Topic: potatoes, how many is enough ?

[adrianhumph]

Hi all, :D
               Here is the current potato count :D
 1,  pentland javelin,  26
 2,  pink fir apple,  24
 3,  maris piper,   28
 4,  picasso   21
  5, romano   22

   Grand Total = 121
 
  Now this isn`t a competition ::)  but how many is enough  :-\

                       Adrian.

[westsussexlottie]

Hi - we are new to allotment gardening. All the books said that potatoes help keep the weeds down... so we went mad.

We have planted:

20 international kidney

20 anya

40 amandine (French variety)

20 yukon gold

30 pink fir apple

20 verity (late maincrop)

I think we will be eating potatoes forever....!

[Roy Bham UK]

 ;D We have just over 100 :o

53 First earlies.

35 Second earlies.

13 Main Crop.

I was very tempted to cut them in half, glad I didn't. ;D

[philcooper]

Adrian,

The answer is quite simple, it is of course,

q = q_e +q_se + q_mc

Where
q_fe = 61 * fdc_fe/pq_fe
q_se = 92 * fdc_se/pq_se
q_mc =212 * fdc_mc/pq_mc
q is the quantity
fdc is the family's daily consumption
pq is the output per tuber (averaged if more than one variety of a type is grown)
the subscripts _fe, _se and _mc refer to 1st early, 2nd early and maincrop respectively.

Notes.

1. the number at the start of each expression is the number of days consumption of that type of tuber, this should:
a. be increased by 1 in a leap year
b. be reduced by the number of days holiday taken, unless you are self catering and taking your potatoes from home
2. Where a salad variety is grown, a similar expression can be used and the relevant quantity of the variety/varieties being replaced, reduced
3. If you believe that you'll believe anything  :D.

What you don't say Adrian is how much potato your family eats that is the main factor as there's no point in growing what you don't eat.

Rough guides for the "output per tuber" (dependant on such factors as, variety, soil condition, weather, time planted, time lifted, blight, etc, etc) and vary widely

1st early 1 - 1.5lbs
2nd early 1.5 - 2.5lbs
Maincrop 2 - 3lbs

Phil

[legless]

we have too many  ;D as there are only 2 of us one plant usually yields enough for a meal then lunch. and i've planted

30 rocket
24 juliette

both earlies of some kind.  i should imagine a lot of friends will come out of the woodwork as usual when they are ready (said the little red hen)..

[philcooper]

Legless,

Rocket are very early and need eating as soon as they are ready (small tasty size) they rapidly bulk up and loose their flavour.

Juliette is a bit later and more tolerant of being left in the ground

Phil