Page 42 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2021

Growing my Jersey Royals for Easter the Jersey Way
GRAEME LE MARQUAND
After torrential rain here in Jersey I managed to pick the right day which was the 25th of January to plant my Jersey Royal potatoes outdoors on my raised bed.
The bed had already received a layer
of my homemade compost as well as a good coating of Vraic (seaweed) which I had added three months previously. This was the stuff that my ancestors frequently gathered to enrich their soil all those years ago which had been forked in with an added multipurpose fertiliser.
I dug a small trench 2.5 metres long and planted three rows of Jersey Royals approx. 3 8cm (3inches) deep and 15 cm (6inches) apart with a width of 41 cm (16inches) between rows which will enable me to pass my banking hoe between the rows to ridge them up as soon as the stalks/ haulms are tall enough. In the meantime I have covered
Banking Hoe
Vraic Spread
the potatoes with the same soil that was dug out of the trenches.
Weather permitting the crop could be ready within twelve weeks after planting but this will depend on the weather.
The Jersey Royals had been chitted the previous November and were purchased from Didier and Christine Hellio who appeared in last year’s Simply Vegetables.
The patch of Royals are being grown on the coast line south facing.
Fleece Covering
Collecting Vraic
Potatoes Chitting
42 Simply Vegetables
Potatoes Planted
Container grown