SPUDS
It's easy to grow your own potatoes. 1 kilo of seed potatoes can grow 20 kilos of eating
potato. We have selected 3 popular easy to grow potato varieties, these are: |
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| Sebago:(YELLOW BAGS) A popular
all purpose potato that is hardy and easy to grow, Sebago has a regular, thick, oval shape,
with bright, creamy-white skin and white flesh. It is excellent boiled and mashed, but is also
good boiled for salads, dry baked or roasted, and in a pinch you can even fry it. |
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| Desiree:(GREEN BAGS) A pretty
name for a pretty potato, the long, oval Desiree has smooth, pinkish red skin and pale yellow
flesh. It is hardy and easy to grow. Its firm texture makes it a good choice for salads and
roasting. Okay for mashing, but do not overcook.Do not fry. |
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Pontiac:(BLUE BAGS) Pontiac, with
its red
skin and even round shape is familiar to most
Australians. Excellent for mashed potatoes and good boiled for salads (it rarely darkens after
cooking). The pontiac can also be dry baked or roasted, but do not fry. |
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GROWING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Select a sunny well drained site with good soil. If you're in a heavy soil or swampy area
consider making a raised bed 12" deep by
mixing Devotion™ Planting Mix For Wet Feet, Heavy & Clay Soils with existing soil.
Potatoes like new soil, try to plant them in a new spot every year or two. Potatoes are a
great way to break in new ground for growing other vegetables or crops.
2. If soil is acid, spread 1 - 2 kilos of ground
limestone per square metre, together with as
much well decomposed compost as you can
spare. |
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3. Turn ground over with spade at least one
full spade depth and break clods with back of spade.
4. Create furrows that are 20cm deep and 40cm apart so potatoes are ready for planting. |
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5. Plant fresh certified seed potatoes as they
will give the highest yield with less disease, they will not infect your land with potato
diseases. |
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| 6. Plant seed potatoes 25cm apart in rows and
cover with 10cm of soil, leaving potatoes to grow in the bottom of a shallow furrow. |
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| 7. As potato plants grow, use a hoe to cultivate
weeds in rows and as you cultivate slowly close furrows around the potatoes and hill soil
around the stem of the potato plant. Do not bury too much of potato plant at any one time as
this will inhibit growth. |
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| 8. After several months of growth, potato plants
should have soil hilled 20cm up thier stems and have furrows instead of mounds on either side.
It is these hilled up areas of soil where the new potatoes will grow and swell easily. |
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| 9. As potato plants grow, top dress with blood and
bone and an all purpose fertiliser. Such as Devotion™ Time Release fertiliser. Keep
plants moist while growing by irrigating regularly, be particularly diligent and water heavily
as potato plants flower. 10. Baby Potatoes - A
gourmet delight, these
can generally be harvested around Christmas if seed sewn by mid September. Dig around the base
of the plant and see when they're ready.
11. Harvesting the highest yield is obtained by digging potatoes after the vine has died to
the ground, but you can dig potatoes any time from when the first bite size baby potatoes are
formed.
To harvest use a garden fork, insert it deeply in the furrow beneath the hilled up area and
then push fork up through the soil, lifting potatoes free of soil. |
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12. Once plants are dead, harvest potatoes
and store in a dark cool spot. Please don't eat
seed potato or any potato with green on it. |
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NOTHING TASTES BETTER THAN A
HOME GROWN SPUD! |
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