Allotments 4 All

With all this talk of chitting, am I too late to start off some potatoes?  Only just got my allotment so are there any varieties you pros can recommend? :) ?!?

No, it`s not too late, Sparky, but if you want new potatoes in mid June you`d better get a move on. Get your seed potatoes set up to chit in a warm(ish) room for a couple of weeks to start them, then move them to somewhere cooler for a week or so, and plant out in mid March.

Difficult to advise on varieties because only you will know what you would like, but for first earlies I`d suggest Rocket, and a good early maincrop is Nadine. You should be able to get both of these immediately in your nearest decent garden shop. However, you will no doubt now get a flood of different suggestions

Know it sounds silly but people keep telling me to put them in egg trays/boxes and I haven't got any, is there anything else that people can recommend or is it ok just to lay them out on trays

It is fine to lay them out in trays sparky, I chit mine in seed trays, or anything else that comes to hand! DP

Sparky,

1. You are too late - if you'd asked a week ago you could have visited Potato Days in Manchester or Lancaster and had a huge choice with loads of advice - next year think on (as they say)!!!

2. You asked for recommendations, a highly personal view follows (except on Princess, Red Duke of York and Accent which are recommended by most who have grown them) Of the more easily available varieties:

Earlies: Princess - by far the best for flavour and yield,
failing that Red Duke of York or Duke of York - stays in the ground and will produce bakers, Accent, good flavour and stays well in the ground

Second early: Catriona or Kestrel good flavour multi purpose

Maincrop: Picasso or Valor both high yield

Salad: Roseval, if you can get it or Charlotte

Many garden centres get their potatoes from WCF-Pheonix  who offer all the above less Princess and Roseval
The other supplier is Dobies, more limited choice, whose best 1st early is Winston (also will stay on to make a baker)

Phil

Our little local garden centre/nursery has big bins full of seed spuds, and they are all chitting nicely in situ.  I wonder what happens to them with planting time comes and goes....I wonder if the owner has a huge allotment and he grows all the left overs, or if they all just end up in the bin  ???  I might wander by in a couple of weeks time and enquire - never know, might be able to get my hands on some already chitted left overs.  :)

EJ - I thought, and so checked on your profile, that you were from Essex - sounds as though you have some Scottish blood in you!!

Sparky - I even put in photos of ours chucked into plastic trays - and you didn't look?? 'Egg boxes' is far too disciplined and restrictive for me.

Phil - wholly agree with RDY (very trouble free). Accent & Charlotte. Picasso we're trying this year.

All this talk of new potatoes - we don't have to have them in the spring? Even things planted in the late summer will produce 'new' pots if dug early??

Oh, and one correction - I said, yonks ago, that Pink Fir lasted well into February. What I meant was that they lasted as new till then - they are starting to go a little floury - but still last well in casseroles or fry-ups! = Tim

EJ- if the spuds aren't already there you might want to suggest, without alluding to any other motive, that the garden center move their spuds into a well lit, cool area to keep the stems short and easier for anyone, such as yourself who may not be able to plant now, to handle.

Tim-Where are the photos?  I'm intrigued!!! ;)
Only just finding my way about this site as only discovered it last week!!

Sparky

Probably dead and gone by now??

And they only showed that you DO NOT have to follow Mrs Beaton in everything you do!! = Tim

Oh Phil, I maybe living in Essex now, but I am a mongrel South London Devonshire cross....the London in me says ''say no to nothing'', and the country ways in me say 'well my 'ansome, yous donny get if yous donny ask'.  ;D

My spuds are chitting... but they seem to be sprouting very fast.  How long should the sprouts be by the time they are ready for planting?  I don't want them to be ready to early to go outside when its still frosty

Sparky

They are Duke of York, if that makes any difference

Sparky, it`s only a week since you were asking whether it was too late to start them chitting, and now you`re complaining that they`re sprouting too fast. You must have them either too warm, or in not enough light.  Move them to the coolest lightest spot you can find (frost free of course), and that will slow them down.

Sparky,

Don't worry too much about the length - trials some time ago with sprouts up to 1ft long showed that they grew well - you just need to handle them a bit more carefully when plant in order not to break the shoots

Hugh's dead right about the conditions you should be aiming for. Mine are in a spare bedroom (temp ~13 C) and sprouting gently away.

Which brings me to apologise for suggesting, earlier, 'green (or reddish, of course) & 1/2 - 1" long. But that was always my teaching. = Tim

Tim's dead right about what you should be aiming for, but gardeners often miss the target (by quite a way sometimes)

Pictures of tubers with their sprouts, as they should be for planting, can be found at http://www.potato.org.uk/seedSearch.asp?sec=446&con=458 (put the name of your variety in the search window) there's loads of other information about UK commercial varieties

One example is here

Mine are also in spare bedroom and i keep opening window to cool them down (much to annoyance of hubby who likes house warm!!)  Would they be ok if i put them outside during the day and brought them in at night to keep them out of the frost?  It is only my earlies that are speeding ahead.  The pink fur apples are taking their time

Sparky

I never appreciated the artistic appearance of sprouts before!!

8)

Ten x

Sparky,

Moving them in and out should be ok.

The earlies should be the ones making most progress

Phil

Tenuse, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - which probably means something to someone!!!