Planting Potatoes for St Patrick Day

By Veronica

It is the tradition to plant your potatoes on St Patrick’s day. It is the best time, indeed to put down the first early varieties.
Early potatoes have this great advantage that they mature quickly and they are usually ready to be harvested before the Potato blight attacks in summer.

First early varieties:
–Duke of York:  A pale yellow waxy boiler at first but matures quickly into a versatile general purpose potato. Famous for their great taste. Smaller potatoes can be used as waxy salad potatoes. One of the tastiest spuds.

-Homeguard: Wonderful early potato with a firm creamy flesh which tastes fantastic. High yield and very resistant to scab. The perfect potato for boiling and baking. Waxy/ Floury

–Pentland Javelin: High yielding first early with a tendency to bulk late. It has a high resistance to potato virus and good resistance to splitting and bruising. The tuber has a white skin and a pale yellow flesh which is firm and waxy.

–Orla: One of the most popular variety. High resistance to blight and scab, making it suitable for organic growing. Can be left as a Maincrop. Smooth cream skin with a yellow flesh. Suitable for baking.

– Colleen: Good resistance to potato blight so are good to grow organically. They are an excellent all-rounder with light yellow skin and yellow flesh. They also have good pest resistance. Waxy

– Sharpe’s Express: Heritage potato. Long oval shaped tubers with white skins and a pale lemon coloured flesh. Floury. Suitable for baking, roasting and steaming.