Potatoes - where to start? (Merged Thread)

lindseykim13

from what i have gathered (haha) you will have small baby pots when the plants are in flower the longer you then leave them the bigger the pots get, however once the plant starts dying you need to pull them up then anyway. correct me if i'm wrong anyone?

ChocolateMonkey

Not sure if I can add anything but I emptied my first potato bag last week which I had planted some purple producing seeds into. I emptied it before the flowers had appeared as the plants were taking over my back door but the crop was quite small although I had a few nicely sized potatoes. I've decided to leave the other plants until they flower.

Emmy_L

Bumping this,cause I could really do with knowing the answer to the OP's question myself (cheeky,I know )

arkonite_babe

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wallbash

As the shops are now full of Jersey Royals, the first potatoes of the year

If you dont live SOUTH of jersey :rolleyes: your potatoes are not yet ready !
Patience is a virtue ...... and gives you bigger spuds!

Newgirl_2

Thanks to mods for moving my post, I did a search for this thread before I started but couldn't find it

Thanks also for the answers.

Newgirl

arkonite_babe

I will lift my spuds once the tops start dying down later in the year. the flowers are only coming onto mine now.

HTH

~Chameleon~

I'll ask this again here and hope for third time lucky

Is it true that you can encourage a higher yield of potatoes if you remove the flowers before they start fruiting (i.e. going to seed) or will the plants just die down anyway?

Jack's_mummy

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I'll ask this again here and hope for third time lucky

Is it true that you can encourage a higher yield of potatoes if you remove the flowers before they start fruiting (i.e. going to seed) or will the plants just die down anyway?

No idea but it would make sense. ( I couldn't let you go without any answer again)

~Chameleon~

Jack's_mummy wrote: »

No idea but it would make sense. ( I couldn't let you go without any answer again)

Thanks hun

It makes sense to me too as removing the flowers from bulbs etc allows them to concentrate putting their energy back into the bulbs so maybe potatoes work in the same way

Anyhow, I've decided to do a little experiment as I have one row of spuds now in full flower so I'm going to remove the flowers from half of them and see if it makes any significant difference to the yield

Is anyone else growing cara and pink fir apple? I can't remember which row is which now One has red stems and darker green leaves (I think that might be pink fir) and the other has green stems and lighter green leaves with white/yellow flowers.

Oh, and for anyone wondering about whether it's too late to plant any spuds, I put some roosters into bags and pots about 3 weeks ago (ones I found chitting in the kitchen) and already they've almost caught up in growth to the ones I put in the ground in April!!!! So I say go for it!

I've got some Emerald Vale (earlies I think) that I never got around to planting as I ran out of space but now I've cleared some winter brassicas I'm going to put them in and see what happens. Hopefully they should be ready to dig up in Sept/Oct