When to sow Christmas spuds

[Nicos]

Absolutely…go for it, but at least now you are aware of potential outcomes.
It’ll be useful to see how they do incase anyone else is tempted to try next year.
Always good to share advice.

[Marb67]

Well I haven't much to lose really all things considering.

[ameno]

Thats ok as blight is over now and the spores will have died.

That depends how long ago you disposed of the dead plants. The spores can last a few weeks without a host, so may still be hanging around. It'll be fine by spring, but I'm not sure I'd want to risk using it in the autumn.

[Marb67]

Broad beans are not potatoes.
Broad beans grow from seeds, and thus are designed not to require much of a food reserve to get started. They are meant to start small and get many times larger. They are also completely frost hardy.
Potatoes grow from a tuber and require a decent reserve of food in the tuber to get going. They are meant to get off to a strong start like that, then grow quickly. They are not meant to have to struggle to get going and grow slowly. And of course potatoes are not hardy in the slightest, and will turn black at the slightest frost.

Yes but not in a greenhouse with protection.

[Marb67]

Urm…didn’t your tomatoes have blight? ( just a thought if you are going to use spent tomato compost….)

Thats ok as blight is over now and the spores will have died.

[Nicos]

Urm…didn’t your tomatoes have blight? ( just a thought if you are going to use spent tomato compost….)

[ameno]

Well I shall plant them in spent tomato compost from this year with some bfb feed and a little water. They have to produce something. I have seen broad Beans sown in Autumn go through a hard winter in the greenhouse come back from thin, wispy plants to produce healthy beans next June.

Broad beans are not potatoes.
Broad beans grow from seeds, and thus are designed not to require much of a food reserve to get started. They are meant to start small and get many times larger. They are also completely frost hardy.
Potatoes grow from a tuber and require a decent reserve of food in the tuber to get going. They are meant to get off to a strong start like that, then grow quickly. They are not meant to have to struggle to get going and grow slowly. And of course potatoes are not hardy in the slightest, and will turn black at the slightest frost.

[Snoop Puss]

Well I shall plant them in spent tomato compost from this year with some bfb feed and a little water. They have to produce something. I have seen broad Beans sown in Autumn go through a hard winter in the greenhouse come back from thin, wispy plants to produce healthy beans next June.

Good luck. I really hope it works out.

[Nicos]

Do let us know how you get on marb.

[Marb67]

Well I shall plant them in spent tomato compost from this year with some bfb feed and a little water. They have to produce something. I have seen broad Beans sown in Autumn go through a hard winter in the greenhouse come back from thin, wispy plants to produce healthy beans next June.

[Snoop Puss]

Not really. The instructions are quite clear about when they need planting in order for them to be ready for Christmas. You can't expect to be able to plant them considerably later than that and still have them ready in time.

I agree with ameno, Marb. You chose not to plant them in time for Christmas because you were worried about blight. But now they've got next to no time to grow for consumption at Christmas, and no reserves to grow even for next year. There's a world of difference for a tuber planted in spring and growing during warmer and lengthening days and for another planted in cooling and shorter and shorter days.

Yes, volunteer potatoes grow. But if you were to find one, dig it up and compare it with those tubers you have there, you'll see that the volunteer is a nice healthy spud, full of energy reserves, in comparison with those seed potatoes.

If you want to try an experiment, go ahead. You've only time and effort to lose and you might indeed get lucky. But it really is unlikely. You might as well plant them in good time next year, despite the presence of blight. Either you're going to lose them to blight or you're going to lose them because you've waited too long and they have no energy stores and too little time.

Apologies again for being a bit blunt with the bad news.

[ameno]

I can't just bin them as it cost to buy them. Surely if I put them in dry pots of compost in the greenhouse they will be safe until Spring.

They'll be dead by next spring is what they'll be. The tubers look to be already almost exhausted. They'll not survive 4 more months without water.
Sometimes you just have to accept a loss and give up. Cut your losses. Chasing lost money like this just because you already invested is known as the sunk cost fallacy.

It's just a bit misleading advertising as Christmas potatoes.

Not really. The instructions are quite clear about when they need planting in order for them to be ready for Christmas. You can't expect to be able to plant them considerably later than that and still have them ready in time.

[Marb67]

I always like a challenge and go against convention. Sometimes it pays off. It's just a bit misleading advertising as Christmas potatoes.

[Snoop Puss]

^Volunteers do indeed grow, but not all of them. And I take Penellype's point about those potatoes not having enough stored energy to support a plant as it starts to grow, now or in the spring.

But you've nothing to lose except a bit of time and effort. So give it a go.

[Marb67]

I can't just bin them as it cost to buy them. Surely if I put them in dry pots of compost in the greenhouse they will be safe until Spring. Besides, all those left over spuds in the ground always come up the next year.

What I will say is they were covered in white fly until I gave them a soak in water for an hour.