ANOTHER potatoes in pots question!

[stevemac]

Hi,

How long should it take from planting until foliage shows in potatoes growing in pots?

Following advice from on here i planted supermarket charlotte potatoes about 5/6 weeks ago and arla ones a few weeks ago ,however there is still no sign of any foliage.

Is this normal and if so how long should it take for the foliage to show?

Thanks in advance
Steve

[Cutecumber]

you should have been seeing leaves after 3 weeks.

Late planted potatoes sometimes fail - mine often come to nothing.

It may be that yours - because they were meant for eating rather than growing - have been treated with growth supressant. This stops them sprouting prematurely in storage or in the shops.

Otherwise they were planted too deep and didn't have the energy to reach the surface.

Dig down and have a look.

[stevemac]

Thanks cutecumber

I had a look in each pot and a lot of the potatoes had some roots in place.They did'nt have anything sprouting from the top though(to break through to become leaves).

Is there anything i can do to encourage them along?

[Cutecumber]

Well that doesn't sound as bad as mine, believe me!

Leave them with only a little covering (of compost) and try not to give them any more water for a while. Moist is good, wet is bad. If the weather is constantly wet, make some kind of shelter for them. If the container appears not to be draining well, stand it on something to promote better water passage. The last thing you want is for the tuber to rot off.

I'm afraid you can only wait and see if they get going. Planting in summer can have some strange consequences, in my experience.

[Demeter]

Maybe if it has sprouting-retardant (or whatever they call it) that will have slowed it down and may explain why it's not shooting yet even though it does appear to be growing roots. If I think back to spring, I think I was digging around and finding roots but no shoots about a week or so before they came up, and yes it did take absolutely ages - about 5 weeks, and that was with non-sprayed "proper" seed spuds.

[stevemac]

Thanks for the replies.

I will cover them for a wee while to see if that encourages them along.
Like most of the UK we have had rain probably every day since they were planted so the pots have probably been too soggy!

Thanks again for the help.The more i read/join in in this forum the more i am impressed with how helpfull everyone is on it