Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: peanuts on July 29, 2015, 11:47:14
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Chatting to a farmer in the village this morning, I was warned - his main and mid-crop potatoes are shooting in the ground, even though the tops have dies down. I hadn't thought of looking at those yet, as we are working through what has been a really good crop of early ones - Belle de Fontenay.
We've now lifted all the mid-seasoned-skinned crop and yes, at least a third of really good-sized potatoes are shooting, green healthy, annoying shoots!
Should I break them off do you think, and store them as usual, keeping a regular eye on them? i'm hoping they will keep reasonably. We'll just have to eat more potatoes quickly!
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I imagined something entirely different from the subject line :tongue3:
How very strange. They clearly thought that the growing cycle was over and the next starting. Lifting the rest of your second earlies fast. If blight wasn't such a problem, I'd suggest planting some with the bigger shoots for new potatoes late in the year.
I think you can pinch off the new shoots, then let the' wounds' on the potatoes dry out completely, before storing. I would not leave the shoots on, because in storage they might want to grow further and take away from the potato tuber.
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Yes, I suppose I could have been talking about a coconut shy, using potatoes!
I agree, thank you, about rubbing off the shoots, as i do with stored potatoes during the winter. Weirdly they are green with very short leaves, even though they were underground. I'm drying them off for a day, then will go over them and take them off. It's by no means all of them, about a third I should think. Why not the rest?!