Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: antipodes on June 18, 2007, 13:27:22
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On the weekend I dug up a couple of the potato plants to get a few new potatoes. As far as I can remember they are Sirtema variety. They were planted on March 19. But I discovered that there were only about 2 or 3 spuds to each plant!! They were about 3 ou 4 inches wide each.
I was very disappointed and I am wondering if they will all be like that? I will leave the others for a while to see if more tubers develop. but does this sound right? The last time I grew spuds in a friend's garden there were at least 10 spuds per plant!!
I haven't looked at the Roseval reds yet, hope they are not in the same way ???
Apart from that though I got some lovely lettuces over the weekend, some rocket and some nice peas. My onions are looking great (well above ground at least), the stems seem very thick and healthy.
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Hi Antipodes,
Not too sure about this, but did you have the hot, dry April we had here? My Pentland Javelin first earlies (planted in March) are only just starting to bulk up a bit now, the ones I've lifted so far have had maybe 6 to 10 spuds per plant but they're tiny! I'm leaving them for a bit longer, in the hope that the incessant rain will make them bigger...
Cheers,
Rob ;)
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Dug some of my earlies up last week, even though some of them were huge for earlies, only got a few spuds per plant, which were very deep down.
In my case I thought it might be due to putting them in semi uncultivated ground, it hadn't been manured the previous winter and had quite a large amount of clay in.
Saying that as I planted them to break up some of the clay, anything we got was a tasty bonus!
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I got about six or seven per plant and some like Coz were big ones like a jacket spud size. :P ;D ;D ;D
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I've also been disappointed this year, I've dug up two plants and had 4 potatoes from one and no potatoes from the other!!! I'm leaving the others in to see if they can mend their ways.
It was hot and dry in April but then summers are often much dryer than this one in London, so I don't know why.
I must have lazy potatoes.
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I am going to try pulling some spuds at the weekend and see what there up to.
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potatoes need alot of water, i had a feel around for my spuds begining of month and they were tiny, i immediatly watered them really well every night and now they are quite big and i have quite a good harvest. water is the key.
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Don't know what the weather's been like over there, but we've had all the rain we need for a while and, despite that, yield is low on our earlies.
Nothing to do with water - just very few tubers forming. Like 3-5 on a plant. Normally about 10. But still lovely!
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The one plot we have is sandy soil and the spuds are doing great the other is quite heavy and they are useless, needless to say we won't be growing potatoes on there next year. The broad beans did remarkably well so thats where they will be going.
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Was going to post a message to see if any one could tell me why i have no spuds but it looks as if I'm not the only one with problems. Can't be lack of water surely!!!!! I planted mine at the bototm odf a trench then back filled as they sprouted up.. Always used this method but first time nothing has appeared. What do i do now? leave them alone and hope somthing appears? Or dig the lot up? Have three healthy plants with flowers on out of five rows planted of seed spuds
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I'm beginning to wonder about the seed potatoes, what variety was everyone growing ?
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Some varieties are late mains Antipodes... which will not even start producing tubers until the day length starts to shorten... Pink Fir Apple is the one most people would know.. don't recognise your named variety...
:-\
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I rescind - went a bit further into the row & things look brighter! That's 2 plants. Colleen. (First ones dug 24/5.)
But there are still many wee ones which will never see a plate.
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yes it is quite intriguing all this - we did have a lot of hot dry weather in April then in May it rained a lot, and now it alternates between rain and sun. The ground on my plot is a sandy loam, it seems to hold water reasonably well without getting heavy.
I also planted some "surprise" potatoes that I dug out of the ground during the winter, they were left by the previous tenant!! OK now I know that you are not meant to do that, but those curiously enough have grown pretty well!! And the ones I flipping well paid for are useless!!
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I also had very few spuds from tow rows of Swift (about 12m square of plot), I know I'm not alone in my dissapointment now :(
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I am going to have a look at my "Duke of York" first earlies which have had flowers on them at the weekend. I do hope that I get some potatoes, I have family over for Sunday lunch and I was counting on it.
:)
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Mine too are like this very few spuds but those that are there are huge!
barkingdog
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I can see that next year I will have to look more carefully at these notions of early, late, etc which I admit I didn't really take much notice of this year. That is what you mean by live and learn!! Fortunately I am considering this first year as more of a learning experience and will just take what I get but I feel confident that next year I will do many things differently! Like plant more soft fruit, overwinter onion and garlic and get myself a few tunnels to grow things in the nippy season, instead of just waiting for the sun!!
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Our Pentland Javelin are doing really well but the Arran Pilot are not so good. Just a few biggish taters on eack plant.
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Dug up where I had planted the spuds yesterday, all I hit was water and pockets of slime that were once potatoes. My lottie had been badly flooded Tuesday night and seedlings all washed a way, the rest drowned...so am not happy. Is there anything i can plant so late?
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the rest drowned...so am not happy. Is there anything i can plant so late?
Watercress?
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lol, lol, lol.
Actually have heard that you can grow watercress on an allotment in a barrel but have no idea how. Am sure Mr Flowerdew would know.
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Water melons. ;D ;D ;D
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I grew 7 varieties of 1st earlies in my polytunnel this year and all had good crops, I suppose on average 18 spuds. I watered the soil in the winter, planted and didn't water again and had a good result.
However, I've just moved to my outside 2nd earlies, Charlotte, first year I've grown these, and to my horror am getting about 4 spuds to each plant >:( It's a bit of a mystery
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I`m afraid that this posting will be too late to help those of you who have already lifted their plants, or whose potato haulm is now dying off, but for those of you whose first earlies are still green, and for those of you who may wish to try it next year, it may be helpful. However, I must stress that it only applies to First Earlies, and NOT to Second Earlies or Maincrop.
All First Earlies are daylength neutral, and consequently they commence tuber initiation as soon as the plant itself is ready. Once tuber initiation commences the tubers bulk up rapidly, but what frequently happens is that the tuber initiation can be sporadic, a few tubers start first, and the plant puts all its energy into bulking those few. Then you get a few large tubers and (usually) a lot of very small (pinhead to pea size) immature tubers . At that point the plant considers its job done and shuts down. However, if these largest tubers are removed before they this point is reached the plant will carry on growing and transfer its efforts to the remaining tubers, which will then develop - the plant`s only concern is to produce viable means of propagation, and it will continue to strive to do so for some considerable time. If one is careful enough one can treat early potatoes almost as a pick-and-come crop rather than as a one off crop.
I grow Rocket as my very First Early, and Rocket not only bulk up very quickly, but also become rather coarse when they do. I like my new potatoes small, so as soon as I sense that the tubers are making any size I start lifting them as they are required. As each plant is lifted I remove all tubers larger than a golf ball, then replant it and water it well in. After 3 weeks or so I can lift that plant again and get another decent crop of golf ball or larger sized potatoes. In a coolish or wettish summer I can often get 3 pickings off each plant.
This year I planted 6 Rocket. I lifted the first plant on 14th May and got enough tubers for a good meal for both of us. We eat potatoes 4 times a week - 23 meals for two since the 14th May from those 6 Rocket, and there are still 2 (replanted ones) still in the ground. The plant I lifted this morning was one that I previously lifted at the beginning of this month, and this morning it produced enough tubers for dinners for both of us for both today and tomorrow, and despite this I could count more than a dozen pea sized tubers still on the plant and awaiting their turn to grow. Needless to say, I replanted it again. Next weekend I shall be starting the same proceedure with the 6 Foremost plants.
I have been using this method for ten years or more, and it has only failed me twice, during periods of heatwave. However, both the lifting of the plant and the removal of suitable tubers have to be done with care so as not to damage or lose too much of the root system.
I would add that their is anecdotal evidence of a Scottish Clergyman in the late 19th century who obtained over 1 cwt of tubers from one plant using this method, so there is nothing new about it.
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Good advice! It always annoys me that so many are pea size. So I do feel around for the bigger ones.
But I'm interested that you can actually lift & replant. I would not have dared.
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I don't look for size in first earlies, preferring them small anyway. I've just lifted some Rocket, Mimi and Ratte and am very happy with the results.
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Never had much luck with Charlotte so changed to Aaron Pilot. This is my first crop from 2 tubers this morning. Well pleased. Didn't have to dig too deep neither. After reading some of these posts, I am sure there may be some more if I dig a little deeper.
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Mine are 'Accent' KT and are similar to yours except there were some very big ones, jacket potato size, I didn't think earlies lifted early would get that big, mind you I'm not complaining, they were in for 15 weeks. ;D ;D ;D
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I replanted a couple last week when they had so few spuds, so will see what I get.
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We tried digging our early potatoes about 3/4 weeks ago and there were very few so my partner replanted them as above after removing maybe a meals worth for two.
Anyway, we went on holiday 2nd week of June and on our return all the potato plants had died off completely - is this normal?
Yesterday, I decided I'd better dig the lot as I wasn't sure it was good to leave them in the ground with no plants above and it is so very wet -thought they might rot.
Have to say we've got stacks of potatoes now and I'm trying to think how to store them best.
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When the early potato thinks it has done the business it simply dies back - that`s obviously what happened to yours since they had done the business in the end.
However, early potatoes don`t usually store very well or very long, so I`d be inclined to concentrate more on eating them while they`re still new than on storing them.