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Should I start a new thread or continue with this one?

I am so excited!!  Can anyone believe how one can get excited with plants growing ??? ???

My potato leaves have almost reached the top of the compost bin and need a bit more hilling up.

And my potatoes in the garden have started sprouting!!

I wasn't even plannning to grow potatoes till I met this group!!!

Anna, gone mad gardening ;D

Best to wake up the existing thread methinks.

PS it is a breath of fresh air (although it does make me a bit jealous) to here about your spring into summer when we we are rapidly approaching winter and I am sat here desperate to dig but the soil is too wet and heavy.

Maybe it replaces the 'fun' christmas presents that we don't seem to get in our 'old' age!!

If it's any consolation redclanger we have had bucket loads of rain lately.  I am lucky though cause I go into my garden any spare 15 minutes I get.

And that's exactly what I do because I have to time it so it isn't too hot during the day to plant out my seedlings, raining when it's impossible or too windy where I'm freezing.  I try to get out after 5:00 pm just for 15 minutes. 

Otherwise it wouldn't get done :)

Anna what are your water restrictions at the moment? I spokoe to Mum this morning, she's in QLD, and she can only hand hose from 7pm to 7am. The rest of the time she buckets water for her vegies. 

I am glad you asked Aussiechick.  During winter I hand watered and it has been quite successful.

In WA we have 2 days a week where we are allowed to have reticulation on for 10 mins out of certain hours.  Mon & Fridays for us.  We have just turned ours on 2 weeks ago with the warmer weather.

Even though we have rain when I check the ground an hour after the downpour it is still dry!!  So I pop out to do my hand watering whenever I can.

I'm not sure if we have restrictions on hand hosing - I use a large watering can.

Thanks

I am back again checking my potatoes.  But what I didn't tell you was that I planted parts of a sweet potato in the bottom of my compost bin before I started all this potato malarkey.  That was in mid-August and there wasn't a sign of them in the bin.  Well, well, well...

...I think I've got sweet potatoes!!!!!!!!!  (4 months later?)  Now that the leaves of the potatoes are wilting at the top of the compost bin I have purple stems sprouting thru with rounded shaped leaves.  I am sure these are the sweet potates that have come through a few feet!!

After checking my spuds unsuccessfully a month ago I am too scared to check again.  I removed the flowers from the spuds 2 weeks ago and still don't know what to do ???

This is one big experiment ;D

Someone please give me a gentle prod in the right direction.

Thanks Anna

Anna, they definitely sound like the sweet potatoes coming. So I think you need to check your spuds, and get them out gently, by hand before the sweet potatoes start spreading? Alternatively, you could leave the spuds in there and harvest the lot together- but can you wait?  :)

Jenny, I checked the potato plants in the garden.  The new spuds were so close to the surface.  (NOW I know what hilling up means!!!)  They are very small though & sprouted from the same batch in the compost bin but planted 2 weeks later.  Only one wasn't green :-\

They were certified organic potatoes from the supermarket, but I don't know what type they are.  I wasn't planning on new potatoes ( I wasn't planning on any potatoes ;D) but will they grow bigger if I hill them up more & leave them in longer?

I have gone down 1 handspade depth in the compost bin & I cannot see any potatoes...just one long potato 'stem'.  That's funny, the spuds in the garden planted 2 weeks later are coming up OK?

The potato plants in the compost bin are turning yellow (but they didn't flower).  Could they have not worked??

Any suggestions??