Grow Your Own Magazine

Whilst we were down at the plot today our neighbours took in a delivery for us from Alanromans.com, of our first order of seed tatties!

Now have 1kg each of Charlottes, Desiree and Pentland Javelins, all ready to chit and plant in the coming few months!

When would everyone recommend us to start the chitting off, and when should we be looking at planting them out?

Anyone like to suggest a couple of other maincrop varieties that they would recommend? I think we are looking for something with good blight / disease reisistance, mainly for roasting and baking, possibly chipping and possibly mashing!

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 26th November2008 - more new piccies!

Everyone will have their own ideas on chitting MrsD and for what its worth heres mine - its a waste of time .
If you keep the seed between 4-8 degrees untill two days before planting they will sprout as well as chitted ones.
Very few farmers chitt potatoes nowadays and it works for them .
Maincroppers I would recomend are Rooster and Golden wonder

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Et tū, quis es?

Ask around on your allotment site Mrs D as to what grows well there! You can't wack local knowledge!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

The spuds i grew last year were supermarket ones that I threw in the ground when they sprouted. This year I plan to order the Heirloom collection from T&M consisiting of Red Duke of York, Sharpes Express, Catriona, Arran Victory, Golden Wonder and International Kidney.
Got to go with what the budget tells me I can afford and these seem like a fair group of all rounders,
My question is, when I harvest them, can the smaller tubers be saved and/or planted as seed potatoes to get a second crop or would I be better off getting new ones in if I need to?
Sorry if I seem a bit thick, completely new to seed spud buying but don't want to get too many and run the risk of wastage.

Kirsty

Kirsty b yes you can but each year that you save seed you will get a lower yield so its best to bring in new seed every couple of years or so

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Et tū, quis es?

Hello Mrs D. if you want potatoes for roasting you cannot beat Rooster. The tattie experts will advise on your other questions.

I thought my Saxon last year were Maincrop but I see now that they were Second Earlies. They have been superb, big large potatoes, nice and waxy, make delicious roasters and potatoe cakes and store well.

What are the best tats to use for bakers? I love jacket spud with loads of butter.

I've not experience but I've ordered a few types of spuds, mains i've ordered Rooster, Cara and Pink Fir Apple and others I've ordered Foremost, Charlotte and Rocket.

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Bex

How can you all be talking about chitting your spuds ?????
We don't look at seed tatties til March up here!

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

I grew Pink Fir Apple for the first time last year and I must say I am hooked!!

They suit my soil (silty loam) and really performed well. They would have performed better If I had known the tops grow in excess of 5'0" though! This year I am going to support the tops and see if I can improve on last years crop.
They are not the prettiest of potatoes but what they lack in beauty they make up for in taste!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

It'll be like last year SR - just a handful of us just waiting...... and waiting..... and waiting .......

I do believe that I live in an area fairly well known for early new potatoes. However, don't know what the local farmers are growing as when they get to the supermarket 'coz they aren't washed and bagged up they don't say the 'make'!!!

I grew Duke of York last year along with others (just 3 of each type) - they were gorgeous - and I will deffo do them again this year but I will do more and leave them longer. I think they are good as bakers but they were lovely served large egg size too. Seemed to be a good return for the amount planted which would be important if I had more space to grow in.

My dad (a definate foodie) reckoned my home grown spuds (in Morrisons flower buckets) were better than the local earlies last year - hope I have as much success this time!!!

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

We've heartily enjoyed our desirees this year. superb spud. Will be growing those and Arran Victory (purple - now there's a surprise!!!) again as these were fabalicious.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

I used Swift last year for my earlies. I was a bit disappointed. I will try something else this year.

I think it is better to buy them as early as possible. a)because you can contol how they are kept and what is done to them before planting and b)because a lot of the less common varieties get sold out very quickly!

I have bought seed potatoes late and they have white, soft sprouts or are all wrinkled and starting to rot. A lot of sprouts get broken off by browsers/ buyers and staff in the garden centre handling them and you have no control over light or temperature!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Snadger
I agree with what you are saying in general but we are dead lucky here - our local GC will stock about sixty varieties in total but they do not take delivery until the beginning of March. They will sell them in 3kg bags or you can buy as many or as few tubers of each variety as you wish.
Suppose that as we are in a major seed tattie growing area we shouldn't be suprised. One of my "door steward / bouncer" colleagues is head tractorman on a local farm which in the last four years has seen it potato acreage (mostly rented to try and get clean ground each year) increase from 300 to 400 to 500 to 600 last season and this year they are looking for 700 - only short by 60 acres at the moment ! Tatties by the tonne up here and everyone is an expert - or so they believe!!

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Thanks for the reply Beefy. Thats cleared that up for me. I was thinking that maybe using the small spuds would help suppress weeds and break up ground as well as hopefully getting a few extra tatties.
I think I may be better off getting new seed potatoes each year because my allotment has not been cultivated for a good few years and as yet I don't know what nasties may be lurking in the soil.

Thanks, Kirsty

Having just watched GYO veg on BBC2 I was quite chuffed to see that she planted Red Duke of York as earlies.

I got some of these the other day and have neen chitting them in the conservatory.

Nice to see Carol Klien raving about them and they seemed to produce good yields. Can't wait now for my own results.

Rocket do well for us but they have a lot of tops so theyre sot the best for growing in tubs. Swift however, are quite short tops & seem to perform better so maybe you should get 6 & put in pots & try them Mazel.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Still waiting for my Winston's to arrive, never ordered potato's through the post before so i am getting a bit nervous.

I hope to visit Rytons potato day an the end of the month and i am making notes for varieties to look out for for container growing. :-)

A family nursery near us sells seed potatoes loose so you'pick your own' and pay for them by weight, which is great if you just want a few.I wont be buying mine for a few months yet though!

How much are you paying for your "seeds"? I have just bought some from the local nursery for £3.10 for a 3kg bag. Then I get 10% discount for the allotment association membership. I suppose there were about 20 different varieties.

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Digger-07

"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right" Henry Ford.

digger was that the place at swillington?
thanks