growing potatoes in an empty compost bag? (Merged Thread)

Alan_Cross

arkonite_babe wrote: »

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"][EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/email][/EMAIL]

Thanks for moving it.

Wow, reading all the thoughts on this thread will take longer than growing the Maris Pipers!

rinroo

Just a quick question,

I was going to buy a potato barrel, but they are a little expensive. I have just got a new kitchen bin so my old one is waiting to be skipped. Its a metal pedal bin but with a plastic insert inside. Its deep but not very wide, would this be ok for growing spuds in.

Lotus-eater

You can use an old compost bag, I used the old paper recycling boxes from work, some people use buckets.
You can use anything you like, potatoes aren't snobbish and don't care what they are in.

the_grizz

Hi everyone, i'm a bit new to this gardening malarky, did a few things last year, and trying again. Just bought some seed potatoes and put them on the windowsill in egg boxes to chit, how do i store the other seed potatoes so they dont start chitting also?

Lotus-eater

the_grizz wrote: »

Hi everyone, i'm a bit new to this gardening malarky, did a few things last year, and trying again. Just bought some seed potatoes and put them on the windowsill in egg boxes to chit, how do i store the other seed potatoes so they dont start chitting also?

Why don't you want to chit them?

the_grizz

Lotus-eater, don't want them all coming through at the same time, i have proberly bought more than i can use, 2 x packs for £5 @ B&Q, plus space is a lot smaller than i would really like, the wife still wants her flowers.

Lotus-eater

Just keep them in a cool dark place. I still don't understand what you are doing though, if you haven't got enough space, what does it matter if they are chitted or not?
Unless you are planning to do one crop after the other? Good luck if you are, you'll need it with blight.

Alan_Cross

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Just keep them in a cool dark place. I still don't understand what you are doing though, if you haven't got enough space, what does it matter if they are chitted or not?
Unless you are planning to do one crop after the other? Good luck if you are, you'll need it with blight.

Is blight a problem if you plant in fresh compost each time..?

Lotus-eater

Its not really to do with the compost, although apparently blight can come from overwintering things in the soil, its unlikely.
Blight comes in the air and the spores settle on the leaves, although if you keep your leaves dry, they have a much better chance of not getting blight.
For that reason you should never water the leaves of potatoes and tomatoes.

jaffacat_2

hi my pentland javelin have been chitting siince 20/1 however they started off a bit but dont seem to be doing much since - they are on the windowsill, do you think this is too cold for them?

A friend gave me a selection of swift which had started chitting and they seem to be going well.

Is it the type do you think as both are on the window sill

Thanks