Home Guard
The old reliable first early, out of the ground and eaten before blight has a chance to find it.
Home Guard was bred in Ayrshire by McGill and Smith and introduced in 1942, and although the breeding was Scottish it is now grown mainly in Ireland and has stayed on Irish seed potato lists ever since because it does the one thing a first early has to do: it is ready fast. Lifted in late June or early July it gives a dry, floury new potato with real flavour, and because the crop is off the plot by midsummer it usually sidesteps blight entirely.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Solanum tuberosum
- Type
- Certified seed tuber
- Category
- First early
- Difficulty
- Easy, good first crop
- Hardiness
- Half hardy, protect from frost
- In Ireland
- Grows outdoors unprotected
- Sowing depth
- 10cm
- Spacing
- 40cm apart, 75cm between rows
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 10 to 22 weeks
- Harvest
- June to July
Sowing and harvest calendar for Home Guard
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Home Guard seed potatoes in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
- Fruit Hill Farm Irish Organic seed potatoes split by earlies, maincrop and blight resistant Bantry based supplier to Ireland's commercial organic growers. Certified organic and biodynamic seed, mail order only. Visit Fruit Hill Farm , Co. Cork
- Quickcrop Irish Sorted by first early, second early and maincrop Ballymote based, lists sowing and harvest months per product and ships across Ireland. Visit Quickcrop , Co. Sligo
Why it suits Ireland
Everything about the Irish potato year comes down to getting a crop off the plot before blight settles in, and a first early is the cleanest way to do that. Home Guard is one of the fastest, and although it was raised in Ayrshire rather than here, it was selected in a maritime climate close enough to ours that it has never needed adapting, which is why Irish growers adopted it and never let it go.
The flavour is the other reason it survives on seed lists. It is dry and floury for an early rather than waxy, so it eats like a proper Irish potato rather than a salad potato, which is the thing many of the modern earlies get wrong.
It has no blight resistance to speak of, but that is largely academic in a crop lifted in early July.
Growing notes
Chit from late January or early February. Plant from mid March in a mild coastal garden, or April anywhere inland or in the north west, 30cm apart in rows 50cm apart.
The one real risk is frost on emerging shoots in April and May, which happens most years away from the coast. Draw soil over the shoots when a clear cold night is forecast, or throw fleece over the row. Plants regrow if caught, but you lose two or three weeks, which defeats the purpose of growing an early in the first place.
Earth up once or twice as the shoots reach 20cm. Do not bother with a maincrop’s worth of ridge, but do keep light off the tubers.
Lift as you eat them. Once the row is finished, the ground is free by mid July for late salads, turnips, oriental greens or a green manure, which is the quiet advantage of earlies in a small Irish garden.
Common questions
When can I lift Home Guard?
Roughly ten to twelve weeks after planting, which for a St Patrick's Day planting in a mild coastal garden means the very end of June, and for an April planting inland means mid to late July. The reliable test is not the calendar but the flowers: once they open, scrape the soil away from the side of one plant and look. If the tubers are egg sized, start lifting. Take only what you need for the next day or two, because first earlies do not store and are at their best within hours of coming out.
Does Home Guard need chitting?
It benefits more than most, because with a first early the whole point is speed and chitting gains you two to three weeks. Set the tubers blunt end up in egg boxes from late January somewhere cool, bright and frost free, and aim for short dark green sprouts about 2cm long by planting time. Long pale shoots mean the room was too warm or too dark, and they snap off during planting.
Can Home Guard be grown in a potato bag?
It is one of the better varieties for it. First earlies suit containers because the crop finishes before the compost runs out of steam. Use at least a 40 litre bag, plant three tubers in 15cm of compost, and top up as the shoots grow. The critical thing is water: a potato bag in July dries out far faster than open ground, even in an Irish summer, and a bag that dries out produces marbles.
More potatoes to consider
Rooster
AGM/ Maincrop
The default Irish maincrop for good reason: heavy crops, keeps well, and floury without collapsing in the pot.
Growing notes and stockistsKerr's Pink
/ Maincrop
The floury maincrop older Irish cooks swear by, if you can forgive it for falling apart in the pot.
Growing notes and stockistsBritish Queen
AGM/ Second early
Grown here for flavour rather than convenience, and worth the trouble in a decent summer.
Growing notes and stockistsOrla
AGM/ First early
The early to grow if blight has beaten you before, and the obvious first choice for organic Irish plots.
Growing notes and stockists