All Year Round Tatties

uncommonadvice

Is there a way that I could ensure a potato harvest every month of the year? I have a huge garden a nice big Greenhouse.

Ken68

My neighbour grows potatoes in a tub, plants them Valentines Day ?Feb and harvests about three months later. Doubt if it's economic for a large crop.Costs of heating. Are you thinking of a cold greenhouse plus fleece ?

Leif

Potatoes keep a fair while, so you could ensure a supply all year, with new potatoes in the spring. Bob Flowerdew plants early varieties from the Winter solstice ~21 December. It is unclear whether or not these are in his polytunnel, I suspect they are.

uncommonadvice

Yep to cold greenhouse.

A._Badger

uncommonadvice wrote: »

Yep to cold greenhouse.

But is it frost-proof? If it isn't you would be fighting a battle with low light levels against you, too. I'm doubtful - maybe in Cornwall you could manage it, but not many other places.

cyclonebri1

uncommonadvice wrote: »

Is there a way that I could ensure a potato harvest every month of the year? I have a huge garden a nice big Greenhouse.

I "harvest" them every week of the year, never mind every month.






But I do shop at Tesco.

But seriously, my father had a small holding, I well remember him and grand pop making potato "clamps" to hold tats over winter.

You dig a hollow, fill with straw, then fill will tats then cover in more straw and finally cover with the soil dug from the hollow.

Age old way of doing it, but it still works, (but is it really worth it)?

Funky_Bold_Ribena

You can just grow the potatoes in compost bags, and tip one out each month. They won't grow during winter so you'd need 1/2 bags for each week that you want them to be harvested and they would need to be put all in by the end of August.

Leif

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

(but is it really worth it)?

That sums up my feelings about a lot of home grown produce, unless money is tight. Some stuff is worth growing, such as mange tout, some stuff is surely best bought at the supermarket, unless you grow hard to get varieties. I tried Maya Gold potatoes once, lovely, impossible to find in the shops.

cyclonebri1

Leif wrote: »

That sums up my feelings about a lot of home grown produce, unless money is tight. Some stuff is worth growing, such as mange tout, some stuff is surely best bought at the supermarket, unless you grow hard to get varieties. I tried Maya Gold potatoes once, lovely, impossible to find in the shops.

I totally agree, if you can cultivate stuff you love and can't find in the shops then that is the best reason for growing it.

The problem that a lot of "amatuer" gardeners face is trying to grow things that pitch you against the odds.

Yes new spuds out of the garden or a bin are great, but to try to grow them all year round makes it hard work and stacks the odds in favour of disappointment, and that's the worst thing you need.

I'm not being totally specific to this topic, but if anyone ever asked me to give one tip in general to budding gardeners it would be this;

"Grow things in your garden that want to actually grow, don't fight losing battles"

Now I'm not a defeatist, I like a challenge as much as anyone else but I also like reliable cropping hence my comments;);)


My nemesis?, dam asparagus, just can't get it to survive, but for some reason I keep trying although I know it isn't really worth it.


There is 1 point I disagree on though, the comment "unless money is tight".
I don't think there is a gardener around who honestly believes they are saving money by growing their own, we have very different reasons for doing it "our" way

Leif

You can save money by growing your own, if you have a decent sized garden. The cost of driving to and from an allotment probably cancels any gains. But, some home grown produce does taste better.

A._Badger

While I generally agree about the lack of potential for money saving (and I get really irritated by moronic TV programmes and cleb 'gardeners', telling the gullible they can feed their families with no effort, no knowledge and no space), I know I can save money on expensive berry fruits. Red currants, black currants and raspberries (to name just three) are expensive to buy and cheap to grow..