Early tatties are in.

[cornykev]

 :o Well not all of them, after pondering at the weekend I finally decided to stick some earlies in. Two of the blokes on our lottie told me they had put their earlies in, so the sun was shinning  8)   and the ground was very workable, I had put down some plastic to warm the ground anyway. So today I thought I would put a line in, the first four have cloches on them, just to see if they can warm the ground and get them up any quicker.  ;D ;D ;D

[cornykev]

[manicscousers]

we've put the rocket spuds in the poly border, covered with fleece and the ones in the spud bags are up, also under cover and fleece  ;D

[star]

I put some Epicure in large planters last week. They are in the outhouse for now.

[saddad]

Have some Dunluce in large black dustbins in the greenhouse...
:)

[Kea]

Still waiting for my earlies to arrive!

[calendula]

I'm waiting until after the full moon for mine to go in - probably very early March now

[debster]

still chitting mine

[beckydore]

Phew. I am waiting for a small bag to arrive and the others are only just started chitting. I thought I was lagging then!

[cornykev]

Calendula how will you see in the dark.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[calendula]

cos I'm a mushroom  ;D

seriously though there are some very cold nights coming all across the country so beware for planting spuds

[Trevor_D]

Planted mine in the GH too. And the outside bed is prepared and ready to go. Let's see what the weather does. We're in a February "false spring" and the weather could (should? usually does?) turn foul for weeks.

[Debs]

I am still chitting mine in a cold greenhouse - don't want to come

unstuck if I plant them now and weather turns bad - as it so often

does at this time of year!!

Debs

[telboy]

Like you Trevore_D - experience?
Feb. usually has a 'good' week, then foul.
Hold hard - there's no rush.

[Deb P]

Having only just sorted out manuring the areas for my spuds this year, I'm going to put down some black plastic over the beds for a few weeks and wait a bit.

I think I waited too long last year which was my first year on the plot and first time growing spuds in the ground, so I'm growing only earlies this season, no maincrops. I will get them in and out earlier so I can grow other stuff in their wake. Just haven't got enough room! Still patiently waiting for a second plot to come my way, gradually creeping up the waiting list......

[grawrc]

I usually wait for good Friday (which neatly coincides with the school holidays)to start mine. They're chitting away merrily in the utility room helpfully preventing me from doing the ironing! :o :o ;D ;D ;D ;D

[growmore]

Resist the temptation if you can  :) I would say it's far too early to plant spuds yet ,If you do Cover em with fleece etc, You don't want the shoots popping through and getting  frosted...Normal dates around here are on or after St Patrick's Day for earlies 17th  March. On or after Good Friday for other spuds ,,The dates are very near together this year ..

[Kea]

I got delayed last year and mine were planted quite late but they caught up and I wasn't much behind those that had planted them earlier.

[silverbirch]

I've always tried to plant my spuds on Good Friday as well, even though I'm not in the least superstitious (fingers crossed).

I've just had a hunt around the web to see where this idea came from.  Not much to go on.

One idea is that catholics in Ireland would take the seed potatoes to church to have them blessed before planting.

The other, which sounds much more feasible, is that Good Friday was the first day people had off after Christmas, so was the first opportunity to get them in the ground.

In parts of America, it's the one day a year they would never plant them.  They reckon the trench is too similar to a wound, so Jesus will bleed all over them.

[cornykev]

I can understand some of you thinking I jumped the gun, but I had warmed the ground and the soil was very workable so i thought I would put in one line and some of them are covered with large bottle cloches and I will finish covering the whole line with them by the weekend.  ;D ;D ;D

[Distinctly Minty]

Have some Dunluce in large black dustbins in the greenhouse...
:)

Hi Saddad, mine going in this week. I am in derby. Where is your allotment ?. Minty