Grow Your Own Magazine

I think growing spuds in pots is great fun. However, for me this year, Pentland Javelin in pots produced too many tiny spuds. (I use good quality compost) So next year I'm going back to Kestrel which did well last year. Don't know why I changed ! Or can anyone recommend another good variety? Got to be first early, methinks.

I might have got this wrong, but I THINK that you can get 'fewer but bigger' spuds by limiting the number of active 'eyes' on the seed potato......

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

CHARLES
The spring has been very cold which has slowed the growth of many veg, if you had left your spuds longer maybe all the small ones would have become big ones, have a firkle to check the size before emptying the pots out.

Thanks for the answers - will investigate limiting number of eyes on seed spud - that looks like an opportunity for an experiment.
I suppose a firkle is a little sneaky look at something ????
Anyway I will be digging up my Wilja spuds from the ground soon - a great variety - touch wood - hardly any slug holes in 'em usually.

Yes, I agree - I have left my potatoes and on having a rummage discovered that the small ones are now not a bad size.

kwa50
CraftChallenge.co.uk - Home

we had great success with pentland javelin in sacks...maybe the weather was kinder for taties up north

My First Year With A Greenhouse In Az And I Had Some Potatoes That Were Sprouted So I Planted The Eyes In A Wooden Box In Three Hills And Got A Bumper Crop From Them. Sure There Were Some Small Ones But Some Big Ones Too. Just Keep Trying. I Planted In Sept Last Year And Had Tomatoes By October And Picked My Last Ones A Week Ago. Its Sure A Lot Of Fun, Isn't It. Have A Good Day

I grew 'rocket' in pots and they were a good size though I did leave them for about 16 weeks.

i've just harvested 2kg of javelin from a 30 litre grow bag. It's not a bad haul for a first time pot man.

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I grew Pentland Javelin in buckets this year. The first bucket I emptied had a lot of small ones so I slid it back into the bucket and let them grow on. The buckets which were left 2 weeks longer had good sized potatoes and crop not bad. I don't think the flavour is as good as Charlotte.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

I was given three nice plastic growing pots.
And yes my Charlottes went bonkers.
I started them in GH and put the outside in spring.
Lots of early spuds.
But, when you work out how much compost I used the cost was excessive. These grow pots/bags don't half gobble up compost!
NB Fortunatly I make quite a bit of my own compost.
Jim

got a huge crop off three pink fir apple
i have got a dustbin full of carlingford and a pot bag full of some form of salad potato.
i planted four yukon gold three weeks ago and they have shot up.

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joanne culyer

I have been growing potatoes in containers. This will be my third or fourth attempt. All previous attempts produces string roots and no tubers. I am growing in two recycled water butts and two tyre towers. The plants look wonderfull, masses of foliage but don't know whether there's anything underneath. The tallest plant is currently around 5 feet. I am expecting the tyre towers to reach at least five feet before they mature. Will let you know the results (if any).

Never thought of that one, what a good way to recycle tyres,

I cut off the walls first leaving about a quarter inch of overhang. I use a penknife or similar to make the incision, then a bread knife cuts through the rubber fairly easily thereafter. There is usually a line each side of the tyre around the place whether the surface tread comes to an end which is a good line to follow with the knife. There should be just enough wall left for the tyres to stand on top of one another. It's important to make sure the first tyre is horizontal, as once the tower starts to rise the weight of the compost will buckle the edge of any low spot and the tyre will start to lean. Needs plenty of water to succeed. Any suggestions for recycling the walls gratefully received.

I am hoping to use a 50l compost bag, and a new bag of compost to top it up, for growing some charlotte's for Christmas dinner.

Is a 50l compost bag the right size? And how many tubers should I put in that (they are sold in 10 packs, but I can give a few to an uncle for him to try in his greenhouse).

I am growing potatoes for the first time. I had understoor that you needed to wait until they flowere before pulling them. However I noticed some people post about early crops and I was wondering what was the earliest I could pull them. I don't mind getting some small potatoes (I want some small and sweet). I have had a bit of a rumage round the top of the pots they are growing in and there are a few potatoes visable which seem a nice size.

Hi scampbeast (notice you're new here - welcome to the vine!) This is my first year with spuds as well - and with almost everything else come to mention it

What variety of potatoes are you growing? From what I can gather, different varieties are early, second early, early maincrop and maincrop depending on how long they take to mature (i.e. from about 3 months up to about 6+ months, I think) to the ideal potato for that variety. Someone who knows better than me will be a long in a bit though...

Having said that, I understand that you can harvest them at the "wrong" stage if you want to (e.g. take some little ones early from a variety that's meant to be harvested later as big maincrop potatoes), it's just that the variety you've chosen will be best if harvested at the intended time, if you see what I mean. Anyway, if it were me, I'd be sorely tempted to try the spuds you can see that are a reasonable size, you can always let the rest grow on a bit after all

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

I've noticed today that I've a volunteer potato plant growing in my compost bin. One of the shoots has come out of a ventilation hole in the side and is growing sneakily up the back where I didn't see it until it was already huge!

Can't decide whether to let it do its thing and harvest the spuds, or whether to rip it out - I had wanted to put the compost I am making on a bed where I am going to grow tomatoes next year! Oh dear...

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

I always had volunteers in the compost, but still used it on tomatoes. I'm experimenting this year by putting potato peelings in th bokashi bin, hopefully, after 'pickling' they won't be able to grow.

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Hi,

I wonder could anyone throw any light on this. There is crop rotation and successional planting, let's forget complementary for a second.

I read in a gardening magazine that you can plant late brassicas (according to one of my gardening books, group A) after e.g. beans (group C) and kale (group A) after new potatoes (group A). I can possibly follow the first suggestion, i.e. brassicas after beans, but will the 2nd one work? How does that affect crop rotation for next year? Do I then put carrots or parsnips in the beds that I used for either of those next year or how do I go about it?

I am also rather confused on the different classifications, one of my books puts leeks in group A (a 3-year rotation system), another one puts leeks with all the other allium groups (4-year crop rotation). Can anyone suggest a crop rotation system that I can follow, i.e. see the logic in?

Thank you in advance for any useful suggestions!

Regards,

dvervaet

I'm confused - do you mean that potatoes are in group A, the same group as brassicas? That doesn't sound right to me.

Having said that, every system is different - as you've seen with the 2 different rotations putting leeks in with alliums or not... personally, i would, because they are botanically in the same family. Dunno why the other plant didn't but someone else might have a clue...

And you'll probably end up breaking the rules anyway, when you run out of space or have something you urgently need to plant that doesn't fit in with the scheme you've selected!

If you're after suggestions, then I would go for either a 3-year or 4-year rotation (whatever suits the space you have available) and then stick to the advice for the scheme you've got, as closely as you practically can, but not religiously.... As long as you don't grow the same family/group in the same place in consecutive years you'll probably be more or less ok!

PS you'll probably get more answers posting a separate thread - also worth using the search button to see what others more expert than me have already said on this subject.

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

I have no idea, I planted some which went to seed from a bag I bought in Costco They have not flowered yet but there are some nice looking small potatoes near the top and I wondered if they would be OK to eat. They have been growing for about 8 weeks.

Anyone got any views on this please?