Potato Days - Any Comments

[Jitterbug]

Hello Phil

I went to the Whitchurch day and it was great.  Got all the potatoes that I wanted and more.  The potatoe talk was really good as well.  The chap giving potatoes to the children was also great.  My son was given a "Smile" and "Blue Moon" potato to grow which is also chitting away.  I cannot find any information on the Blue Moon potato so am not sure how and when to plant - can you shed any light.

The one disappointment was that I wanted to buy fertilizers, bone meal etc and could  not seem to find the stand.  Did they pull out?

Otherwise keep up the good work - all my potatoes are happily chitting away and hopefully I will get to plant the First Earlies this week-end.

Regards

Jitterbug

[Jitterbug]

[philcooper]

JB,

Thanks for all the kind words.

The fertiliser didn't happen because I didn't have enough helpers to man the stall - I did have green manures to sell as well but they also went unsold.

I'm glad you enjoyed Chris Bird's talk and Taffy Tatty, he's great with kids - I'll pass on the message.

Blue Moon is a brand new variety you won't find anywhere else, it's a high dry matter maincrop - that means it is great for making crisps. It's raised by a friend and his father the Jalving family in Holland see http://jalving-potatoes.nl/uk-main1.html. It was trialled by the RHS last year but I haven't seen the results yet. So treat as a maincrop

Phil

[raisedbedted]

Phil,

I second the comments on Whitchurch.

I went to my first potato day this year at Whitchurch and found it..

Well signposted from A303/34.
Good car parking arrangements.
Venue big enough despite huge numbers.
Plenty of stock.

My only criticism and just as a constructive pointer was that I was a bit confused as to what I had to do, ie who to pay.  So I tried to pay the chap with the potatoes who pointed me to the tills, then I bagged up a load of Sarpo spuds and tried to walk off only to be called back to pay for those seperately.

Oh and I really wanted some green manure!

So perhaps just a board with a couple of instructions for the slightly thick people like myself  :)

All in all a really well run event and one I will definitely look out for next year.

[Debs]

Like many others, I went to my first this year ( Bowburn, Co.Durham) which I

thoroughly enjoyed.

Feedback?

* Need to have more stock - I was there at 10.45am and some pots had all
                                              gone.

Would recommend anyone to go - buying individual tubers means no excess of

one variety and able to grow small amounts of different varieties

Debs