Topic: Potatoes

[ByersVinyl]

Hi All
Im an Alotment newbie.
Just done some very hard graft in order to get plot partially ready to plant.  I had planned on covering and  planning properly after my holiday.  But all my new Alotment neighbours repeatedly told me to  "get some potatoes planted" 
So on a whim - And yes this was a terrible idea - After digging my troughs.  I dropped in  Maris Pipers that were  past their best and had shoots growing.
I dropped them in whole yesterday and covered.  Planning cover again  when i saw my first shoots.
But an alarm  bell rang in my head  last night and I thought - "Have i made a mistake here  !"
It appears i should have taken far more care over my seedling pots !
So my question is simple - do i dig  them all out and start again   - or could i still get lucky with what ive done ?

Many thanks in advance.

[BarriedaleNick]

The general advice is to always use seed spuds that are specifically selected to be as disease free as possible.
However in practice many of us grow spuds from saved stock or some just buy supermarket spuds and plant them instead of seed ones. 
I have been planting the same Pink Fir Apples for several years and a guy on my site has been saving the biggest and best spuds (desiree and sarpo mira) for ages.

So the chances are it will be fine esp if they are already growing quite well.  However you could unwittingly be bringing in diseases - only time will tell!

[ByersVinyl]

Thanks.  I just heard i should have cut in half and let shrivel up a bit before planting. I acted in haste and  planted.  Lets see what it brings !

[BarriedaleNick]

Sounds like you are talking to some old hands?!  Cutting spuds in half is an old trick to maximise your crop from limited seed but I haven't heard of anyone letting them shrivel up.  Could all be good advice but I'm not sure what it achieves..

[Paulh]

You'd be very unlucky to have significant (let alone persistent) problems. The main disadvantage of planting now (as against March/April) is that if blight hits your area your plants, being later in developing, may not have much of a crop for you to rescue. But in the first few years of taking over a plot, the need is to get areas productive, so getting in something vigorous like potatoes is a winner.

[Digeroo]

I know that Nick is very against using supermarket potatoes, but I like Desiree and there is significant genetic variation in them so I like to taste them before I plant.  So always use supermarket spuds.

I have had less problem with blight in supermarket potatoes, the worst blight on our site came from potatoes from local garden centre.

I would let them be and see what happens.

[BarriedaleNick]

I wouldn't say I am very against growing supermarket spuds - just something I don't do myself but I do save seed spuds. Each to their own and people on my site have been growing supermarket spuds for years..