Topic: Potato growing

[garyp]

I am a new allotment owner and one of the crops I intend to grow is potatoes. Having read some books it has left me a bit confused. I have bought some second earlies(Charlotte) and maincrop(sante). The couple of things that I am not too sure about are planting out times and earthing up as against covering with black plastic. It would be great to hear from you of your experiences of growing spuds and methods used. Thanks.

[Sparky]

Have you/are you chitting them?  I am also new to all this but i posted a potato question on the produce area and got loads of helpful advice!!

Sparky

[rdak]

Hi there,
Well, I'm not an expert but until someone who knows what they're talking about replies, I'll give it a go. Firstly, I would treat the 2nd earlies and main crop the same, apart from when you plant them and when you harvest them. I'm sure the experts will have advice about other diffferences, but to keep it simple, I'd just treat them the same otherwise.

PLANTING
My second earlies (also Charlotte) will be going in some time late March to early April; and my main crop later in April.

HARVESTING
As for harvesting, I believe the most common time to harvest for 2nd earlies is shortly after the flowers appear. For maincrop I believe from what I've read here that it is best to wait until the foliage starts to die down.

As for earthing up or black plastic, well...there seem to be loads of different ways people use. My advice would be to earth up, purely because it's what I did last year and it worked, and it means you don't have to buy any black plastic! Once the plants reach a certain height (from memory, I think it may be 9 inches?) Just keep drawing up the soil from each side over the foliage to nearly bury it. You can use compost, well rotted manure or grass cuttings.

hope this helps

[rdak]

sparky- I wasn't suggesting you weren't an expert, but you posted whilst I was writing mine!  :)

[jethro]

Hi garyp, i've tried both methods and the best is earthing up, black plastic stops the digging but if you don't put pelleys under the covers the slugs devastate the crop  :(

[gavin]

Hi Garyp - in Leeds, I'll probably put my second earlies in the first week of April (?), and main crops the 3rd week.  Adapt for further north or south - and (more important) for actual weather.

<whisper mode>Actually my key date is the day the council cut the grass on the football fields around us - earlies go in the next day, and second earlies 3/4 days later, so that I can lay fresh cut grass in the bottom of my planting trenches!  Avoids problems with scab.</whisper mode>

In my first years on the plot, earthing up pots was a good way of clearing weeds on new beds;  earthing up also let me protect early plants against frost.  So I avoided black plastic - also I had then a lot of  slugs, and it just seemed daft to "give them an Ideal Home"!  

For the Charlottes, once the flowers appear, I'd try a plant every so often - and as soon as there are tubers of usable size, start harvesting as I need them.  Lots of new pots - and then lift them all within a month or six weeks.

The Sante - (a favourite of mine - clean; free of disease and pest; remarkably resilient, even to vandals' boots; good taste; and good keeping --- what more could I want!) - I reckon to harvest around late Sept.  If blight starts to affect the leaves, cut the foliage off, and harvest at least a couple of weeks later.  No blight? - wait till the foliage dies down.

Good luck - Gavin

[Sparky]

sparky- I wasn't suggesting you weren't an expert, but you posted whilst I was writing mine!  :)

I am far from being an expert...I am only just learning how to use this site!!!!  ;D

[Hugh_Jones]

Garyp, there is no great point in delaying planting of your Sante until mid-April.  Sante are an early maincrop, but like all maincrop potatoes they are daylength sensitive and the formation of tubers is not triggered until the days start to shorten immediately after midsummer`s day.  The size of the crop then depends largely on the size of the plants at that time. By planting earlier you therefore gain the advantage of larger plants when formation of tubers is provoked.

[gavin]

Sorry, Garyp, and thanks, Hugh!  Comes of looking back at last year only.

Going further back - and yes, I've planted early mains at the beginning of April. <blush!>

All best - Gavin  :)

[garyp]

Thanks for all your replies. It puts the flesh on the bones so to speak. The books gives you the bare bones, but it is always good to hear from people who have experience of growing. Sparky, yes I have started chitting the potatoes. I think this is were my confusion started. I ordered my potatoes through a seed catalogue. They had suggested planting times for the spuds. They delivered them in mid to late January so I followed from what books were saying and put them in old egg boxes. Its kinda of got me worried when I started to read further and started to read some stuff which said dont plant out until frosts have gone. Well this didnt make much sense as this wouldnt be until May!!! Its why I posed the question about planting times.