First Early Potatoes

jamieboy

Hi, I've bought some 1st early potatoes to grow in bags, is it too soon to plant them now.

Thanks in advance

trollopscarletwoman

jamieboy wrote: »

Hi, I've bought some 1st early potatoes to grow in bags, is it too soon to plant them now.

Thanks in advance

Have you chitted them? Some gardeners do, some don.t. Personally, I do. In my limited, unscientific trials I feel that I get a better return from chitted ones.

If the bags are going under cover and the answers are affirmative to both questions then I don't really see why not.

Its the frosts you have to look out for if you get quick growth. However, the foilage should be continously earthed up anyway.

The traditional time to plant in main garden is around St Patricks day which this year is March 17th.

By the way what type are they?

jamieboy

Thanks for your reply, they are Pentland Javelin and I haven't chitted them. I am going to grow them outside in bags so will probably have time to chit them then.

Thanks again, your reply was most helpfull.

trollopscarletwoman

jamieboy wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, they are Pentland Javelin and I haven't chitted them. I am going to grow them outside in bags so will probably have time to chit them then.

Thanks again, your reply was most helpfull.

Yes, there is plenty of time to plant. I'm growing some of those as well along with kestrel and rocket.

I actually keep back a few tubers, plant them in July/August and tip them out of a pot on christmas eve for christmas dinner.

I put them in the greenhouse when the first frosts arrive. Having said that some years I've just left the pot outside with frosts and all and they've still been fine.

jamieboy

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep some back as well. As you can probably guess I'm a novice at growing potatoes. I did plant some a couple of years ago in the garden but wasn't very successful.

Linda32

When you say that you were not very sucessful, can you remember what you did or what went wrong. Perhaps someone could give you some pointers there.

jamieboy

I didn't get many potatoes and the ones I did get were only very small.

Linda32

Okay, so how did you plant them? in bags or in the ground. Were they deep enough, do you remember whether you earthed them up. Did the foliage get caught by frost?

I do feel its is as important to know what goes wrong as much as what goes well.

Edited to add when you say a couple of years ago, do you mean not last summer but the summer before? If so, I wouldn't worry about that. It wasn't your fault it was the weather. It was a trully awful year for grow your own. No amount of perfect, by the book, work that you would have done could have altered that. Its just the way it goes, and for all we know this year could be the same.

safestored4

Whether you chit or not just be aware that Pentlnd Javalin isn't the earliest of earlies and allow for this. If you want a very early crop get some Rocket, as mentioned above, or Swift.

Choochi0

I found swift in Poundland of all places.

jamieboy

Edited to add when you say a couple of years ago, do you mean not last summer but the summer before? If so, I wouldn't worry about that. It wasn't your fault it was the weather. It was a trully awful year for grow your own. No amount of perfect, by the book, work that you would have done could have altered that. Its just the way it goes, and for all we know this year could be the same.[/QUOTE]

Yes I did mean the summer before last, the weather was bad but in hindsight, I don't think I planted them deep enough either.

Thanks for the info re Swift potatoes, I will have a look in poundland