Bucket potatoes.

[kitty]

can someone tell me what to do to have tates at christmas-or have i missed the boat? ::)

[kitty]

[tim]

No - either get some '2nd cropping' tubers from Marshalls or the like - or save some of your earlies, or just use anything you can get.

I've said elsewhere, our s/market Cara planted 25/6 cropped 2/9. So - allow 3 months? And they'll wait for you in the ground?

[shirl]

Sorry but I have to ask.  If they are called earlie, how come we can plant them anytime?  And why bother buying seconds or whatever they are called, why not just buy a bigger bag of earlies and use them throughout the year?

I have some earlies left and I was going to throw them away but not now, im going to plant them ready for my Christmas dinner, thankyou for the Tim!  :)

[tim]

Probably because earlies will have gorn orf by the time you need them - that's why the suppliers keep them in cold storage?

[shirl]

Ah I see.  There is certainly so much to learn with this gardening malarky.  My dad used to make it look so easy!

I'll chuck these earlies away then and get something more suitable for my Christmas spuds nearer the time :-)  Thank you again

[westsussexlottie]

So is it possible you can have great foliage and NO potatoes????? We have foliage (outdoor potato barrel) which looks similar to Andy H's - could this be a no show???? They went in mid Feb.

[aquilegia]

My Red Duke of Yorks, planted late March, have flower buds on them.

Does that mean they are near to harvest?

[tim]

shirl - are they not in a fit condition to eat??

Aqui - with a first early, you may well have usable fruit even before the flowers. So it's worth feeling around gently. Don't wait until they are baking size!

[shirl]

Hi Tim

Sorry I wasnt very clear.  I meant I will throw away the seed potatoes I have left.  I dont know what they are but they will be earlies because I bought them around February.

I have them in a box and they are well chitted.  I just assumed I could keep them.  They are ok, just wrinkled.

[tim]

You might find that they are still edible??

[tim]

Why have I had only one flower head on 2 plants??

Doesn't augur well?

[westsussexlottie]

Our potato barrel has growth almost up to my shoulder height and lots of flower buds. Had a look in the "windows" and not a spud in sight - lots of roots - no potatoes. According to the books they should be marble size at present....

[derbex]

You can plant up wrinkled earlies for a 2nd crop -that's how my book recommends doing it. I tried it last year and it worked -except they then got blight  >:(

This time around I'll wait a little longer and perhaps keep them under cover, if it's a bad blight year.

Jeremy

[Mothy]

Spotted one or two marble sized spuds when I checked my dustbin with Rocket growing in it earlier  ;D

[moonbells]

Mothy, when did you plant your dustbin?
Mine went in March 12th and have been outside for a good chunk of that, which means that they are verging on ready (I hope!)

moonbells

[westsussexlottie]

I think I must have done something wrong with my potatoes. They are oh so tall and now flowering and have been planted up since mid Feb outside under fleece. They haven't been frosted and yet - I had a dig around - and NOTHING in the barrel.

[tim]

I think we're all in the same barrel!

[kitty]

i remember doing some deep bucket potatoes a few years ago with nil result-anyone know why that happens?i've also-by coincidence.got a couple of taters in the rows that dont even seem to be producing tops..so i assume they wont have taters?

[Mothy]

Moonbells, mine went in on 22/03/05 but have been in the greenhouse permanently. Lots of top growth etc and no flowers yet. Looked a while ago and nothing. Still hoping to get a few in the next few weeks and then use the dustbin for carrots.

[tim]

All the writings make it sound so simple - so, as you say, why not us??

Nice idea - the carrots. Must do that.