Hi,
This is a subject I have wanted to try for years but am unsure how to proceed.
If we want to have nice new potato's on Christmas day, when do we start them and in what container do you grow them?
Which type of spud to use for this and where to keep them?
What to feed and how do you protect from frost?
Any other information on this subject would be of great assistance to me as I want to get this right so as the flavour will be the best for the family.
I need to yield enough for a party of about 28 people coming for lunch and nibbles on this day.
They always expect the ex chef to come up with something different and I think I shall do with a traditional lunch and late tea with a lovely bubbly to help it all go down.
Veggie is the main thing that people notice in a meal as it colours the plates up and done right makes people salivate with the aromas that hit them before they get to eat.
I had better stop now as all you lot will want to come around for a feast and I only have limited space to sit people in two sittings. :-X
So one and all let me know how to get this feast off to a great start and get those hints and tips for the feast of the millennium thus far. ;D ;D ;D
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad68/landimad/christmasdinner.jpg)
I grew Cara, and nice tasty new pot for last Christmas day and they were wonderful.
12 family over for lunch we had steamed spuds plus I roasted some of the spuds whole with rosemary and garlic on top. YUM!
I planted mine inJuly August in the empty raised beds I had with extra manure to speed up the growth, When the frost came along I laid net curtains or newspapers or old curtains over the tops. Where I live we are approx a month behind iin growing times than most places.
When the tops died off I cut them back and left the spuds in the ground untill Christmas eve, however I knew I didnt have wire worm in the beds.
oh and I bought the spuds from Tesco that I planted. Cost me a quid.
Quote from: Ishard on June 23, 2009, 13:46:12
I grew Cara, and nice tasty new pot for last Christmas day and they were wonderful.
Cara is a main crop isn't it?
It is. I'm wondering whether you might be better off with a second early, as they can be treated like a maincrop and left. A lot depends on how bad your slugs are; you may not want to leave them till December.
I did wonder if it was 'Cara' I planted when I typed it up. :-\
My mistake, I looked it up in my records it was 'Charlotte'
My apologies guys it was a blonde/senior moment.
Charlotte are super spuds, didn't grow any this year though due to lack of space, most of which was taken up with maincrops.
When mine failed last year the guy next to me said dig some of my first earlies up and put in sweet tin with some slightly moist sand. Bury them and dig them up at christmas. he said he does this every year and always has spuds at xmas.
Would love to try but last year was a wash out.
i grew x mas spuds one year what a waste of time
daylight to short...tasteless my advise is,,,dont waste your time and mony
Packing new potatoes in damp sand does work. My father used to do this. We had a concrete clamp which held nearly half a ton. He would pack maincrop potatoes in damp sand and we had sound potatoes even in July. The concrete clamp was earthed over and rat-proof. He used to put some new potatoes (with skins that could be rubbed off) and they were still the same at Christmas.
Me too.
We wasted a raised bed and time/money to get a very small haul. :(
Unless you are going to grow some in a pot in the greenhouse I'd grow something else.
Btw our Xmas spuds are coming up as spares in that bed now.
MP
Keep the info coming I can see this is going to be a long one in the end.
Looks as if the xmas spud is a hit with some but not all.
Ah but it depends when you plant them. ;)
Try planting next month, you will soon see some growth and there is still plenty of daylight left.
I planted a few Carlingford in mid-August last year and fleeced them when the frosts came. Left them in the ground and dug them up as I needed them. I had new potatoes well into January. In a bed that would have been empty anyway so not a problem.
This might work for you
http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/autumn-and-christmas-potatoes-c11.html
Excellent link thanx