Seed Potatoes and Onion Sets

After a very pleasant weekend with Hazel and Alex staying, we've finally managed to get round to ordering the seed potatoes and onion sets for the year. The potatoes are all from Thompson and Morgan, and we've ordered twenty tubers of each:

• 'Rocket': a very early First Early, which also yields well.
• 'Lady Christl': a fast First Early, but can be left in the ground to crop as a heavier Second Early.
• 'Juliette': can be lifted as a Second Early, but may be left in the ground to bulk out further before cropping as an early Maincrop.
• 'Belle de Fontenay': an early Maincrop.
• 'Druid': a late, heavy-yielding Maincrop which stores well.
• 'Golden Wonder': a late, versatile Maincrop which improves on storage.
• 'Orla': nominally a Second Early, but can be held back (with careful storage) for a Second Cropper (planted out after Second Earlies are lifted).
• 'Vivaldi': another nominal Second Early, which we'll aim to hold back as a Second Cropper.

Second Croppers are allowed to chit, and stored somewhere cool, with bright indirect light. They can then go in the ground in August, and should provide new potatoes through the autumn. They need good insulation to survive frosts: if they're grown in a bag, they can be moved to a greenhouse. Ideally, one wouldn't grow them in a space just vacated by potatoes, but if the soil's re-fed, they'll cope.

Onion-wise, we've gone to Marshalls Seeds, and got the following:

• Autumn Gold improved: not heat-treated, and mainly so that we don't have all our eggs in one basket (x100).
• New Fen Globe: our maincrop! Can get big (250–500 g), and stores well from harvest in autumn until the following May (x200).
• Hyred: a good storer, and rounder than the 'standard' Red Baron (x100).

Red onion sets are no more expensive than the others, hence including 100 red sets for some variety, or when red onions are better. We also ordered some celeriac seed ('Monarch'), which should be fun.

Hopefully they'll all arrive in the next few weeks, and they can go in the ground in March.

Just as a note: the last of the paperwhite narcissi has just gone over; just as the tips of the spring daffodils are coming up outside. The paperwhites will be dead-headed, and then given a low-nitrogen feed, to best prepare them for flowering next year. Once they've died back, we'll lift them, and store them somewhere cool and dry. No guarantee, but with some luck, they'll flower again next Christmas.