Early potatoes: when and how to plant them?

Harvested before their full maturity, the potatoes primeur are appreciated for their spring taste and their thin skin. Planted in February-March, they are the first to appear on the plate in May-June, before the potatoes classics that follow. A taste of potatoes!

Which varieties of early potatoes to choose?

Those varieties have the particularity of producing tubers with very thin skin and sweet flesh because they have not had time to reach full maturity and the sugar has not yet turned into starch. Hence this little inimitable taste so sought after on sunny days. Here are some varieties:

• ‘Jeannette’: variety with pink skin and yellow flesh;
• ‘Amandine’: potato with yellow flesh and skin;
• ‘Belle de Fontenay’: tuber with yellow flesh and skin;
• ‘Sirtema’: old variety with yellow skin and flesh;
• ‘Rosabelle’: variety with dark pink skin and yellow flesh;
• ‘Annabelle’: potato with yellow flesh and skin;
• ‘Charlotte’: tuber with yellow flesh and skin.

When to plant early potatoes?

Before talking about planting, the potatoes must be sprouted. One month before planting, germinate the tubers in a crate placed in a bright room at 12°C. These early potatoes are planted from the month of February in the regions weather sweet in winter or in March, everywhere else, directly in their final place in the vegetable garden. They require fewer days of cultivation than the classic so-called conservation varieties, 90 days instead of 120 days, before being harvested, with the plants still in flower.

Where to plant early potatoes?

The tubers are planted in a sunny location. In hot regions, light midday shade is tolerated.

How to plant early potatoes?

Here are some steps to follow for successful planting of tubers:

• stretch a chalk line to draw the rows;
• space the rows at least 80 centimeters apart to work the land correctly during cultivation;
• with a hoe, dig holes 10 to 15 centimeters deep and space them 40 centimeters apart;
• place a sprouted tuber per hole, germ to the top ;
• bring soil back to the tubers using the back hoe to fill in the holes;
• let the rains do their job.

The first leaves will appear 15 days later.

To hasten cultivation, place a forcing veil which will protect them from the passing cold and warm the earth. Remember to stagger the plantations over several months, every 15 days, in order to harvest the potatoes from May until August.