Just found my spare first earlies in the garage....to plant or not to plant??

[TrulyGreen]

Hi Everyone.....Scouring the garage for my environmesh, OH came across a box of first earlies (sharpes express) that were left over from April. Took a peek in the box looks like day of the trifids

My question.....is it worth planting them? I saw Alan T on Gardeners World say to plant those left over seed potatoes for an Autumn/Christmas crop......would appreciate your thoughts before I waste valuable compost on them (planted in buckets). Christine

[citygirl]

uh huh...i got sooooo carried away planting seeds and doing everyting else, i also "forgot" to plant my spuds(maris piper)... they're not like triffids, but they're well past their planting point, i think.. all shrivelled up and empty looking.. hmm... oh well... there they still sit, on my windowsill...making pretty bumpy shadows on a nighttime

[jaykay]

If you have the space, give them a try. I planted some first earlies in June last year (they did look a bit straggly) and we had lovely new potatoes in August. Potatoes seem to thrive anywhere - including the compost heap!

[SlugLobber]

In another post, I told of when I was 8, I planted a spud at home oop North. Now, we were a poor family, so I'm pretty sure I'd have been beaten and made to work down t'pit if I'd used a decent spud, so I'm fairly sure it was a wrinkly one. That little spud thrived and fed the family for 3 generations. Well, I'm exaggerating, but it did grow very well and me ma was reet proud. I'm planning to put some more of mine in soon.

Jaykay, where I keep my horses I walk past a compost heap of a neighbour. One of her spuds has sprouted out of the bottom of the big black composter!!

[TrulyGreen]

Oh that's great..... so pleased..... I will get reet out there this morning and give em a go. Citygirl I used to live in Keighley (Steeton) love Yorkshire. A bit further West now on the Wirral. Maybe you should give your MPs a go too....you never know we may be digging up those lovely new pots in a couple of months. Mine actually have some greenery on top of the sprouts what a valiant plant the little spud is

Thank you one and all Christine

[moggssue]

I would give them a go. I found a very wrinkly shriveled bag of second earlies, with long white shoots not looking at all healthy about a month ago so bunged them in on a bit of land on the lottie I'd been saving for PSB and leeks (which can still go there when the spuds are done I hope!) and yeyyyy, they all came up and have almost caught up with the earlier planted, much healthier looking ones. Dont know what sort of crop they'll give me yet, but if I hadnt have planted them they definitely wouldnt have given me anything!

[Kristen]

They won't be any use if you don't plant then, so if you've got some spare ground chuck 'em in. I expect the shoots will be very brittle / fragile, but that's the bit the spuds will come off, so if planted deep enough I reckon they should produce a crop.

First earlies are, what, 3 months to crop? That will be around the end of September. They'll need some watering though, I reckon, to bulk-up.

[zazen999]

I had a spare that my OH missed, I kept it and also saved lots of shoots from spuds that had sprouted from supermarket spuds - they all went in a spare square of lottie on monday.

[percy charlie]

i was given some slightly wrinkle seed spuds that where sprouting and planted them end of may there doing well. if they didnt work you can reuse the compost, i put 50%compost ive grown fruit and veg in when done with back in my compost bin mixed with bone meal and potash add some manure stir it in the fresh composting stuff at the top then leave in 6 months time the compost will be full of nutrients again.

[quark1]

I'd plant 'em up - what have you to lose?

If you have containers like flower buckets (Co-Op seem to have no recycle policy at the moment - so wil be happy to let you have for nowt!) - if they don't seem to to be producing tell-tale bulges! by October - then they will be small enough to lift and move into a greenhouse or sun lounge to save from frost damage (this is my plan). Possibly even lagging with fleece etc might preserve outside?

I also got carried away with my ambitious spud plans this year. I know that some late starts will have to be brought inside towards the end of the summer/autumn depending on weather/frost. I'm lucky I have the room - I know some don't. But having missed out on the 'very' early harvests that some of my more organised 'colleagues' have reported here - I should have plenty of nice young 'newish' spuds in the winter months. And hopefully a few keepers to see me thru the depths of winter when nothing seems to be doing much - including me!

[citygirl]

ok...ta...will pop a few of the better ones in. and see what 'appens

with things like maris pipers though, is it possible to eat them earlier than they should be, and just get smaller ones? i like to cook all pots like i would new spuds anyway, without the need to peel. so the smaller the better. don't do things like chips, often... although i think they are a chip potato..


ahh yes trulygreen. steeton keighley yorkshire

wirral...just so 'appens i know someone else on here from there too. you should get in touch with each other, and talk keighley(and yorkshire) up

[TrulyGreen]

Wow many thanks for all the great advice. Percy Charlie that's good advice about the compost. I was wondering what to do with the spent stuff.
Good luck with the maris pipers citygirl.....always willing to talk Yorkshire up.....really soft spot for west yorks and still lots of friends there

[Alice]

You can let them rot in the garage or plant them. I reckon they're in with a good chance of success. I would plant.