Potatoes and Onions

It was time to plant the potatoes and onions, as the last of the onion sets arrived, and the start of April is when we do the 'tatoes (it was the 2nd, last year). The onions are going in a little later than last year, but only by a week.

The onions:

• Autumn Gold Improved (harvest August/September) are meant to store well.
• Red Baron have similar qualities, but red. I like growing some red ones, as they make a nice change.
• New Fen Globe are heat treated, and can get very big. They're meant to store through to May, which is a little longer than the other two, and should justify the slightly higher price.

Last year we had Hyred, but didn't have any bolting problems, so we thought we'd have the cheaper Red Baron. Because of some quality issues, we wound up with twice as many Autumn Gold and Red Baron as planned. We've double-planted them, and will pull up half for pickling while they're still small. Kudos for Marshalls, though; good customer service.

Potatoes:

• Lady Christl (extra early) which we really liked. High yield, very quick, and really tasty. Also stores remarkably well—there are still half a dozen in the workshop. Bit wrinkled, but taste good.
• Red Duke of York (early), which we've not grown before. We like to have a red-skinned tuber for variety.
• Pentland Javelin (early), which is also new to us. Both are meant to be good yielders/storers, which are important, and tasty.
• Bounty (early maincrop); ten of these were a freebie with the other (~20 of each). We'll see!
• Cara (late maincrop); a parent of Druid, which we got on well with last year (excellent yield, and strong plants). Druid's only available from one supplier, though, and so we thought we'd see if Cara was as good.

We've planted the early potatoes about 18" apart. The maincrop aren't in yet, as the spring cabbages and leeks are still in the ground, but they'll go 30" apart. The higher spacing seemed to make a big difference to the maincrop yield, but not to earlies. We used leaf mould to fertilize the ground; it's meant to help combat scab, which we suffered with last year.