SENSATIONAL SPUDS

From chitting to curing, growing great potatoes is much simpler than you might think. Benedict Vanheems shares everything you need to know for reliable, delicious harvests from early summer right through to Christmas

- Benedict Vanheems

Few crops deliver such pure satisfaction as the humble (yet totally glorious!) spud. Potatoes are reliable, generous and wonderfully forgiving – ideal whether you are growing on a sprawling allotment or tiny city balcony. And there's something almost impossibly exciting about that first plunge of the fork into the soil, quickly followed by that clatter of creamy tubers rolling out into the harvest trug like unearthed treasures. Just sublime!

February is the perfect month to start the potato season. Seed potatoes are appearing in garden centres, Potato Days are in full swing and, with a little prep, you can look forward to harvests stretching from early summer right into winter. So let’s get back to basics and look at choosing, chitting, planting, growing and storing the nation's favourite vegetable.

KNOW YOUR POTATOES

Before you start, decide when you want to harvest and what type of potato suits your culinary intentions. Broadly speaking, potatoes fall into three groups.

First earlies: Quick to grow (ready to enjoy as soon as 10 weeks from planting), producing smooth, waxy potatoes perfect for salads or boiling to serve up hot with a generous curl of butter and a scattering of herbs. They are the earliest to crop and often the most flavourful.

Second earlies: These follow first earlies by a few weeks (12-14 weeks to maturity) and crop from mid to late summer. They tend to be slightly larger and more versatile.

Maincrops: The big bruisers of the potato world, taking up to 20 weeks to mature.