Potatoes - where to start? (Merged Thread)

wurzelsar

You can remove a few of the shoots on chitted potatoes if you like. This is supposed to produce fewer shoots but larger spuds.

Plant out the chitted spuds first and then chit the others and plant out later.

My grandfather never chitted his maincrop spuds. They were planted as they came and he always had a fantastic crop.But I would chit early potatoes to give them a head start.

I had some earlies left over last year and they were planted in May. We had a good crop from them.

A really tasty potato is Marfona. Great boiled, lovely flavour and creamy. Also makes a really good baked spud. One of my favourites.

GreenNotM

soba wrote:

? Also, does each one of the 'chits' produce a potato? !!

Hi Soba

When you come to plant the seed potatoes have the chits upwards, rub off the ones on the bottom - the chits form the shoots/green tops, not the tubers/potatoes, which form on the roots.

As you earth up ( bury the green shoots with soil ) more roots will form and hence more tubers aka potatoes ..... that is the traditional method ( more here http://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/crops/potato.asp)

HTH but they will grow if you plant them upside down anyway

wurzelsar

GreenNotM wrote:

Hi Soba

When you come to plant the seed potatoes have the chits upwards, rub off the ones on the bottom - the chits form the shoots/green tops, not the tubers/potatoes, which form on the roots.

As you earth up ( bury the green shoots with soil ) more roots will form and hence more tubers aka potatoes ..... that is the traditional method ( more here http://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/crops/potato.asp)

HTH but they will grow if you plant them upside down anyway

If you leave 2 or 3 shoots on top they will produce larger spuds.
The roots come from the shoots and therefore the shoots do produce the spuds.
The more you earth them up, the better your crop.

katskorner

Pentland Javelin are pretty slug-resistant too. We had a cracking crop from them last year and we are still eating them now. I have my new seed ones to start chitting. I will plant altogether this year but raise when they are ready.

I am not growing quite so many this year! I had four varieties last year and filled nine 2m by 1m beds with them. I have still 2/3 of a Kestrel bed to dig up - from last years crop - dug some up on Sunday and they were gorgeous! Just rubbed off the shoots that is all! (My excuse - I had a baby last year so didn't have too much time to allotment as madly as usual!!)

nuttyrockeress

I planted my seed potatoes about 3 weeks ago now, only thing is I planted them in a tub and put about 8 in :eek:

Now they are starting to sprout - lots of it.

Am I ok to go in and move them into a seperate pot/split them or will this cause problems?

Tam_Lin

Yes I think you'd be okay to move them - carefully. Try not to break the roots as that's where the baby potatoes form.

almond

hi
have never grown potatoes can anybody give me the run down
where do I get them from etc. how I plant them.
I am a good gardener but never bothered with veg its just my partner
wants to have ago and I think it would be great to get him involved in
gardening.
thanks

mjr600

You may struggle to get hold of seed potatoes now, they go early at garden centres and the catalogues don't tend to post them this late.

If you do however there is nothing to it, find a patch of nice soft earth and put them in 4-6 inch down, a foot apart, I used a bulb planter this year because I couldn't be bothered digging a trench, its perfect for planting at a good depth.

They need damp ground to get a good crop, you should have green tops in two weeks then a week later earth them up, covering the tops with soil is said to produce a bigger crop.

Harvest when the tops have wilted, there really is nothing much to do for a good crop.

Lord_Gardener

Place any potato (if you can't get seed) in soil, compost, grass/cuttings/news paper mix (can be in ground, pots, bags, dustbins, etc.) keep damp and mounded up and you'll get a result - they'll grow almost anywhere!!

Jayar

I'm with Lord Gardener on this one. If I buy a potato from the supermarket that I particularly likem I usually make a point of sticking a couple in the ground or in a big pot. I don't get enormous crops from them, but enough for the two of us.
One potato I have found to do particularly well is the salad potato from Lidl