Tickle your Tubers

Those of you who planted early potatoes will be looking forward to harvesting them any time now.  Instead of putting in your fork and lifting the whole plant, why not try and give them a little tickle.  So many of the smaller potatoes get wasted, but they could be given the chance to reach an edible size if you master an age old technique called tickling. 

If you have grown your spuds, as I do, in the no dig way, mulching up with grass mowings or straw, it is very easy.  Just move your mulch over a bit and start feeling into the ground with two fingers, very gently so as not to detach any small ones.  If you can feel a smooth spud of reasonable size, get your fingers underneath it and pop it out, you can often get 2 or 3 off the same plant.  Replace the mulch and move to the next plant until you have enough for your requirements.  This method leaves the smaller potatoes to keep growing away, thus maximising your crops.  I often get a good two to two and half months worth of cropping from my earlies in this way.  If you grow on a ridge, you will have to go into the side of the ridge in the same way, tidying it up and making sure you cover any small potatoes back over again.

Raised bed in foreground showing grass mowing mulch

I plant my early potatoes in the polytunnel late January or very early February, I harvested my first Home Guard on 25^th April.  I finally lifted them all out just over a week ago as the foliage was starting to die off.  I have stored them in a large pot which I have covered to stop the light getting to them.  I also planted a variety called Anja which I started growing last year and we like them a lot.  They are a long thin variety and remind me of Pink Fir Apple but early.  They are a more waxy potato and are really lovely with salads, with that new potato taste sadly lacking these days.  The joy of growing your own is that you can experiment with different varieties that you can’t find in the shops.  Some of my favourites are Nicola, a lovely waxy gourmet variety and Arran Victory, a purple skinned beauty that makes the best roast potatoes, floury inside and crispy outside.  I have eight different varieties growing this year.

If you find that after your potatoes have flowered they have started to form things that look like tomatoes, take them off.  These are seeds and they will take energy from the plant that should be going into tuber production. I like to foliar feed (spray dilute feed onto the leaves) with seaweed solution after flowering to keep the plants strong and healthy, but you could use a comfrey and nettle feed if you choose. 

Should we get a dry spell, the plants will need watering.  It is of more benefit to a give a really good watering from the time of flower production than at any other time.  Get the hose or watering can down to the ground level and drench the soil really well.  If you give frequent, light waterings, it will result in the production of more foliage rather than tubers. 

 Lastly, if blight does strike try not to panic.  The blight will usually start on the top leaves and work its way down.  The leaves will have large brown blotches and you will know if you have it.  Remove any affected leaves and take away from the area.  Keep an eye on the progress.  If it moves down the stalk towards the tubers, chop off all foliage at ground level and get rid of it along with any leaves that fall off, clean up all diseased plant material on the ground.  Leave the potatoes in the ground for two weeks.  After this time, lift as normal.  Check any tubers in storage from time to time and remove anything that looks suspect before it infects any healthy ones.

You can message me cottagegardenerdromahair@gmail.com if you have any comments or questions.