Dear all,
I have started harvesting my Rocket new potatoes and they are quite large (about 5-7 cm long). Thye are very tasty but are already being attacked by slugs. I have 3 rows of potatoes.
Should I dig all the potatoes up and store them to prevent more damage or are they best left in the ground to take their canches with the slugs.
Thanks
Karon
I am into my second year of Potatoe growing and I read recently, somewhere on the Internet--Earliies & 2nd Earlies don`t Store very easily, only Main Crop.
You're supposed to eat earlies, not store them ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I got a bit carried away digging up earlies a couple of weeks ago and have half a black buckit full in a cool dark cupboard and it doesn't seem to have done them any harm! we're eating them as quick as we can, and actually the larger Rockets make the most beautiful flavoured jacket spuds :P ;D
I lifted my first row of FE - Epicure and there are also some rather large ones for new potatoes. But they are really yummy. I have saved 6 for next years crop as I have been told you can keep seed for one year only.
Although our lotties have been struck with blight and a lot of the plot holders have had to cut their haulms back - I have been watching mine like a hawk but fingers crossed nothing yet. It seems like all the problems are coming early this year.
Jitterbug
I dug some more tonight until rain stopped play, but they were not as big as the first lot I had dug out, not complaining about the ones I got though. I will be putting some aside for Christmas spuds what do you recommend small, medium or large. ;D ;D ;D
We usually dig up 1-2 weeks' worth at a time, till we get to the time to dig up the lates.
Very few earlies store, but there is a great difference between "storing", as mentioned in the books (which usually means a period of months), and simply keeping them for a week or two. They will certainly not taste quite as good as the newly dug ones, but provided you dry the skins first and put them in the dark in the coolest place you can find they should certainly be o.k for a few weeks. Whatever you do, don`t put them in a plastic bag or container (if you haven`t got a proper sack a cardboard box with lots of ventilation holes is better), and check them every few days in case any are going off.