Potatoes are a fundamental part of our diet, so much so that we take them for granted, but there is a lot more to spuds than mash and chips.
When growing your own, it pays to understand the basics. You can classify potatoes in various ways but the two most useful are time of maturity and texture. Potatoes are either earlies (or first earlies), second earlies or maincrop. They are all planted at about the same time, though maincrops can be planted later, into April. The new shoots are prone to frost damage as they emerge from the soil. Earlies are usually dug in late June or July, second earlies a few weeks later, when both are in flower, and maincrops are left until September
