Growing Christmas Potatoes

Allotment Growing - Potatoes In Bags

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Back in Summer I harvested a small crop of potatoes grown in bags in my garden.

I decided to have a go at growing "Christmas Potatoes" - sown in mid to late Summer in the hope of getting a crop of fresh new potatoes for Christmas dinner.

I half filled a potato sack with compost - planted a couple of the smaller potatoes from my summer crop - and covered with another few inches of compost. I placed this in a sheltered corner of the garden.

After a month or sow green growth began to emerge, which I regularly earthed up with more compost as the plant grew on through late Summer and Autumn.

It was looking really good all through October and November - until a cold rainy spell struck Cornwall and the potato plant began to die back.

I decided that my dream of fresh potatoes for Christmas was over - and decided to dig up the crop before it began to rot in the wet weather.

The result was pretty - no very - disappointing. Just a few very small potatoes.

Not sure what went wrong - possibly just the weather. Maybe it was potato blight - although the season for that is supposed to be over.

In any case - this is definitely something that I'll try again next year. Its easy to do, doesn't cost anything - and one day I will have my own home-grown new potatoes for Christmas !