Grow Your Own Jacket Potatoes

Posted on 14. Feb, 2011 by Tracey in How To Grow Veg

We eat a lot of crispy salt and olive oil encrusted Jacket potatoes in our house so I thought I’d try growing my own jacket potatoes this year in the vegetable garden. I’m building a new raised bed to put them in which is going to be deeper than 12 inches to accomodate the larger potatoes.

I’ve been doing a bit of research into what varieties are best for baking or jackets, here are a few of the recommendations I have found on the web:-

Grow Your Own Grapevine Forum – Recommends Cara, Pentland Dell, Valour.
LovePotatoes.co.uk by the Potato Council – Recommends Estima and Marfona
Allotments 4 All Forum – Recommends Rooster, Picasso, Cara, Marfona, Desiree, Winston.

Grow Your Own Jacket Potatoes

The top two second early varieties that are recommended by the Potato Council and ones I’m looking to grow are:

Marfona

Type: Second Early
Plant: April to May
Harvest: July to August
This variety has a great flavour, is a good cropper and stores well. It is slightly more waxy than Estima and good for boiled potatoes as well as excellent for jacket potatoes.

Suppliers:

Estima

Type: Second Early
Plant: April to May
Harvest: July to August

This is the variety of jacket potatoes that are sold lose in the supermarkets. These are waxy and mild tasting and are also versatile for chips and boiling.

Suppliers:

Other Baking Potato Varieties

Winston

Type: First Early
Plant: April
Harvest: June to July

As this variety is a first early potato, it will be ready to harvest in June to July and is a quick grower for large baking sized potatoes. It is also great for roasting and mashing. Winston potatoes are very thin skinned and will crisp up lovely when baking in the oven.

Suppliers:
Sarah Raven Kitchen & Garden – 1kg £3.50