New potatoes for Xmas

powershopper

Today I got some reduced price compost bags in Mr T's, and got to thinking about planting some potatoes for Xmas. MMMMM new spuds with Christmas dinner:j Unfortunately I don't know when to start, or wether I can get seed potatoes . Or should I take a chance and sprout some supermarket spuds. We have a greenhouse I could protect them in if we have another early spell of bad weather.
Absolutely ANY advice is welcome.:think::think:

ConcreteGarden

I was going to post a link to the sutton website but couldn't as I'm a newbie (in every sense of the word) as they have late potatoes showing as available there so it seems you can still plant potatoes even now. It even metions in there about leaving potatoes in the ground until Christmas.

I came across this yesterday when I searched late potatoes in google.co.uk. Should be easy to find.

adelight

99p store and wilko(massively reduced) have spuds for growing and big spud growing kits.

Farway

I just use Charlotte from Lidl, in a tub, but move into cold greenhouse come the autumn

The haulm may die back but the spuds will keep in the compost ready for Christmas

Somewhere is a thread on Christmas spuds, from memory plant sometime mid August to September, which gives them time to get going while weather is still warm

You may have to spray for potato blight this time of year

A._Badger

You can buy specially prepared 'second cropping' seed tubers (they are kept in a cold store for most of the summer) and if you are lucky with Smith periods (conditions when blight can attack) you should get quite a good crop, providing you get started now.

This year, I'm trying Orla, as it's reckoned to be quite resistant to blight, but I've done quite well in previous years with varieties like Charlotte.

You can probably find suitable seed potatoes in most decent garden centres.

Then again, if you're feeling lucky you could always try a few from your supermarket batch. What have you got to lose?

taxsaver

Am I understanding this right then..... you can simply plant some Charlotte potatoes that you buy in the supermarket for eating - just plant them and they'll grow? It may seem a stupid question, but I thought as people often referred to buying 'seed potatoes' that they were somehow 'special' IYSWIM.

gazza975526570

You can use "normal potatoes". Seed pots aree certified disease free.

Christmas potatoes really are not worth the time or effort IMHO - poor yields, faffing bringing them inside, protecting them from frosts. Much better to eat your own parsnips and sprouts on xmas day

A._Badger

gazza975526570 wrote: »

You can use "normal potatoes". Seed pots aree certified disease free.

Christmas potatoes really are not worth the time or effort IMHO - poor yields, faffing bringing them inside, protecting them from frosts. Much better to eat your own parsnips and sprouts on xmas day

I'd heard that opinion.

Then I tried it - successfully for four years.

I use large woven potato bags, multipurpose compost and regular doses of Phostrogen at high strength. I don't bother to bring the bags inside and get very useful crops at a time when new potatoes are expensive and bland.

Where you live may be factor. I'm in the sunny South, and it works well enough here for me to be doing it again.

gazza975526570

A._Badger wrote: »

I'd heard that opinion.

Then I tried it - successfully for four years.

I use large woven potato bags, multipurpose compost and regular doses of Phostrogen at high strength. I don't bother to bring the bags inside and get very useful crops at a time when new potatoes are expensive and bland.

Where you live may be factor. I'm in the sunny South, and it works well enough here for me to be doing it again.

Location will be a factor as im sure luck is to a degree. How did you manage to stop them freezing last year if you left them outside considering the really low temperatures last winter? Ive known many other try it with very disappointing results and the majority who try it do so only once

A._Badger

taxsaver wrote: »

Am I understanding this right then..... you can simply plant some Charlotte potatoes that you buy in the supermarket for eating - just plant them and they'll grow? It may seem a stupid question, but I thought as people often referred to buying 'seed potatoes' that they were somehow 'special' IYSWIM.

They are special in so far as they are disease free. They are also treated in the case of 'second cropping' types (with a cold period) so as not to need chitting.

You can use supermarket bought potatoes but you are reducing your chances of success. That said, what will it cost you to try?

People have curious ideas about how potatoes grow. During WWII, when food was rationed and scarce, it was common to save potato peelings and grow new ones from the 'eyes'. It works, but you run the risk of disease transmission.

A._Badger

gazza975526570 wrote: »

Location will be a factor as im sure luck is to a degree. How did you manage to stop them freezing last year if you left them outside considering the really low temperatures last winter? Ive known many other try it with very disappointing results and the majority who try it do so only once

Where I live (in Kent) temperatures didn't reach the low levels needed to penetrate a large compost-filled bag until after I had harvested the crop. The bags functioned, in effect, much like a traditional clamp.

In my experience, people who get bad results usually live in colder areas, are unlucky with blight (by far the most common cause of failure) or simply don't look after their crops very well.

I accept it's a gamble - but it's an inexpensive one.