Spud Love

With potatoes on his mind, Rob Smith advises on selection, offers some top tips and shares some of his favourite varieties

- Rob Smith

The humble spud has to be one of the most popular veg to grow in Britain. Both on allotments and in gardens alike, these tasty tubers can be seen growing in a multitude of ways. From pots and bags to open ground, potatoes can be grown just about anywhere and will reward you with numerous tubers that can keep you and your family fed for months! Our affection for potatoes goes even further than simply growing them ourselves, we even have potato days* where you can go and look at the rarer varieties and buy some of the more unusual as well as the most popular varieties. From near black to almost pure white, potatoes come in so many colours and shapes, plus they have differing uses and can be grown for salads, mash, chips, crisps and more. So why not grow a different variety of potato this year along with your favourites?

With potatoes on his mind, Rob Smith advises on selection, offers some top tips and shares some of his favourite varieties

THE CHITTING DEBATE

Now we get to the most debated question about potatoes… to chit or not to chit?

Chitting is simply the process of letting the tubers put on little shoots before planting them, with some people swearing that the only way to get good harvests is to chit, while others just don’t see the need. I grow my potatoes both ways depending on the time of year I start them off.