Allotments 4 All

Went away for 3 days and our two "dear" daughters had friends round who decided to mess with my potatoes which were chitting on the dining room floor. Now all the varieties are mixed up. >:( I was thinking I'd have to plant them all at once anyway as I haven't done it yet (and with the forecast won't be doing it until next week now) but will it cause problems if I've got earlies and lates in the same row?

Probably not going to be very helpful, but are the chits on the earlies not a bit bigger than those on the lates?  Mine are.  Also from memory, I think the chits are different colour - one was a purply colour the other....????? not purple ::). 
twinkletoes

Caroline I'm just off to plant my Picassos. I know that all my seed potatoes looked quite different - size, shape, colour of shoots. Could you maybe have a go at sorting them into similar types even if you don't know which is which? The only real difficulty with not knowing is I suppose the planting distances and knowing which ones to lift when but if you could sort them and have a look at eg Alan Roman's website you might get enough info to identify them. Good luck.

Thanks- I've got Alan Romans' book so might have a look in there. As I bought my lates before my earlies arrived from T&M the chits are actually bigger on the lates, so that will also help. Will sort them out as best I can. I guess if I get a few mixed up and end up with some still growing when I want the bed for something else, it won't be the end of the world- I probably bought too many, anyway, and there are worse things I could have come home to! But I won't be telling my annoying teenagers that! ;)

Absolutely not! Make them feel the pain! ;D ;D ;D

Shoot the kids.
The pots. will grow anyway!
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Get the youngsters to plant them as punishment  ;)

That had occurred to me, niiny. However, with the help of the pics in AR's book, I think I've got them sorted out. When you look closely, they do vary quite a lot in appearance.

The earlies will flower before the lates, so just make sure that you dig those up first! You will also get clues from leaf and shoot colour and shape.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_potatoes.html

Well done Caroline! It's amazing just how different they all are. I had a similar (if slightly easier) problem, in that my cleaning lady had tidied the labels into a pile, however after a jolly good look I was quickly able to work out which is which. The last of them was planted yesterday by one of my sons. (while I weeded the asparagus bed).

Give them all maincrop spacing for safety?

Caroline check out the British database www.varieties.potatoes.org.uk index then characters. tells you colour of sprouts for types of potatoes. hope this may help. compo.

Good thinking Tim!!

(In my case it wouldn't matter that much since my planting distances tend to be a bit random anyway - especially when my son's doing the planting!) ;D ;D

QuoteNow all the varieties are mixed up.

How many varieties were there?

Could you try sorting the potatoes by certain characteristics they may have e.g. colour or shape.

By doing this it might be possible to get each of  the varieties together then when planted you will have some sort of order even if you don't know what are Earlies, 2nd earlies or maincrop.

Then when the grow you might be able to tell a bit more from the growing habit.

Sorry I can't suggest anything better!

Thanks- AR's book has photos and describes the shape etc so think I'm ok now!But will bookmark that database in case it happens again (or more likely I lose the labels before I harvest them!)

caroline I got 4 lots from T/M and 3 lots are very small 20 didn,t fill a ½tray
what were yours like,ooo I guess if they were you would be able to tell the difference wouldnt you  :-[
marg

Teenage daughters and seed potatoes definitely shouldn't be mixed. Mine decided to peel and cook most of them a couple of years ago. Now she gets very irate at the huge KEEP OFF labels

Sally

(thought I really shouldtry and get out of lurk mode now and again :o )

Tell her that seed spuds are treated with all kinds of evil chemicals as they're not for human consumption (this may even be true...)