Westland Leads The Industry To Reduce Peat Use - 02 October, 2008Winning Formulation - 01 October, 2008Tried, tested and approved - 01 October, 2008

Seasonal Tips - Veg - Potatoes and Root Crops

Outdoors, if the soil is crumbly, beginning to warm and not stodgy, sow hardy root crops such as carrots, onions, leeks, radish, parsnip and beetroot and under cloches in February and March.

 

  • Make a shallow trench in the soil about 1inch (2.5cm) deep, line the base with Multi-Purpose Compost with added John Innes, water gently and then sprinkle the seed thinly on top.
  • Cover over with more compost.
  • Good varieties to try are Unwins Carrot ‘Early Nantes2’, Carrot ‘Amsterdam 2 Sweetheart’, Parsnip ‘White Gem’, Parsnip ‘Avonresister’, Onion ‘Ailsa Craig’, and Onion ‘Red Baron’.
  • One of the easiest vegetables to grow are potatoes. You can plant them into containers, Potato bags, Instant Planters or into the vegetable garden for great results. Start them off as soon as possible by allowing them to sprout (chit) in a frost-free place so that you can reap an early harvest of new potatoes in early summer. If you haven’t already bought your seed potatoes choose Second Early varieties or main crop that can be chitted and planted in late March or in April. Popular varieties include Unwins Second Early ‘Wilja’, Second Early ‘Kestrel’, Main Crop ‘Desiree’, Main Crop ‘King Edward’, and Main Crop ‘Maris Piper’. See our Top 10 Potato Varieties.
    From mid March plant First Early potato tubers 5-6in (12.5-15cm) deep and about 12in (30cm) apart. Cover over with fleece to protect emerging shoots from frost. As shoots appear cover them over with more soil. This encourages more tubers to form underground for more information see Chitting Planting and Harvesting Potatoes.

Other useful tips for this season:

Registration