Home Guard First Early Seed Potatoes

Home Guard Seed Potatoes are the perfect all rounder with a short dormancy period making them a very early harvester. It is a high yielding, short oval tubered variety that has white skins and a white creamy-floury textured flesh that gives an excellent flavour.

This wartime variety was introduced in 1942 and is still as popular within the kitchen today as it was then. It is ideal for boiling, steaming, mashing, chipping, roasting or making jacket potatoes.

How to Plant

We recommend planting First Early potato tubers, such as Home Guard, outside from March onwards, 10cm deep and 20cm apart in a line. Leave at least 30cm between lines to allow growing space.

Prior to planting, encourage Seed Potatoes to sprout by placing them on a cool, bright windowsill for 4-6 weeks. This process is known as ‘chitting’ and will help prepare the potato tuber for going in the ground.

Once planted, ‘earth up’ the potatoes by drawing the soil up around new shoots to protect them from frost damage and prolong the growing time. Earthing up also protects developing potatoes from sunlight which causes them to turn green and poisonous. Keep potatoes well watered during warm weather.

How to Harvest

Planted first early seed potatoes will be ready to harvest approximately 10-12 weeks after they were planted. To harvest, cut back plant stalks to ground level before gently lifting the plant up with a garden fork.

Carefully remove the potatoes from the plant and wash well before use in the kitchen.

Details

• Pack size: 2kg bag (16-28 tubers)
• When to plant: March
• When to harvest: May, June, July
• Planting depth: 10cm/4″
• Bulb spacing: 20cm/8″
• Soil type: Moist but well-drained
• Soil pH: Acid, Alkaline, Neutral
• Sunlight: Full sun, Partial shade
• Hardiness: Tolerant of low temperatures but will not survive being frozen