If you have the use of a polytunnel or green house, then potato seed can be sown there now too. Áine and myself sowed a few rows of ‘Sharpe’s Express’ seeds in Áine’s polytunnel in Curracloe, Co. Wexford in the last couple of days. I first dug the trenches about a metre apart, lined the bottom of each with fresh seaweed, and spaced the seed potatoes about half a metre apart, before covering with soil and watering. Potatoes are hungry and like good fertility, so I always mix in well rotted manure, compost or seaweed before sowing.
The lovely Áine Neville sowing ‘Sharpe’s Express’ in her CWP Curracloe polytunnel in sandy loam trenches on a bed of seaweed.
It can be tempting to space seed potato in a small space too closely, but this can be a false economy. Potato plants need good air circulation for healthy growth. Well spaced potato plants yield a better crop too of larger potatoes, which makes harvesting easier. These early spuds should be ready for harvest by early June, well before the blight season, which means no need to spray against blight to protect this early crop.
‘Sharpe’s Express’ is a favourite early in Ireland for good reason. It is unusual amongst ‘earlies’ in that it is a floury potato with a high dry matter content. Before harvest it produces attractive purple flowers. It is best steamed rather than boiled.
The variety was first bred in 1900 by Mr. Charles Sharpe of Sleaford in Lincolnshire, England. This area still produces a large percentage of the commercial horticulture in England, especially potatoes.
Trevor is co-founder and was, until his appointment to Government, a board member of Sonairte, the Irish National Ecology Centre, near Julianstown, County Meath which is an Agricultural Training and Visitor centre with a 2.2 acre walled organic garden. He is also a member of Amnesty International, the Dublin Food Co-op, the Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association, Organic Trust and a former member of Macra na Feirme. A former teacher and fluent Irish speaker, he relaxes by reading, walking and playing music. His favourite form of relaxation is tending to his prolific organic garden at home in Balbriggan, North County Dublin, an area known by many as Fingal.
Source: Trevors Kitchen Garden – Good Time to Plant Early Spuds Indoors – Trevor Sargent
