looked at International Kidney which I understand is the potato used for Jersey New Potatoes but I have heard negative reports whereas friends recommended Rocket so this seemed as good a reason as any other for someone who knows nothing.

I have also ordered a few Charlotte, a second early which is excellent as a new potato.  I have to confess that I am not a huge potato eater but I  could eat new potatoes all year round.  Also Inca Bella, this  is a second early as well and apparently has a nutty flavour and is a good salad potato – sounds delicious  and I am curious to see if different varieties really do have different flavours as this is not something I have noticed before.  Finally, Piccolo Star, another second early new potatoes.

No  main crop potatoes as I don’t really have any where to store them over winter and having had problems with mice in the garage this winter I am not planning on put time and effort into growing potatoes just to support the local mouse population.  I will  be reviewing the potatoes to see how they crop and which my family, including my parents who are busy prepping the allotment for me while I am at work, like best.  Then maybe next year we can try some other varieties.

So its off to locate some egg boxes  to stand the seed potatoes in and to find  somewhere cool and light so they start to develop good strong shoots.  Which means I have about 6 weeks to get the first bed dug over and ready for  them to be planted into!