Potato ‘Red Norland’

* Common name: Potato ‘Dark Red Norland’

* Botanical name: Solanum tuberosum ‘Dark Red Norland’

* What it is: One of the best red-skinned potatoes and also quick to mature. Potatoes ready to dig 90 days or less from planting… even sooner for golfball-sized “new” potatoes. White flesh.

* Size: 18 inches tall. Plant seed potatoes (“sets”) 12 inches apart.

* Where to use: Ideally in a mounded or raised-bed vegetable garden. Also will produce in large pots or half whiskey barrels. Full sun.

* Care: Loosen soil and work an inch of compost into it. Acidy soil is best (5 to 5.5 pH, add sulfur to achieve that). Plant in early April 4 to 6 inches deep. Sets can be cut into pieces so long as each has one or two “eyes.” Keep ground consistently moist but never soggy. Several inches of soil can be hilled up around plants as they grow to keep growing potatoes from being exposed to sunlight. Scatter granular organic fertilizer that’s slightly higher in nitrogen (first number on the bag’s three-digit formula) over bed after planting. Scatter second dose when plants flower. Dig 2 weeks after foliage dies back to the ground.

* Great partner: Onions can be planted and harvested at the same times, and their scent may discourage potato beetles. Edge beds with them or interplant.

— George Weigel