Grow Your Own Potatoes – First Earlies or Salad Potatoes

Posted on 16. Jan, 2011 by Tracey in How To Grow Veg

January is the month to choose your varieties of potatoes and then order them by Mid February to ensure that you have enough time to place them into chitting for 4 to 6 weeks before planting out in Mid March onwards. Its also the time to start saving those egg boxes for chitting your potatoes in.

There are three different types of potatoes to choose from, they are First Earlies, Second Earlies and Maincrop Potatoes. The only difference between them is the months that they are harvested in. All three types are planted between mid March and late April but they have different lengths of time they need to grow in the ground.

Growing First Early Potatoes

First Early Potatoes are also known as salad potatoes which are usually small and oval or round shaped. Due to their size they are perfect for growing in pots and containers and don’t take up a lot of room when growing.

First Earlies are the potatoes as the name suggests the earliest ones to grow taking between 8 to 13 weeks and they are the first to be harvested in Early June to Late July.

If you are thinking of growing potatoes for the first time or want to grow some of the best tasting salad potato varieties, first early potatoes are for you.

First Early Varieties

Charlotte

Charlotte Potatoes Chitting

This variety is the most popular salad variety of potato and is found in all supermarkets. It produces good medium sized potatoes perfect for boiling or steaming and using for potato salads. It has the RHS Garden or Merit Award which means it can be grown in gardens easily and is reliable to produce a good crop.

Buy in Small Quantities:

10 Potato Tubers – Charlotte from Selections – £1.19

Lady Christl

This variety is one of the earliest to be harvested in just 8 weeks from planting with good crops. The potatoes have yellow flesh and great flavour. This variety also has a RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Buy in Small Quantities: 8-13 (1Kg) Potato Tubers – Lady Christl from Alanromans.co.uk – £1.68

Rocket

This is another very early harvesting potato in June, it is a heavy cropper with white flesh. The flavour is lovely and best used steamed or boiled. This variety is slug resistant and is low growing therefore good for windy locations.

Buy in Small Quantities: 10 Potato Tubers – Rocket from Selections – £1.99

Intl Kidney Potato Tubers Planted

Maris Bard

This variety produces larger potatoes which can be roasted, baked and boiled. A versatile potato which is also a very early type which has waxy white flesh.

Buy in Small Quantities:
10 Potato Tubers – Maris Bard from Selections – £2.49

Swift

This is another particularly quick growing growing variety ready to harvest in 8 to 10 weeks from planting. It produces a medium sized crop of white round potatoes which are great for pots and are slug resistant.

Buy in Small Quantities: 8-13 (1Kg) Potato Tubers – Swift from Alanromans.co.uk – £1.68