Weston's Mark Cox shares tips on growing potatoes

In our regular Out in the Garden column, Mark Cox shares tips on potato growing

Ryan! That’s it, Ryan I exclaimed and with that I went back to sleep. The present Mrs Cox wasn’t too happy that I’d woken her and the entire Cox household up but I was elated that finally I’d been able to remember the name of the actor in The Proposal.

I knew I knew it. I could, of course, have used the internet to look the film up and from that get a list of actors but I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t losing my marbles.

Sandra, Sandra! I shouted. ‘Who is Sandra?’ - asked Mrs Cox as she sat bolt upright in bed, eyes like dinner plates, face redder than a red thing and steam venting from ears.

Umm, erm, Sandra, I said, had asked a question a few weeks ago about seed potatoes and I said I’d speak to her when it was time to plant her potatoes and I had completely forgotten all about getting back to her. Obviously Ryan from earlier on had opened the floodgates in my brain and this allowed dormant memories to surface.

I said sorry and then made my way downstairs to type the email I’d promised to Sandra. At least if I was downstairs and awake I wouldn’t be able to shout out any other names sub-consciously.

Dear Sandra, I typed, hopefully your first early potatoes have chitted successfully and your seed potatoes have lots of healthy shoots protruding from the seed potatoes.

You’ll need to prepare your vegetable bed or container before planting them out. So dig a trench about 30cm/1ft deep. Into the bottom of the trench add a deep layer of multi-purpose compost so that it’s about 10-15cm deep. Now, using a garden fork, break down any large clods of soil from the soil that you have removed from the trench. Remove any weeds as you go.

You’ll probably need a cup of tea by now, as digging can sometimes be hard work. Once you have finished your tea or coffee, carefully replace the soil you’ve been working on back into the trench whilst adding in a potato fertiliser.

Your first early potatoes will need to be planted 15cm/6inches deep and about 30cm/12inches apart and each row needs to be 75cm/24 inches apart.

To plant them, use a trowel to make a hole wide enough for the seed potato to go into and orientate the potato so that the majority of shoots are facing upwards. Cover the potato back up with soil and continue onto the next.

Make sure that you label your potatoes with a little plant marker in case you are growing several varieties.

Potatoes can be quite thirsty so, during dry spells, you will need to water them so that they can continue to grow. It will be several weeks before any signs of life appear. When the green shoots of the potatoes emerge from the soil, you’ll need to start “earthing them up”. This is the process of covering the shoots in soil so that the growing potato tubers never see the light of day until you’re ready to harvest. Think of potatoes as vampires just look what happened to Dracula when he saw the sun. Yes that’s right he turned green and became toxic to eat.

You will often see Lincolnshire fields full of strange triangular shaped rows with bushy green leaves on top. These will be earthed up potato plants.

The time is now 2:32am and I really think it is time to go back to bed.