POTATO QUESTION - CAN ANYONE HELP....

[Hot_Potato]

I've received an SOS mail this morning from a friend who lives on the Island of Lesbos. They've recently had some very cold, very wet & windy spells but yesterday the weather had changed to pleasantly warm again....they even get snow at times.....this is the question she's asked me:-

"before Mum & Dad went away to my bro's at the end of November, Mum planted some pieces of potato in a large-ish flower pot on her balcony....several of them have taken, and there's maybe 6-8 plants grown!  They're now around a foot high (and obviously a bit crowded in the pot)- what do I do? Should I re-pot them (difficult!) or how do I know when any potatoes are ready for eating? Mum probably won't be back for another month or so, and I keep forgetting to ask her what she wants me to do with them..........

any info gratefully received - I am NOT a gardener LOL"
             
                            end of her SOS

I don't want to tell her wrong - can anyone advise please - H.P.

[Hot_Potato]

[sandersj89]

If they are a foot high already there is no way she can move them. Do you/she know what variety they are? Earlies or main crop?

If it was me I would try and earth them up as much as you can, you may need to add a ring of stiff cardboard around them to help you there. Then keep them watered and hope for the best.

Jerry

[john_miller]

Water and feed them!

[Hot_Potato]

Thanks very much to both of you above - I've passed the info on to my friend.....she doesn't seem to think the cardboard collar will work as they're having almost constant heavy rain out there with violent storms at present and she says it will disintigrate quickly but says she'll try to find some heavy plastic stuff that will do the same job....

Thanks again....we don't think of the greek islands having bad weather do we? last year she posted photos of her lemon trees covered in snow!

[philcooper]

You didn't say how big the pot was .

Sorry Jerry but you can transplant them ie lift the total contents of the pot into a larger container, then keep earthing up as you would in container growing normally

Phil

[Merry Tiller]

Wardy, the answer is no, not to any degree you will be able to detect