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

sparrer

Just emptied three of the ten tubs of 'Swift', to harvest the grand total of 1/2 kilo very small potatoes. Will do the rest tomorrow, but definitely will not be buying Swift again, very disappointing. Looking forward to getting my Spring Rocket in, they gave a very good crop last year.

On the other hand, and I know this is off topic, I've been having some yummy hg raspberries (from the freezer, not freshly picked!) with yogurt for breakfast this week .

[Deleted User]

maincrop cara was mushy so I had to either roast or mash them. I believe it was the weather and it was a common problem but it really did put me off cara. I had about 110 lbs from 15 seed potatoes but they all had holes of some sort in them. I decided to not grow maincrop this year and will await my seed potatoes from t and m with bated breath, they always send stuff last minute. Lady christi, charlotte and kestrel ordered this year but I can see me only ordering the first two next year if we have a drought again this summer

blushingbride_3

hi everyone

got potatoes in £land at the moment, is it to early to buy and chit now?

Sally_A

I bought 3kg of Charlottes in Homebase today for £6, not the cheapest, but they were a good size and the rose ends looked ready to go. That equates to approx 44 seeds spuds, so I just need to get some first earlies and some maincrop.


Am hoping to get 40 -60 Sant! for maincrop, and maybe 20 for a first early.

Homebase say they will be getting more in, but I might have to pop into local garden centres as I'm passing to see what's in the offing :cool:

NaughtySpot

I wonder if someone can advise me please?

I have never grown potatoes before, but would like to grow some early ones this year, and maybe something else too. It's mainly to show my son where veg comes from (he's two so it needs to be simple), and because I love new potatoes!

I want to grow them in tubs, as I do not have a big garden and no room for a veg bed.

My (daft) questions are:

Does one seed potato equal one potato plant which in turn grows many potatoes?

Do they grow in ordinary compost?

How many plants should I put in a tub about 18 inches diameter?

Thanks in advance:)

Sally_A

It's not the width of the pot, it's the depth that counts. A very simple method is to turn a compost sack inside out (they tend to be printed on the outside, black on the inside). In an average sized bag (is that a 70l bag?), I'd plant about 3. the downside is you need to find somewhere that will sell you just 3 seed potatoes as most packs are approx 20, and also you'll need a supply of good soil you canearth up the bag with.

If you pay £5 for a 70l bag with soil, you will probably get around 5lb of new spuds, probably slightly more than you would pay in the shops.

Just to let you know, it's not necessarily the cheapest option, but they taste great, and when it comes to harvesting, finding little golden nuggets of spud in the soil brings a smile to your face.

DebtFree2012

Hi

Can someone advise me what first, second, maincrop potatoes are please?

Thank you

Jonnytwotimes

Hi, Im off to the garden center tomorrow. Could somebody please recommend some potato varieties that would be good for boiling roasting mashing basically all round that will grow well in bags.

Thanks

Sally_A

Jonnytwotimes - if you only have room to grow in bags, go a for a first early, and aim to grow as a boiling/salad/new potato variety.

It's not really money saving, but will give you a new potato taste when new spuds are pricey in the shops.

Continue to buy for the roasting/mashing variety.

DebtFree2012

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Hi

Can someone advise me what first, second, maincrop potatoes are please?

Thank you

I've now found out