Topic: Potatoes and the hot weather/dry soil/lack of water affecting the harvest

[compo49]

Here in west yorkshire.
As the weather has been hot over the last month and the soil is very dry and short of water here.
I have tried to keep my potatoes watered as best i can on the lotti but the water is just soaking into the top couple of inches even though i put plenty on.
I have just had a look at one of of my early pentland javelin (foliage still upright not fallen over yet or dieing down) and a second early charlotte to see what potatoes they are producing .
The soil is very dry as obviously water is not getting down to them and the potatoes so far on each type are very small and not a lot of them at the moment.
We all need a really heavy constant down pour all over the country to boost our crops but at the moment that looks like its not going to happen does it!
How are yours doing in you part of the country?
 

 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Wilting. I'm not expecting much if this goes on.

[Easywriter]

Same here in South Cambridgeshire (probably worse, rainclouds tend to dry out by the time they get over to East Anglia). :(

Watering them with the watering can every other evening, but not the same as a good, long soak over the whole plot.

[loopyloulou]

oops i didnt water mine :( doubt ill get anything as the tops look yellow and sickly too, i havent earthed up either... might leave them in for next yr... shame tho kids will miss digging for pirates treasure!

[lottie lou]

Dug up some earlier in the month but they were very few and small.  Can't win can we?  The last couple of years I have lost mine to slugs or blight due to the rain.

[grotbag]

had to dig up 4 plants to get enough for 1 meal for the 2 of us,not good at all

[lottie lou]

I really feel for the poor third world farmers who have probls like this quite regularly.

[Spookyville]

wet yorks here as well. same problem, hopefully the forecast rain for next week will arrive and be heavy.
 

[chriscross1966]

My earlies are all in pots and haver been ok so far, one decent pot (three or four plants) makes enough potato salad to last me four days. Main crops on the lottie have been watered twice total.... there#s planty of other things that need it more (beans, squash, onions) so even when I get a couple of hours down there of an evening there's not as much time left to water them as they need.....

chrisc

[bazzysbarn]

Havent looked at mine yet as we are still eating last seasons! As we havent had hardly any rain for the last 2 months im not counting on there being much on them. The earlies got hit by the late frost so dont think it will be a good season.

[mpdjulie]

I never water my spuds.  I just plant them deep and let them get on with it.  We dug up two 4ft x 16ft beds last week and got just over 30kg's of charlottes.  We also dug up two kestrel plants and had them for dinner yesterday for 5 people.
 :)

[earlypea]

I'm having a great potato year too, sorry  :P

Last year my plot was a desert and first earlies were scabacious so I took precautions:  dug in heaps and heaps of peat (reclaimed, eco stuff), put them down extra deep in April, have mulched, watered regularly and copiously, which I failed to do the year before thinking it was naughty and un-eco (still feel it's bad actually) and I'm digging up some of my best ever, especially my one and only Charlotte which was earlier than any of the earlies and surprisingly large, but dreamy tasting.

I think with weather like this we need to know how other countries which are dry all summer manage.  Cyprus is a big potato producing country for example.  Anyone know how countries like those do it?

[Easywriter]

Ah - I think what I MEANT to say was that I water the whole lottie every other evening (excep the tatties), but the tatties about once a fortnight or so. A bit a bit more fequently than that at the moment though, because they're really wilting.

[calendula]

west yorkshire also - almost embarrassed to say our spuds have been fantastic so far, will be picking our third first earlies today, but they have been watered but one of the second early varieties hasn't been watered much as it is too difficult getting water to them and they look great also - maybe all down to variety to suit these conditions - but lots of rain coming this week  8)

[caroline7758]

but lots of rain coming this week  8)

Trouble is they keep saying that and it never happens. I'm going to my plot for the first time since Monday and dread to think what I'll find.

[cleo]

Three plants for a handful of marbles yesterday-rain forecast for Monday

[cambourne7]

just come back from Ely (forgot baby bottles) heading back to watch the morris men dance around Ely cathedral and all the farms have got watering machines out spraying newly planted crops and some of the spuds are getting a soaking as well. Soil here is very dry almost dust like. My salads look like someones attacked them with a blow torch :(

[plainleaf]

I dug up one  of my 6 plants of the ooze watering line that i started very early.
all got was 90 kg of spud.  What disappointment after earth up so much dirt and all other digging.
Here to  hoping that the rest turn out better in 3 months. 

[Digeroo]

all got was 90 kg of spud.

How can you be disappointed with 90kg from 6 plants?  What conversion rate are you using from pounds?

Mine seem to be varying between varieties.   Just dug up a Mayan gold and was amazed at just how many small potatoes there were. 

I have just dug up a Swift and was amazed to get a meal from it since it had rather been badly affected with Aminopyralid. 

In 1976 the price of potatoes shot up.  Up to that point they had been a few pence a pound.

[mpdjulie]

Is it possible to get 90kg from 6 plants???
  :-\