Now is a good time to order or buy seed potatoes if you are growing earlies, or second earlies  which as the name suggests are potatoes which you can harvest earlier in the year May, June, July and August.Having purchased them in January they can be  set to chit in February to plant out March, which includes salad potatoes. 

Planting early does require with frost protection to the top growth. This can be done by growing under polythene or using cloches.

This year the Sunday Gardener will be planting Anya, International Kidney, Charlotte and Vanessa, all earlies no main crop.  When the seed potatoes arrive put them in a cool light place to chit, just set them out on paper a suitable distance apart. They will spout shoots, as the photo to the left illustrates, and leave them to grow. 

For advice and tips on growing potatoes visit the potato veg page they are an easy and rewarding crop. A tip to get them off to a good start and increase potato yields is to add some potato fertiliser (available from garden centres and Internet supplies) into the plot or container when planting.