Potatoes: Buying, Chitting, Planting, Earthing Up; Harvesting.

Sally_A

No, go for it.....I've got some maincrop Sante here that I ran out of room for, I'm now planning on planting them later for new potatoes in late summer/early autumn. The chits are small and plump, not leggy.

It may work, it may not......won't know 'til I try.

greenmoneysaver_2

We just bought a bag of Maris Piper for 50p inHomebase. Already chitted!

Hope they work! They had Roosters there. . .

Lotus-eater

Sally_A wrote: »

Personal Notes: The blackbirds have been singing mating songs around here for the past week, a bit earlier than I would have thought, so am anticipating a warmer spring - If I'm wrong I have no chance of suing the birds

Who's a clever girl then, you got that totally right and you wrote it in Jan!

Any predictions for the summer to come, or the 3.30 at Haymarket?

[Deleted User]

I just learnt a bit more about blight. I was assuming it depended on a warm temperature as well as humidity but not so

http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp

it would appear to be important to keep a good eye on humidity if you have a weather station and be prepared to act

If conditions are right for blight then would it be feasible to protect the crop by cutting the haulm off and taking it away, assuming that you don`t have blight resistant potatoes?

Lotus-eater

kittie wrote: »

I just learnt a bit more about blight. I was assuming it depended on a warm temperature as well as humidity but not so

http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp

it would appear to be important to keep a good eye on humidity if you have a weather station and be prepared to act

If conditions are right for blight then would it be feasible to protect the crop by cutting the haulm off and taking it away, assuming that you don`t have blight resistant potatoes?

Get blightwatch to send you an alert when a smith period is suspected. They do it for free.

You aren't really protecting your crop by taking the haulms off, you are stopping it I suppose. If you get blight, then you can go round and then take all the haulms off and leave the spuds for a week or 2, then dig them up, they should be fine. I've done this most years.
But before then, before you get blight, unless you don't want them to grow any more, it seems not right to cut them off.

annie123

blightwatch alert by text is good (no point in me looking on their site as I'm in London and they told me they only mark farm sites) except last year it told me the day after I spotted it on my spuds but I did get 2 other warnings later in the year.
Never had it before and hope I don't get it again.

I removed all the affected haulms and left those that looked ok but checked every few hours.
Tatties tasted fine.

pinkcandyflossprincess

hi
I have some potatoes in a potato growbag - i dug around and they have lots of shoots/roots on now-
do i turn them over so roots point upwards as saw on a site the green comes out top then mni potatoes grow underneath and should i move them more up to the surface?
as you can see ive never grown veg before:o

Lotus-eater

pinkcandyflossprincess wrote: »

hi
I have some potatoes in a potato growbag - i dug around and they have lots of shoots/roots on now-
do i turn them over so roots point upwards as saw on a site the green comes out top then mni potatoes grow underneath and should i move them more up to the surface?
as you can see ive never grown veg before:o

I'm trying to work out what you mean, but the answer is no (whatever it is ) just leave them alone and stop digging around in there, plants grow much better when the roots are left alone!

pinkcandyflossprincess

http://www.potato2008.org/en/kids/grow.html

sad I know:eek:
the pic shows the growth going upwards whilst my potatoes are growing downwards-should i turn them:o
Im tragically happy they have grown at all so have to fumble my tatties- i have no other excuse:eek::o

Sally_A

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Who's a clever girl then, you got that totally right and you wrote it in Jan!

Any predictions for the summer to come, or the 3.30 at Haymarket?

Dunno about Haymarket, but I got a vision of a pineapple., tried to google haymarket events, but it all seems a bit sparse.

My vibes say - think pineapple related name, in a pinky purple outfit :cool::cool: