potato (salad) 'Pink Fir Apple'

Potatoes require an open, frost-free site with deep, fertile, moisture-retentive and crumbly soil for high quality and heavy yields. Improve soils by adding organic matter, such as well-rotted manure, in the autumn. Before planting, supplement with a general fertilizer, such as Growmore or blood, fish and bone, applied to the soil surface or spread along the sides of the drill during sowing, at the rate of 1kg per 10m (2.2lb per 33ft) row. Half of this amount will be enough if the garden is known to be fertile. Potatoes can also be grown in large containers or potato gro-bags. See Potatoes for further advice.

No pruning required

Grow from tubers known as 'seed potatoes' which are sprouted or 'chitted' prior to planting. Tubers can be chitted from January and planted between March and May, when the risk of frost has passed.

May be susceptible to cutworms, slugs, wireworms, leaf and bud eelworm and potato cyst eelworm.

May be susceptible to potato blight, potato scab, potato tuber rots and potato blackleg and stem canker.