Topic: Potatoes and impatience!

[posie]

Ok, so I'm probably being impatient - but I put in some 1st earlies about 2 weeks ago, how soon before they start showing something through the soil?? Reason I ask is because the bed needs weeding and I don't want to hack the wrong thing!! Nothing to do with being impatient I promise!!  ;D

Oh and same with Early Nantes carrots!

[goodlife]

As the weather and soil is still on a cool side I would not expect to see any top growth for at least 4 weeks from planting...
With carrots...I would not go too close to them as you will disturb the seeds..they take few weeks to come through too..
As what comes to hacking....I think gently, gently approach would be better when you work around potential plants... ;)
Can you leave the weeding around carrots, or maybe just carefully remove larger weed tops...don't pull roots, until you have some carrot seedlings..then you can weed and thin the rows same time.

[theothermarg]

Put my 1sts in yesterday (Accent) OH likes spuds so takes a interest but,what a performance :o OH was a in the building trade and was digging a trench as though he was laying drains.as we had dug manure in I didn,t want to go deeper the a spades depth and we agreed last year the shallow ones were better. he argued that it wasn,t too deep then had a hissie fit cuz I said he,d banked them up too high and said he had only put back what he had dug out
well yes my point exactly! he then said he,d had enough and wanted to go home. I refused to discuss it any more untill he was in a better mood
anybody want a 62 year old teenager?
sorry if this wandered off but the title was potatoes and impatience ;D
marg

[littlebabybird]

anybody want a 62 year old teenager?

i'll swap for a 16 year old for a week or 2

[lorna]

 ;D ;D ;D@ the other marg
Now you know neither of you would part with them (well maybe for a short break?)

[cambourne7]

well i would happily have the teenager (anyage) if he helped my hubbie hates comming to the allotment and i have to bribe him to come up and help. Usualy with beer.

[posie]

4 weeks - that long? are we nearly there yet?! rofl

I've got some bits that I can weed as the beds are 5ft wide and I know it was the first foot that anything was planted in on each bed.  Ok so hacking is out - I do tend to get a little violent when it comes to weeding I must admit lol

As for the recalcitrant hubbie and sons - have to say my kids are pretty enthusiastic as long as I provide pasties and let them sling mud at each other occasionally  ;D

[littlebabybird]

oh all of them love comeing to the lotty, its just at home they are a pain

in truth i couldnt do it without the 16 year old, he has done all the digging
14 year old is in charge of muck and the girls (11, 9 and 6) potter lol

[posie]

I do the digging, the boys do the chucking stuff in wheelbarrow and shifting it to compost heap and my my Grandmother does the sucking in through the teeth - "you don't wanna do it like that" routine.  ;D

[Tin Shed]

My teenage son, when he was at home and not round at a friend's house was usually horizontal, either in bed or on the settee!
He's now 19yrs and absolutely brilliant and will come with me to do the lifting when I go to Wickes and get the bags of compost. I do have to go home via the drive through McD on the way home ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

If I'm not sure, I wait till whatever it is comes up. then there should be a row of one particular plant, and it becomes obvious which one you want.

[Vortex]

If the weeds are less than 2" high don't bother - when you earth up the potatoes they'll just get buried.
I'm not sowing my carrots till next weekend - weather permitting.

[antipodes]

ha ha the thread started off with potatoes and ended up with our couch potato hubbies :D
Well can't complain, cambourne yours is like mine, but yesterday he was kind enough to come fix my compost bin which is falling over again. He is a surveyor so he turns a blind eye to my wonky rows, and un-edged beds, although I know they must make him rage!! ha ha ha
As for spuds (real ones) yes my earlies have been in for a couple of weeks and I am impatient too, but in turning over the leek bed yesterday I found some surprise spuds from last year and they are sprouting under the soil just now so I imagine the genuine McCoy are doing the same thing. I think some green growth will probbaly show in the next 8-10 days. so be patient a bit longer. Potatoes have quite distinctive leaves, I recognize them now, they are close to the ground. Perhaps you could just pull off the weedy bits that you recognize?

[greenfinger]

Just put the potatoes in this weekend under snow and hale!!

I'm worried I've put them too deep. hubby was keen enough to dig but he's already made a mount on top of them, meaning that they are more than a spade deep.

are they going to take ages coming through?  :-\ or they might not come through at all!!  :'(they are on a bed of manure so i'm hoping they'lll be ok

what do you recon experience gardeners? ??? ???

[star]

They'll be fine dont expect to see much for a few weeks, specially if its cold. If you have any black plastic you could cover the rows for a week or so till this freezing weather goes away. I have covered mine at home.

The plastic will absorb any suns rays through the day and warm the soil to keep your spuds cosy ;)

[pippy]

Don't worry - mine were a bit deep last year and took about 5 weeks to come through!  They did okay eventually though.  You won't mistake them for weeds as they are quite distinctintive and the regular spacing is a giveaway.


And as for the teenagers - in my experience girls go into their bedrooms at 14 and come out at 21 !  ;D ;D
At least thats what my step daugthers have done - the 17 yr old is still in there (except for food and a computer of course!) and the 25 year old is off and away and sooo nice to know now.  Persevere if you can!

[goodlife]

potatoes are tough plants...they will come through ...
Last spring I laid row a slabs over the bed that was previous year growing potatoes...and I missed some... I had to keep weeding potato tops off from narrow gaps between slabs...all summer..as they kept growing...I bet I didn't kill them and I'll be doing same this summer...but I am not going to lift the slabs and dig the bleeders out...
Not even the wet summer managed to kill them off even everything else were suffering...water levels rised into greenhouse soil and killed everything there...
Potatoes did extremely well...even with blight..  

[posie]

Thanks for all the replies - I've weeded over the rest of the bed and left about 2ft width alone so that I didn't disturb anything, and same with the carrot bed.  I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait! God I'm worse than my kids lol  ;D