Very slow after several hard frosts which discouraged growth & burnt the tops.
Put in 2/2. Colour bad because photo of photo.
They're further on than mine Tim. yet to break the surface, and they're only an inch down.
Jeremy
I have about 6 left over. I plan to do mine hopefully (famous last words) this weekend. They might not be much earlier than those at the plot, but they are spare, nobody wants them, so they might as well get on with it.
They are very much further on than mine as I haven't started. Maybe sometime at the weekend - I need something to cheer me up as I am working on a poem for the Eisteddfod called "Wal" (no choice of subject) and I have been thinking along the lines of walls of water :'(
Spuds for buckets - Lady Christl and/or Rocket?
Don't know - both extra early.
What size is the bucket please Tim? I've got Rocket and Mimi in a couple of 15" ones and I'm not sure if they're big enough, but I can't lift anything bigger!
Not that they have all their compost in yet, and have only been in a week in any case so not likely to show for some time.
moonbells
17" - I have a trolley!!
An improvement in 3 days?
is the compost/soil any special mix?
Quote from: tim on March 21, 2005, 06:43:16
17" - I have a trolley!!
An improvement in 3 days?
Definitely! Given the temperatures these past three days I'm not surprised! :-)
I've got three spuds per 15" so I guess it's not too far from four in 17". Yours have a few more cubic inches per tuber but it's not too much different.
moonbells
Special compost?
They do say 'don't put fertiliser above the tubers or you may get rough skins.
Ours is old grow bags, with some slow release fert in the bottom.
Another use for all my wheely bins, Ta!
Quote from: tim on March 21, 2005, 13:03:37
Special compost?
They do say 'don't put fertiliser above the tubers or you may get rough skins.
darn. wish you'd told me that before i'd planted my first four. they have chicken manure pellets on soil level. i'll put it underneath for the next lot and see how they compare. that's a good get out - turn a mistake into an experiment.
Looking very good Tim, I have put 4 rocket in an old dustbin that I have covered back up twice as they have peeked out. Mine are in the greenhouse, is this a mistake?
Ten days on. Looking OK!
These are in the lean-to, but well ventilated in sunshine.
I read somewhere that one should earth up when there is 4" of foliage.
But 'in the wild', I cover the green as soon as it appears, as frost protection, & it doesn't seem to mind.
That's just the question I was going to ask :) I've been a bit premature with mine.
My bucket Rockets broke surface yesterday. They are certainly living up to their name! (Mimi is still being shy)
:)
moonbells
Update -
too late to do this? Have alsorts of odds and sods left and no room at the plot. Bucket, or compost??
Don't know but, if you can afford compost & the bucket room, then do it?
Don't forget to water!
I have almost filled the dustbin I'm using with compost now, when I reach the top the seed tubers will be about 30" down!! Can't wait to see what comes out in due course......which leads to my next question....when will they be ready and how can we tell? ;D
With earlies, the tubers can be edible before the flowers show. So - wait till the haulms are good & tall, & then go in with your fingers.
Thanks Tim ;D
Thanks for the all the pictures and information, Tim.
I don't know whether it's too late or not, but I comandeered an old holed plastic dustbin over the weekend, and shoved some fertilizer and compost down it...
Five, very bemused, Lady Balfours now sitting pretty way... down... below...
Never too late, but don't you have room in the garden?
Being second earlies, no rush. Ours aren't in the ground yet.
I think there's been a mad rush of folks going out buying seed spuds over the weekend and now there are none left :( I've been all over this morning trying to buy a few more to put in tubs and a broken washbasket. I'll have to wait til the weekend as see what the lotty association have got :)
Er... being a novice at all this, I made a bit of a potato purchase blunder a few weeks ago :(. Should have done some reading first.
No first earlies, and rather too much of the rest. Groan...
On the bright side, I should have sackfuls of salad potatoes.
Next year I think I'll try and find a 'potato day' somewhere near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Much simpler, more choice, buy in little numbers.
I managed to get more seed spuds today as I was driving about. Went past a place I'd never even noticed and they had a sign outside. They had lots of varieties I'd never heard of so I plumped for Cara. I forgot my glasses so couldn't read the blurb. I wanted some to put into tubs etc in case all mine on the plot get eaten by slugs
I have a well-thumbed copy of Alan Roman's guide to seed potatoes: it's a huge outlay of £1.25 from T&M (though I picked up mine at a potato day) and well worth it for his comments on the characteristics of dozens of varieties. If nothing else, it allows you to pick the types you like (flour or wax) and not waste cash on ones you won't eat.
http://potatoes.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/product/z13036/1
moonbells
Or for a free on line resource that has more varieties than you could ever find:
http://www.europotato.org/
Maybe not so user friendly but a wealth of information.
Jerry
Turn your back &.............................
Wow Tim - but what happened to its neighbour??
Debs
Moonbells & Jerry - thanks for the links. The booklet is already ordered, and as for the database... good grief, more spuds than you could mash in a lifetime.
Reading galore,
soon to be a potato novice,
no more...
Debs - they went in over a month later.
Blimey Tim, they are very well on....when do you expect them to be ready?
Thought this page might be helpful, it also shows an additional method of container grown potatoes:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/suttonelms/POT1.HTML
Mothy - the 'book' says 13 weeks. So - 3 May?
Wardy - Cara's, a great potato but, being a maincrop, might be a bit big for tubs? Possibly one per tub??
Tim I've put them in tubs and big compost bags etc as well as some in a no dig bed. I have even put one in a broken laundry basket. I can't wait to compare how they get on, ie beds v containers :)
Quote from: Gadfium on April 06, 2005, 15:08:30
Next year I think I'll try and find a 'potato day' somewhere near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Much simpler, more choice, buy in little numbers.
A wise choice, Durham Organic Gardeners ran 2 this year in Middlesborough and Bowham. I'll have details later in the year on http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potato.htm#days
Phil
Quote from: sandersj89 on April 06, 2005, 23:17:11
Or for a free on line resource that has more varieties than you could ever find:
http://www.europotato.org/
Maybe not so user friendly but a wealth of information.
Jerry
For much more information than you find in Alan Romans' book, and pictures, look at the following sites
For UK varieties, see http://www.potato.org.uk/seedSearch.asp?sec=446&con=458 -Â type an initial letter in the "variety" window to see those listed
For similar on French varieties (lots coming into garden centres but generally not in Alan's book) see http://www.plantdepommedeterre.org/eng/mainvar.asp
For Dutch varieties( again many not in the book) see http://www.aardappelpagina.nl/index.html?pag=91
For National Institute of Agricultural Botany trials results (the ones Alan Rommans uses to put the figures for each variety see:
1st Earlies http://www.potato.org.uk/docs/pdf/seedHandbook/firstear.pdf
2nd Earlies and Maincrop http://www.potato.org.uk/docs/pdf/seedHandbook/secondea.pdf
Who needs to spend £1.25??
Phil
omg! i dont remember potatoes getting this tall. will have to think of supports for my two rows for the future...
svea
This is what you were talking about, Svea - I lost it.
Showing the younger ones catching up.
My bucket and washbasket spuds haven't broke surface yet (planted outdoors)
I'm on tenterhooks :)
One thing I'm loving is the foliage. Whatever else may, or may not happen.
Very tropical Tim but then I think they do hail from much warmer climes don't they :)
So true!
Wardy,
Potatoes hail, like Paddington, from darkest, or rather highest, Peru - not the warm bit
(http://gosouthamerica.about.com/library/graphics/zen_0582d026Pisaqa.jpg)
not a greenhouse in sight!!
Phil
Oh yes, of course - Titicaca & all that!
No greenhouses? Maybe they just have better sunshine there?
Nice picture, Phil.
" Maximal tuber formation occurs at soil temperatures between 60° and 70°F. The tubers fail to form when the soil temperature reaches 80°F."
This is a quote from
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies/potato1.html
I must remember to turn off the heating cable in the allotment - or turn it up and harvest ready cooked new potatoes ;)
So how tall should the haulms be before we harvest earlies grown in tubs/buckets???
The hieght of the haulms is not a reliable indicator, varietites vary and the amount of light, nitrogen in the compost etc etc effect the height.
With bucket spuds the normal answer for 1st earlies is, try it. Just scrape away a bit of the compost and see how they are doing
phil
Thanks Phil. I am far too impatient for the first jerseys....!!!!
If you had told me a height I would have been out there with a tape measure.
Tim - is it just the photo or are the leaves slightly blue? Gorgeous!
Here's mine (finally remembered to take a pic for this thread)
(http://www.moonrose.demon.co.uk/gallery/Flowers/Img_2755tn.jpg)
Bit smaller than Tim's - was in the process of hoicking them back inside before last night's frost.
The large one is Rocket, the smaller Mimi. There's 3 tubers per pot (not including the Marco garlic I stuck in the Mimi - was on the way back from the shed with a few bulbs, and found one sprouting - so they went in the nearest place and have taken off :) !)
moonbells
wsl - time, not height. Mine went in 3/2, so I will check at the end of this month.
Aqui - the earlier picture is the truer.
How about that, then??
Flower buds on the later planted ones!!
When they have flowered is that not when to harvest?
Sorry I am still a novice?
Are we talking about a. any potato or just b. under glass?
Whichever - no!
If a. Earlies can often be harvested before the flowers.
If b. Mains are normally left till the haulms die down.
Talking to one of the more experienced gardeners on the allotments today and he advised me to remove all the flowers from the potatoes, anyone else do this?
Take 1. Quote - "Trisha, the presence or absence of flowers on potato plants has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on size, number, or quality of tubers! In fact, some oldtimers would often remove all flowers in hopes of getting even larger tubers."
Take 2. It has been thought that, if the flowers produce (poisonous) berries, children may eat them.
Take 3. You have the time to harvest the flowers as well??
Fair enough they will stop on then. Thanks Tim
Would someone please remind me next year - taller canes & the other greenhouse??
Blimey!
I have had mine outside since planting (bar a couple of trips inside when frosty)... so hopefully they won't grow *quite* that tall!
moonbells
Just got to show off a bit!!
Wont be long Tim before they are in the pan, smothered in butter and mint! Lovely ;D
Love it when things start to grow again...
(http://hometown.aol.co.uk/andya2b/myhomepage/spuds01.jpg?mtbrand=AOL_UK)
(http://hometown.aol.co.uk/andya2b/myhomepage/spuds02.jpg?mtbrand=AOL_UK)
and the cabbage is still going ;D
(http://publish.hometown.aol.co.uk/andya2b/myhomepage/cabbage01.jpg?mtbrand=AOL_UK)
and the sweetcorn(http://publish.hometown.aol.co.uk/andya2b/myhomepage/sweetcorn01.jpg?mtbrand=AOL_UK)
Not forgetting the little parsnip poking through!!!
(http://publish.hometown.aol.co.uk/andya2b/myhomepage/parsnip01.jpg?mtbrand=AOL_UK)
100 sweetcorn?? You obviously like them??
about 168-8 no shows :-[
Yeah love sweetcorn,so does everyone else :-\
You say, you want beans or sweetcorn,as it`s sweetcorn sweetcorn sweetcorn :-[ NOooooo Have the beans.....
Looks good on plot too!
How much space do you need to grow that many sweetcorn on a plot?????
About six or seven of my spuds in bags have now been earthed up to the tops of their half compost bags. They are growing faster than I can earth them up.
Please - no more frost, or I'm scr*wed!
Frost here next Friday night!
None forecast for my area over the next week. I'm still scared, though. (we haven't had any for weeks!)
Quote from: westsussexlottie on May 03, 2005, 10:07:47
How much space do you need to grow that many sweetcorn on a plot?????
about 19.5 ft SQ or any block of 380 SQ ft sounds a lot but well...
It is ;D ;D ;D
Tim
How are your spuds doing? I had a root around in my Home Guard planted on the 19th of Feb and they are the size of pigeon eggs so will be lifting the first plant in the week ahead. I think that means we are about 10 days a head of last year.
(http://img.photobox.co.uk/1932638778778a282ffc060ca15175659bccb73d60be3a9c169524bf.jpg)
Jerry
My bucket (well, wash basket actually )spuds are outside and one of my Cara's has started poking through today. Yes!!!!
Jerry - despite the wonderful show of foliage etc, I have a nasty, sneaking feeling that there'll be nothing on mine!! And mine went 2/2.
Oh, well, I've enjoyed them.
Quote from: tim on May 08, 2005, 06:54:00
Jerry - despite the wonderful show of foliage etc, I have a nasty, sneaking feeling that there'll be nothing on mine!! And mine went 2/2.
Oh, well, I've enjoyed them.
They may surprise you yet!
Jerry
Tim - I don't understand....... the pots may not be there????
Oooo noooo - mine look like yours, I would be so upset if I couldn't get a crop from them.
I daren't look now - just in case it's a no-show :'(
Alimo
I know that other folk have been disappointed, but why us?? I'll wait a week or so. No rush!
can someone tell me what to do to have tates at christmas-or have i missed the boat? ::)
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?
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! :)
Probably because earlies will have gorn orf by the time you need them - that's why the suppliers keep them in cold storage?
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
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.
My Red Duke of Yorks, planted late March, have flower buds on them.
Does that mean they are near to harvest?
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!
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.
You might find that they are still edible??
Why have I had only one flower head on 2 plants??
Doesn't augur well?
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....
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
Spotted one or two marble sized spuds when I checked my dustbin with Rocket growing in it earlier ;D
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
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.
I think we're all in the same barrel!
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?
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.
All the writings make it sound so simple - so, as you say, why not us??
Nice idea - the carrots. Must do that.
Tim,
I let my little girl sow some paris early market that were free with GYO magazine in a small pot in the greenhouse, they are doing so well that I thought I would try some Early Nantes, or such like, to try and get a crop with no fly etc. and that way if the spuds fail at least the compost etc won't be a complete waste.
As for the spuds, my 1st try in a container, but they've been fed, watered and cared for....don't know what else to do?
All the ones in the Allotment have just been plonked in the ground and left to get on with it!
So why should our spuds fail????
Does anyone have an answer to this???
Quote from: westsussexlottie on May 24, 2005, 13:11:07
So why should our spuds fail????
Does anyone have an answer to this???
I keep having to really soak mine with the rate they are hoovering up water. But it seems to have paid off. Furtled out three 1.5" diameter beauts tonight - yum! These are the Rockets, been in the pot 10.5 weeks, partially in the conservatory but mostly outside. They are supposed to be ready in 10. Compost dry as a bone again despite downpours so drenched yet again and so hopefully the majority of the spuds will get bigger.
moonbells
How do you know when they need water?? You have a long finger?
OH left the garden watering system on for 4 hours last night by mistake - so everything was flooded. At least the potato barrels will have had a good opportunity to drink plenty of water.
All we need now is proper sunshine - to dry up my decking.
I have a timer you could have 'for free'??
I am usually the timer... :)
the OH forgets. ::) Football was the given reason. I got home from a meeting being able the hear the trickle of a river in the garden. Patio in 2 inches of water etc.....
I think the gardenia "timer units" sell for around £40!
WSL I am with you, I usually try to remember to put the oven timer on to remind me, but have been known to go out shopping etc. only to come back to a flooded greenhouse........then I feel guilty cos I have wasted all that water! :-\
Quote from: tim on May 26, 2005, 06:43:54
How do you know when they need water?? You have a long finger?
:)
I stick a hand down the side of the bucket and see if the compost's damp! Or just try and pick up the bucket. If it's even reasonably damp then I can't pick it up. If it's not, then it's really easy.
Then I water accordingly!
It seems to take a day or two to reduce drenched compost to dry as a bone so I can only assume the spuds are taking it up and transpiration is removing it from the plants as well as swelling the tubers. The bucket with more foliage (Rocket) gets lighter faster than Mimi, which is probably an indication of transpiration.
moonbells
First of my Rocket out of the Dustbin in the cold G/house!!
Chuffed am I.
looks yummy. i think we are going to start investigating the potatoes soon, too :)
Very organic looking, Mothy!
Jealous!
Look great!!
I removed one rocket plant in its entirety from my bucket yesterday as it was going yellow. The stems were hollowed and blackened, which was a bit worrying (though with it being a bucket, at least anything nasty is contained). The original tuber was slimy. Blackleg? Must have come in with the tuber if it is... Rescued all the perfectly sound spuds and ate some for tea (around a pound of them were rescued, after I'd already furtled some out last week).
Other two plants look fine so I left them alone. I shall harvest one per week. Rockets aren't the tastiest of spuds - bit wishywashy - but they're so early one can forgive that, and they'll tide me over until the Red Dukes flower.
moonbells
moonbells, interesting. see my thread on potato stem rot (??)
i was advised that the pots dont taste good - did you sort out ones that looked icky? and only used the 'good' looking ones for your dinner? i am about to lift the plant and see what it has produced, if anything.
cheers
svea
Quote from: Svea on June 03, 2005, 09:55:58
moonbells, interesting. see my thread on potato stem rot (??)
i was advised that the pots dont taste good - did you sort out ones that looked icky? and only used the 'good' looking ones for your dinner? i am about to lift the plant and see what it has produced, if anything.
cheers
svea
Hi Svea - yes I read your thread after I replied to this!
I didn't have any icky ones bar the slimy one at the bottom (which went straight in the dustbin). They were all lovely clean tubers, with no blemishes inside either. Tasted fine, though they all had little white blebs on the surface which brushed off easily. Not sure what these were, but there were more on the tiny ones so perhaps it's normal.
I thought at first I'd damaged the stems while rootling about for some tubers last week, but it was all the stems off one plant. I've got a mostly severed stem up the lottie too, but think that one was slugs as the plant had managed to grow new roots above the nibble and it's not yellowed.
So much for HDRA certified seed spuds! Caveat emptor as ever...
moonbells
I tried to "rootle about" in one of our potato tubs but seem to have killed one of the plants in the process - whole plant yellowing and looking sicky ever since. The tub seems thick with roots (but not potatoes)
Is it better just to lift the whole lot and give up - or wait?
I had the same problem initially, but found I was able to carefully lift up the three plants from the pot and feel around for those potatoes on the outside, used these first and then gradually work further into the compost each time I wanted more potatoes. This seemed to prevent too much damage.
All mine were, unusually(?), at the bottom.
I planted some left over early spuds in plastic sacks which I have topped up with leaf mulch. Another allotment holder told me about this. so far the greenery is fantastic and the sacks now completly full. I just hope theres some spuds there too! the allotment ones are much weaker as nobled by those hard frosts we had. this is our 2nd year so very much learners