Potatoes Made Easy

[esrikandan]

I think it's 6-8 weeks before you intend to plant.

[chriscross1966]

About now for early earlies, once my seed spuds arrive they tend to get stored somewhere cool but light anyway.... I don't want long spindly chits and I don't trust my garage to stay cold enough in warm spells or not freeze in prolonged cold snaps, so it's north-facing windowsills for me :-)

chrisc

[rustylady]

As soon as you get your seed potatoes you need to unpack them and put them somewhere cool, light and frost=free.

[zazen999]

I'm reviving this for the coming potato season, Iain I hope you don't mind.

I'll be merging all chitting potato queries with this one, so that Grapes can see the benefit of Iain's potato genius.

[tattieman]

Sounds good to me. I can't believe it is that time of year again. Any potato questions you have just put them on here and I will answer them as quick as I can.

[FionaH]

Sounds good to me. I can't believe it is that time of year again. Any potato questions you have just put them on here and I will answer them as quick as I can.

You really are a gem, you know that?

[tattieman]

I try my best Fiona

[Snadger]

Sounds good to me. I can't believe it is that time of year again. Any questions you have just put them on here and I will answer them as quick as I can.

Next weeks lottery numbers would be good?

[COMPOST CORNER]

Tattieman, thanks for all this advice. I have a couple of questons.
Last year I grew my taters in the 40 litre growing bags (5 seed potatoes per bag), and had a reasonable crop. This year, I was thinking of just putting one seed potato in the larger of the Morrisons flower buckets, hoping I could then just empty one bucket at a time for enough salad potatoes for a meal for two (possibly three if the teenager eats what we are eating). Would this work? The buckets hold about 10 litres of compost I think.

Second question. My "lawn" is very overgrown with couch and other perrenial weeds.
I was thinking of giving some of it over to maincrop potataoes to hopefully last, if not through, then at least well into, winter.
I have heard conflicting ideas, one saying potatoes are the things to grow as they really turn over the ground, and another suggesting that any long term lawn will be full of leatherjackets and other pests.
Should I go for it?

[Alison]

Compost Corner - don't have the in depth knowledge of tattieman but can speak from my experience last year. On a totally uncleared section of my new lottie which was full of weed, couch grass and general unwanted stuff, I simply dug out bits of bramble, covered the ground with cardboard, cut holes into it and simply used a bulb planter and put the spuds in. Didn't do anything else, didn't weed, earth up or anything (meant to put piles of used compost around the plants but never got around to it. Come the autumn it was noticeably easier to dig the spuds up than it had been to dig other areas which had not been covered in this way. Got a great crop in land that I'd have not been able to use otherwise all for the cost of a few seed spuds. I say go for it.

[tattieman]

Snadger nexts weeks numbers are 2,9,36,37,42 and 44.
Compost corner - the morrisons buckets are ideal for early potatoes and you will have succes with them. Just make sure you have drainage holes in them and pop one spud in.
The potato planters that you mention should really only have 2/3 potatoes in them as 5 creates too much competition. The problem is that every company sells 5 spuds with them so if I sell less I look like a worse deal although you would have a better crop!!!
Alison that is a good idea about how to remove overgrowth.
If the lawn is liftable with a spade I would try and remove it to the compost heap, as lifting the top layer of soil with the grass in would remove a large percentage of wireworm eggs which are waiting to hatch and eat your spuds. It would take 3 years to get rid of the wireworm problem if the eggs were there and you dug them in.

[Twinkle]

As soon as you get your seed potatoes you need to unpack them and put them somewhere cool, light and frost=free.

unlike me, who left them in the shed, which froze to -12C and I have lost all my seed potatoes

[binley100]

I'm in a right old quandery .I've got the choice of three places to chit my early earlies and not sure which one to go for.
!. Conservatory - faces South so if sun happens to show its face can get quite warm.
2. Glass greenhouse - further down garden . If it gets cold again possibility of freezing.
3. Plastic 5 tier mini greenhouse.- By back door in a pretty sheltered position facing east and against wall of kitchen extension.
Help please . At the moment they're in semi-darkness under the stairs and starting to sprout.

[Bigmallly]

B4gg4r...........mine are hung up in GH in a carrier bag, forgot all about them. Will check them when I get home.

[zazen999]

I'm in a right old quandery .I've got the choice of three places to chit my early earlies and not sure which one to go for.
!. Conservatory - faces South so if sun happens to show its face can get quite warm.
2. Glass greenhouse - further down garden . If it gets cold again possibility of freezing.
3. Plastic 5 tier mini greenhouse.- By back door in a pretty sheltered position facing east and against wall of kitchen extension.
Help please . At the moment they're in semi-darkness under the stairs and starting to sprout.

Firstly, take them out from under the stairs.

You only have to chit the earlies, an egg box in the kitchen will suffice.