Potatoes - May

Weed free conditions are obtained by the application of pre-emergence and contact herbicides prior to the emergence of the potato plant.

Potatoes are grown in rotation and do not come back to the same field for at least 5 years. If potatoes are grown more regularly, damaging pests like potato cyst nematode will build up in the soil and decimate a crop.

Plant and leaf detail. Potatoes arrived in the UK around 1600 AD having been previously grown in Peru and Chile for hundreds of years. Potatoes yield best when the initiating tuber is kept moist for the first 6 weeks.

There are many different varieties of potato which have their own charcteristics in cooking whether this be for oven chips, shapes, boiling, roasting or for general use.