New potatoes for xmas

[Meg]

I know it is a long way away but.....how do I go about it. Should I have kept seed potatoes that I planted in March back or can I use rocket new potatoes I dig up now????????????? How deep? Do I cover with a cloche etc. etc.

[Meg]

[Kepouros]

The seed potatoes used for growing new potatoes for Xmas (usually called `Second Cropping`) are last year`s seed which have been kept in cold storage until (usually) late July.  Once removed from cold storage they quickly start into growth.

If you had kept back any seed from your March planting they would have been useless by July.

The Rocket tubers which you dig up now will not start into growth until next year even if you replant them immediately.

[redimp]

How do you go about keeping them in cold storage - would in compost in a container in the fridge do?

[Merry Tiller]

They're kept in cold storage by the suppliers

[tim]

Kepouros -  When would the Cara that I had from the s/market in June have been born - stored from last year? Would they have been in cold storage to last that long? They produced a good crop by September.

[raymee]

So does anyone know where to get the seed and what its called.. I require seed to plant in July and harvest for new spuddies at Christmas.. Thanks

[derbex]

You can used saved seed potatos from this year - I did last year and they grew fine (got blight but that's another story). They don't need to be kept in cold store, just somewhere cool and light -I've got them hanging in the garage window (on the shady side of the house -never gets sun). They just chit slowly and get wrinkly until you plant them, then they start growing away.

Main question is how to avoid blight this year? I'll be growing them in containers -maybe I'll try and grow them under cover?

Jeremy

[philcooper]

The Rocket tubers which you dig up now will not start into growth until next year even if you replant them immediately.

I'm afraid that is not true - let the tubers harden off (leave out of the ground in ordinary light for a couple of days), put into some dryish compost in a cool place and within a month some should have started to sprout. Then plant those up in July early August in containers again in a cool place ready to bring into a greenhouse/consevsatory/sheltered place at the end of September.

Raymee,

They're called second croppers and are sold by Marshall's Email: catalogue@marshalls-seeds.co.uk
Tel: 01945 583407
Price approx one arm and one leg
or you may find them in garden centres

Phil

[terrace max]

Price approx one arm and one leg

Heh heh...that cold storage must be pretty special...

[tim]

But too late for this year, Raymee.

[raymee]

If its too late now ..... When is the right time Tim

[philcooper]

Raymee,

If you follow the route I outlined above you will have spuds by Christams - July is the best time to plant - with a warm greenhouse/conservatory you might just get away with early August

Tim has a method by which he can grow very late spuds in open ground

Phil

[tim]

SORRY! I meant too late to order from Marshalls for THIS year!

And any ideas on my Cara, Phil??

[philcooper]

Tim,

They have probably been in controlled storage - they do all sorts of things with temp/humidity and disease controlling gasses these days see http://www.munters.co.uk/www/UK/home.nsf/ByKey/ABRL-5JRFH5; it's too early for them in the Northern Hemisphere and presumably not cost effective to transport them from the southern

Phil

[tim]

What a palaver!!

[philcooper]

But it must be cost effective or it wouldn't be worth their while spending all that time and money on it!

[weedin project]

It is all sounding terribly serious and worrying; me personally I use the spuds that Mrs Project has left too long at the bottom of the fridge and which are self-chitted (sometimes having chitted for England!). 

Frankly they are throwaway spuds in pre-used ground, and if I get a crop, great, if I don't, then I'm not heartbroken.  I did this last year, putting some of Tesco's finest King Edwards in in July, and I dug them in October/November and they were fine.  This year I plan to do the same, but plant them in August and try to hold out till Xmas.  I've got a couple of those large-ish net tunnel cloches, which should keep them warm enough.  They can go in what is currently the onion bed.

[philcooper]

WP,

Please don't plant non-certified seed below is a recent explanation from me of why it is a very bad idea:

They may seem cheap but if they do have a disease and, if you didn't grow them yourself, you have no way of knowing, you will produce your own little area of disease for aphids to feed on and then move to other growers' luckless plants. Have a look at  http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_EarlyBlt.htm for the primary cause of blight infestation (and the way to prevent it!)and http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r607300611.html for more info on how disease is spread

Each year there is a web site that plots the spread of blight in the UK and the vast majority of the outbreaks are traced back to volunteers or farmer's old stock that they did not destroy.

Please don't spoil it for others just for a few cheaper spuds!!

End of rant!!
Phil

[philandjan]

When we sow the outdoor spuds we also sow a few into old black plastic flower pots (you know, the 10 for a quid sort) and just leave them.

When the plant dies away we put the plant on the compost and collect together all of the spuds. We then put the spuds in one of the pots, cover them with soil, making sure that no light gets to them and then just wait for Christmas.

Come Christmas morning it's a case of having a sherry, staggering down the garden, breaking through the hard, frozen soil on top of the pot and rummage around for a handful of spuds (another glass of sherry at this stage is optional). Then wander back to the kitchen, have another sherry then wash the "newly harvested" spuds.

Works for us every year.
:)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Anyone know the URL of the blight site?