Topic: Just dug up 6 rows of potatoes...do you have one of these moments...

[kippers garden]

I have just dug up 6 rows of potatoes while my girls and hubby washed them and left them to dry.  They dried in the sun and i was really pleased....on the way home one of our water bottles leaked all over one of my sack of potatoes, so again they are out in my garden drying ....then i put all our dirty clothes in my washing machine and the water wouldn't drain, so i drained all the water and cleaned the filter...this didn't work so i had to drain all the water out again so i could get the washing out.  Hubby is at the laundrette now while i'm cooking tea and i ache and i'm so tired!

I know my potatoes will be worth it when we eat them, but at the moment i wonder why i don't just get them from Tesco's.....does anyone else have these moments?

[saddad]

Similar ones often....  ;D

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

look on the bright side- there's probably a post here from times gone by that started - I have just dug up 6 rows of potatoes AND THERE WEREN'T ANY THERE!

[kippers garden]

Marvellous

 ;D ;D ;D

[posie]

Yep - every time I go up lottie and discover the weeds having a rave up on the plot!  However squishing a snail makes me feel better lol  ;D

[misterroy]

Hi there, next time dont bother washing the potatoes, they store better without the wash.

[davyw1]

Hi there, next time don't bother washing the potatoes, they store better without the wash.

Nobody will disagree with that, but due to the amount of rain one would need to give every potato a good inspection for blight and slug attack so the good ones get bagged and the damaged ones get put to one side to be used first as they wont store. If you put one slightly blighted or rotten potato  in the sack it will spread the rot to the others.

[calendula]

not so much 'one of those moments' more a way of life  ;D

[tim]

None of mine have 'gone over' yet - September is our usual lifting time.

[Hyacinth]

I read this post earlier this morning & it spurred me to go to lift mine because the foliage was so tatty, and then I've just washed them so that I can inspect them properly. They're drying now.

Nothing remarkable in all this except that I didn't plant potatoes this year - or last year either :o

Looking at my book, in 2006 I planted Foremost, Arran Pilot, Kestrel, Desiree and Cara, with Belle de Fontenay in tubs. The pots planted in the ground were grown in the area previously used as a compost area. I assume that this year I must have moved the soil from there to the main veggie patches, because that's where they started to appear. Last year I was travelling a lot and didn't grow anything except garlic, onions & psb. There were no signs of 'volunteers' last year. As the plants started to appear this spring I lifted them and replanted them in a row - and these are the ones I've just lifted...

And some are HUGE! weighing in at 200g...The red ones I can identify (Desiree?) but haven't a clue about the others....

So, I'm curious...for how long can 'volunteers' lie dormant before they stir their stumps, or do you think these are all from seed?

Whatever, I'm well-pleased with this morning's crop and I think I'm earmarking the 200g whoppers for chips. Been a long long time since I've cooked chips :D

[Robert_Brenchley]

Volunteers can potentially go on for years; it depends how good you are at getting them out! The plant only needs to produce the smallest tuber in order to survive into the next year, so if you want to get rid of them, it's important to dig them out rather than just pulling them.

[tonybloke]

it's in the volunteers that blight survives over-winter!!

[Squashfan]

Hi Kippers garden,

We've had a funny year in that the lottie's finally looking good at last and it's end of August! We go through phases with ours but there's nothing better than being smug and saying, all this came from the allotment. We dragged over a bunch of stuff to our friends' the other night, and the only thing that hadn't come from our place or theirs was the steak! And the cake of course, but it was still topped with home-grown figs. Yum.

Just keep repeating that it's better for you than store-bought. And, they taste better. You know exactly what it's been sprayed with, or not. And just because the people with the allotment next door have a picture-perfect plot, doesn't mean yours has to be. We refer to ours as the weedy hellhole, but we still get all our tatties out of there, and onions, and garlic, and and... it's all about the produce, dammit!  ;D