I have an allotment - yay!

ally18

Hi,

I have had my allotment for 4 days so far and have made a start on clearing it.

Can I ask exactly what are early potatoes? I've been looking at all the choices in the centres but as you can tell, I'm a novice. I started veg growing in my garden last year on a small corner of my lawn that I dug up. I had 3 potatoes from Mr Ts that started sprouting before I used them so stuck them in the ground and they grew! I ended up with just over 6lb in weight of potatoes, the majority of which were small new potatoes but had two large potatoes that ended up being baked as well.

I have some more potatoes which now have large shoots on them, can't I just put these in the ground or do I have to buy special ones?

Many thanks for any advice.

mrsscattercushion

Congratulations on your allotment, we've had ours since October and it is great fun, clearing ours at present.


yes, you can be successful with growing potatoes from supermarket bought ones, although the best yields can come from seed potatoes that are chitted before putting them in.


In terms of "early", it just refers to the timing of the potatoes for harvesting...earlies are the first potatoes, often there are "second earlies" and then "maincrop" which are later in the season, need more space and best for storing....I'm growing small amount of earlies, salad and maincrop this year.

ally18

Thankyou for that, so really I just put the potatoes in at different points throughout the year so they grow at different times, makes sense .

I'm going to sow the ones in the cupboard and see what happens instead of them going in the bin.

ally18

Sow the ones I have in the bag in the cupboard. :rotfl:ykwim

mrsscattercushion

good luck with those! you can actually plant the different types of potatoes in at similar times, it is the time they take until ready for harvesting that means they are spread out....most of mine will be in end of March if the weather holds

ally18

Just realised I made a mistake on the weight I got in potatoes last year, it was 2.5kg not 6lb!

McKneff

Hi there, well done on getting your allotment. We have had ours since February and are still clearing, digging and weeding.
Could I suggest you buy 'Allotment Gardening for Dummies' from Amazon, it is invaluable to us novices.


We also bought a brilliant little radio from there which needs no batteries. Wind up/solar charge/ usb charge.


Good luck with it all.

ally18

McKneff wrote: »

Good luck with it all.

Hi, thanks very much, I can't wait to get back to it as only managed 4 hours digging at the weekend. I have to clear the whole plot to start off with. It has lots of rhubarb coming up so that has been weeded and some small raspberry plants are appearing all over the place so need to move them into a line somewhere.

Looking like rain though this weekend.

wellused

As for the question of potatoes last year I grew first early and maincrop and they all did well although I became very worried about late blight and had to keep an eye on the blight forecast which you will find on blightwatch.co.uk, I chose to spray my maincrop potatoes on a couple of occasions as I didn't want to lose them to blight after all the hard work that I had put in growing them. This year I have bought first early and second early cutting the amount of maincrop by half as the first and second early are usually ready for lifting before the late blight hits. Good luck with the lottie.

trollopscarletwoman

ally18 wrote: »

Hi,

I have had my allotment for 4 days so far and have made a start on clearing it.

Can I ask exactly what are early potatoes? I've been looking at all the choices in the centres but as you can tell, I'm a novice. I started veg growing in my garden last year on a small corner of my lawn that I dug up. I had 3 potatoes from Mr Ts that started sprouting before I used them so stuck them in the ground and they grew! I ended up with just over 6lb in weight of potatoes, the majority of which were small new potatoes but had two large potatoes that ended up being baked as well.

I have some more potatoes which now have large shoots on them, can't I just put these in the ground or do I have to buy special ones?

Many thanks for any advice.

Generally you buy seed potatoes which are certified virus free. Early is a bit of a misnomer because I even plant some in a pot in July/august for new potatoes on christmes day.

You will find that spuds that you have missed when harvesting will grow the following season. And can produce.

Varieties- Kestrel, Rocket, Pentland Javenlin. Swift et al.

ally18

Thanks for your replies, well I spent another 3 hours there on Saturday just before the rain came. I got another 3 good rows dug over and cleared and I put my Pentland Javelin earlies in but was told afterwards, I hadn't made my mounds high enough :rotfl:. Not to worry, I will do it different next time.

Also cleared a patch at the other end where my ground borders someone elses so I have 3 fruit bushes there now and a compost bin made out of pallets.

Looking for an old shed so I can leave tools there and not keep having to go in the car.

Really enjoying it so far, the sun is out now but I'm in work