Potatoes - where to start? (Merged Thread)

~Chameleon~

Biggles wrote: »

You don't actually want to cover the leaves up with soil (except when they could be vulnerable to frosts), the first objective of growing potatoes is to get the plant growing tall and healthy.

Once the plants are about 9 inches tall, you start to earth up around their stems. This isn't to cover the leaves but to protect the growing tubers from the light (which would turn them green and, incidentally, poisonous). You will then have a mound with the leaves sticking out of the top. Keep an eye on the mounds for any signs of the potatoes, it may be necessary to mound up again to protect them, as rain washes the soil away.

Have a look at Potatoes under the 'Growing Vegetables' link on Paul's Garden World http://www.powen.freeserve.co.uk/

I'm glad I read this first before going down the garden to earth my spuds which are just starting to come through! I take it I leave them be until they've grown a bit taller then just earth up around the stems?

Also, I have some rooster spuds in my kitchen that I've noticed have chitted all by themselves. Is it worth me trying to grow some of them in the garden? I love these spuds but have heard that you're not supposed to grow supermarket spuds

carole.uk

sorry I am a little confused if the stem on my potatoes is green does that mean that the potatoes below are poison and i have to throw away

Biggles

carole.uk wrote: »

sorry I am a little confused if the stem on my potatoes is green does that mean that the potatoes below are poison and i have to throw away

Green is a fairly normal colour for a plant stem. I would be worried if it were pink or blue.
;-)

The reason for earthing-up is purely to make sure the tubers, when they start to develop, remain fully covered by earth. Without doing that, they would be partly visible above the surface, and the light would then turn them green.

If you have a look at the link to Paul's Garden World (above), you will see that there are other ways (covering the roots in black polythene etc), but earthing-up is the normal, traditional method and the simplest.

carole.uk

thanks Biggles i just read the link i was just confused because it is the first time i have grown potatoes , they are in a large pot that i think i over crowded. i have planted some more yesterday and only put three sprouting potatoes in so will see how they go. Also when they flowerand the flowers die is that the time you dig them up thanks again

dazza001

I planted a supermarket potato which had about 3 or 4 eyes I think, left it to develop shoots as I was told to, then planted it in a big tub about 6 inches deep. It did start to grow shoots, then leaves then it just kept growing upwards, about 6 shoots developed in total.
They all just kept growing straight up.
It didnt look anything like what I had seen in pictures, which were more like a bush with lots of leaves, whereas mine was just six shoots(about 2 foot long) and starting to fall over.
So I left them for about 8 week and decided to dig them up.
All I had was my original potato with all these shoots coming from it.
No sign of any other potatoes.

The only thing that I didn't do is earth up, which I didnt know about at the time, I just planted the potato and thought lets see what happens.

I was speaking to someone who said that they had done exactly what I had done and they got a bush rather than just straight shoots and they also got potatoes, so I am not sure what happed.

Any ideas?

Cheers

wornoutmumoftwo

This is the first time I've ever tried to grow my own veg and I have a question on potatoes, I planted some in a container and didn't earth up (I know I've done this wrong), my question is, how do you grow potatoes in the ground as you can't earth them can you?

Hopefully I don't sound too thick, just curious.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

when you plant in the ground, you shovel soil around the stem in a mound to keep the sun from turning the potatoes near the top green..
Its probably not too late to do it to your tubs if you have room.. im growing in tubs and bins..the ones in the tubs got about 6" high and i threw more compost over them so only about 3" was sticking out....
hope that helps

wornoutmumoftwo

Thank you, I think it's too late for the one's I've got in the tub as it's filled to the top but I have an empty tub that I can use to plant some more in, I planted some in the ground but nothing has come through the soil just yet.

1jim

at what point do you pick potatoes, am growing them in old compost bags for the first time this year and just had a sudden thought that dont know when they are "ready"
thanks
Jim

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

This is my 1st year too.. but my grandad and now my mum always said/say that they are ready when the flowers start to die.. You can get them earlier but you get a better and bigger crop if you leave them that bit longer