Off to harvest my first potato bag...

twiglet98

Fingers crossed, I have absolutely no idea if they've worked or not. These are second earlies, Duke of York, and there are Sante maincrop for later on.

They're all in compost bags, loads of foliage which has now wilted and I haven't watered them for a while, though it's rained a lot. I'm planning to tip a bag into a wheelbarrow and see what turns up, then put the compost onto a new area preparing for next year and let the chickens scratch it in.

Can the wilted foliage go in my compost bin or is it risking disease when spread back onto my beds? I guess the green council recycling bin can have it otherwise?

mrbadexample

twiglet98 wrote: »

Can the wilted foliage go in my compost bin or is it risking disease when spread back onto my beds? I guess the green council recycling bin can have it otherwise?

Can't see a problem with that as long as it's not diseased.

twiglet98

Well... that bag yielded exactly one kilo of new potatoes, plus five little pips smaller than a broad bean.

I'd set out 8 seed potatoes per bag (bought in a net from the local garden centre) into a rolled down bag with the black lining on the outside, on a layer of multipurpose compost. Punched holes round the bottom, topped it up each week with more bought MP compost at first, then used old manure half and half with compost as the cost was getting prohibitive to keep topping up 10 bags. I watered them each evening with a hosepipe when it was hot, less when cold and rainy.

I think these must be the most expensive potatoes on the planet.

So - yet again, I've no idea what went wrong. Too wet/too dry, too hot/too cold? I didn't feed them - should I have fed them? The bags were in a sunny spot on the concrete yard. Did they not need sun?

I've read (on GFMS) that potatoes do best in the ground. I can't dig this clay, hence the plan to grow it all in containers and raised beds. Will rethink next year because this is not an affordable hobby.

With kilos and kilos of green tomatoes now unlikely to redden, the only successful crops so far have been courgettes, lettuce and spinach. Hardly any strawberries or raspberries, though they looked promising early on, blueberries did a bit better. Sweetcorn should be ready soon, fingers crossed for that, and meanwhile I'll hope the next bag of potatoes is more productive

How can things improve next year when I don't know what I did wrong this time?

mrbadexample

twiglet98 wrote: »

Well... that bag yielded exactly one kilo of new potatoes, plus five little pips smaller than a broad bean.

I'd set out 8 seed potatoes per bag (bought in a net from the local garden centre) into a rolled down bag with the black lining on the outside, on a layer of multipurpose compost. Punched holes round the bottom, topped it up each week with more bought MP compost at first, then used old manure half and half with compost as the cost was getting prohibitive to keep topping up 10 bags. I watered them each evening with a hosepipe when it was hot, less when cold and rainy.

I think these must be the most expensive potatoes on the planet.

So - yet again, I've no idea what went wrong. Too wet/too dry, too hot/too cold? I didn't feed them - should I have fed them? The bags were in a sunny spot on the concrete yard. Did they not need sun?

Well, I heard on Gardener's Question Time that they do require a lot of water when they're in bags. I got just over 6lb from one bag that I put 3 seed potatoes in. I watered them like mad, and put a handful of chicken poo pellets in to give them some feed. They were also in a sunny spot on a slabbed area.

twiglet98 wrote: »

I've read (on GFMS) that potatoes do best in the ground. I can't dig this clay, hence the plan to grow it all in containers and raised beds. Will rethink next year because this is not an affordable hobby.

Try and dig up the clay and leave it exposed over winter - the frost will break it up. (Don't ask me how much, it's just what I've read!)

twiglet98 wrote: »

With kilos and kilos of green tomatoes now unlikely to redden, the only successful crops so far have been courgettes, lettuce and spinach. Hardly any strawberries or raspberries, though they looked promising early on, blueberries did a bit better. Sweetcorn should be ready soon, fingers crossed for that, and meanwhile I'll hope the next bag of potatoes is more productive

Don't get too disheartened - and certainly don't give up on the tomatoes - there's plenty of time for those yet! Mine cropped last year until about October before they keeled over. Try putting some banana skins around the plants if you can - they give off ethylene gas which helps other fruit ripen. Hopefully, other bags of spuds will prove more productive. My first was rubbish. Are you sure the plants were perfectly healthy? There was quite a bit of blackleg (stem rot) around this year.

twiglet98 wrote: »

How can things improve next year when I don't know what I did wrong this time?

Well, I'm not too sure because I'm still learning too. But I know I'm having less tomatoes in the greenhouse next year - I'm losing lots to mildew. I don't think you should consider that you've done it wrong, perhaps more that next year you should do it different.

With a bit of luck, the sweetcorn will be great, and it'll give you some encouragement. Don't look at what didn't work - look at what did work. Above all, don't quit.

twiglet98

Thank you MBE, that's cheered me up!

And for tomorrow's packed lunch I have salad of the smallest new potatoes, a tiny handful of french beans, three kinds of lettuce, all collected from the garden this evening, with hard boiled eggs from my lovely ducks and chickens, and that what makes it worthwhile

mrbadexample

twiglet98 wrote: »

with hard boiled eggs from my lovely ducks and chickens,

For what it's worth, I'm well jealous of those!

funkymonkey849

twiglet98 wrote: »

With kilos and kilos of green tomatoes now unlikely to redden, the only successful crops so far have been courgettes, lettuce and spinach.

Don't worry you're not alone! This is out first year gardening, and we had to start everything at the end of April because we moved house then.

We tried tomatoes, peppers, courgette, pumpkins, lettuce, spring onions, radishes, red onions (sown from seed and waaaaay too late!), carrots and some maris piper potatoes.

The only ones that have really worked are courgettes and lettuces, both of which have been delicious! One red onion is growing in solitude. Too early to say for potatoes and pumpkins but the rest have all failed in one way or another! We have noted what went wrong and how we're going to do it differently next year. It's all about learning

Next year I'm going to grown lots of courgettes and lettuces!

Lotus-eater

twiglet98 wrote: »

I've read (on GFMS) that potatoes do best in the ground. I can't dig this clay, hence the plan to grow it all in containers and raised beds. Will rethink next year because this is not an affordable hobby.

No it's not and every year at this time, we get new growers coming on here and saying exactly the same thing.
I tried growing in bags and found it a waste of time. So I have been saying that for a couple of years now. If it does work well, then that's all very good, but most of the time it doesn't. Certainly not worth buying a whole load of compost for.

You need to get some beds ready in the garden, raised beds as you say will be right for you. Although given in good faith, Mr BE's advice to dig then let the frosts break down the clods, isn't the right thing to do, but you will still find it in lots of gardening books, although mostly older.
You don't want your soil exposed over the winter ideally, you want it protected and covered up. So build your raised beds, they don't really have to be high, just a few inches, then cover them with as much organic material you can get and I mean lots.

Manure (check for weedkiller residue) leaf mould, compost, anything you can get, but ideally manure (rotted not fresh), as it is available in large quantities. Cover the bed to a depth of about 4 or 5 inches if you can, then it would be perfect if you could then cover it in cardboard.

It will remain protected over winter and next year you can remove what's left of the cardboard and fork over the soil. The worms should have done alot of the digging for you and it will be easier than digging now. It won't be perfect and another large dose of organic humus the following winter will do it another load of good. No weeds, easy digging, your choice.

morg_monster

Yes I think certainly the results from my potatoes in containers have been at best "mixed". The new potatoes (sharpes express) in morrisons buckets produced between 100g and 500g each ; but from just 1 seed potato each and getting hit by a late frost, I think that is not bad really. The 4 new potatoes in a big "potato growing bag" produced about 2kg but all in the bottom 6" of the bag, so not great.
I also have 2 growing bags with 3 roosters in each. I have high hopes for them as I stuck my finger in two random places in the top of the bag at the weekend and both times hit a 3" potato!
We don't have space for growing in the ground, so that's not an option, but I think I will do the new potatoes again next year in the buckets, but not sure about the maincrop, as the growing bags and foliage take up so much space and you can't really move them around.

Question - I am going to empty out one of the rooster bags at the weekend; I know that you are supposed to pull them up in the morning leave them out in the sun for the rest of the day to dry out and the skins to harden. If its damp again at the weekend, is it OK to bring them in and spread them out inside to dry out? Or is the direct sun important?
Also some sites (but not all) recommend cutting off the haulms a couple of weeks before digging up the potatoes. What's the benefit in this?

A._Badger

I'm a little puzzled by these reports of failures. Yesterday I harvested one of my bags of Charlottes and they were plentiful, though I can't say I weighed them.

I suspect there are a lot of factors at work here - but mostly variety, watering and feeding. The last two are vital - potatoes are hungry and thirsty brutes and need a lot to do their best. In bags, I make sure mine are kept watered and use Phostrogen at the rate of 2 tsps to 2 gallons every few days.

The thing you have to bear in mind is that you are, in effect, growing hydroponically when you use a growing bag - particularly if you use a soilless compost. These composts contain next to no minerals and so the plant is entirely dependent on what it is given by the grower. That's why I use a balanced high potash feed with trace elements.

One observation I would make about bags picks up on a comment Sarah Raven (I think) made, somwhere - that the business of earthing-up doesn't appear to do what it is suggested it does, when using bags. If you dig down into a bag of growing potatoes, they do not, as is often said, make more tubers as you earth them up. In fact, the tubers seem to be formed at the botom of the bag, regardless.

I have one of her books around and will see if I can find exactly what she says. It's an interesting comment because it suggests there may be a better approach to take than the one usually advocated.

Either way, more food and more water would be my recipe for success.

katholicos

A._Badger wrote: »

One observation I would make about bags picks up on a comment Sarah Raven (I think) made, somwhere - that the business of earthing-up doesn't appear to do what it is suggested it does, when using bags. If you dig down into a bag of growing potatoes, they do not, as is often said, make more tubers as you earth them up. In fact, the tubers seem to be formed at the botom of the bag, regardless.

I have one of her books around and will see if I can find exactly what she says. It's an interesting comment because it suggests there may be a better approach to take than the one usually advocated.

Either way, more food and more water would be my recipe for success.

From the results of my own potato growing experience, this years results were rather poor and i earthed up those potatoes every so often finding very few potatoes near the surface, most were in the bottom 6-8 inches. When i planted my Christmas seed potatoes last month I just filled the bags up almost to the top with compost...they are now all rampantly growing and look very healthy indeed. It will be interesting to see if there is any significant difference. I suspect that the Christmas potatoes will not suffer for not having been earthed up.