Potato decisions

[Dalrimple]

they seem to be well chited ! atb Dal

[Dalrimple]

I went into wilkos yesterday and must say the seed spuds looked in good nick and about the right size and £2.75 a bag I was nearly tempted but iv'e got some ordered from potato day! the 5 for £1 where a diferent story and not worth bothering with imho. atb Dal

[burnie]

Year before last I bought grow bags, cut them in half to get tall narrow bags, made drainage holes in the bottom and planted up. Harvest was ok, but I find it's difficult watering them well enough and I had a lot of small tatties. Rooster seems to be the single most popular commercially grown round here(Albert Bartletts are based in Brechin just down the road), I would like to try growing them as they are really tasty winter tatties to eat.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Thelma I grow everything in containers as you probably know but I have to agree with you 'if you have to buy new compost every year it is expensive', perhaps we should add the word very to that statement.

A couple of points if I may for those thinking of going down that route.

(1) If it's an hobby not a necessity does that matter there are far more expensive hobbies, ask my lady.

(2) If your a skinflint like myself you take great delight in learning how to reuse your compost properly, after all it's only uses are to hold nutrients and secure the plant roots and of course it is burnt out after 4 to 6 weeks anyway.

[burnie]

I got my seed tatties today, a bag of Charlottes(never grown them before) and a bag of Rooster(I've not grown these before either).

[4Shoes]

Just breaking in a grass field and found I can't grow main crop because of wireworm. 1st and 2nd earlies are ok.

For main crop I'd used to grow Records (very dark yellow floury) and Kerrs Pinks (Dry Floury bake) and wonderful chips. Now I've been growing Epicure - trying for that Ayrshire taste, then Aran Pilot - Don't let them grow too big or you get a soapy tattie, Charlotte for the waxy salad taste, and Maris Pier....

Any of the Maris range tend to keep well and all taste much the same when mature.

Grow Pink Fir Apple is a very compost bag one year - very good crop, and very clean.

[bramble]

Bought my seed potatoes this afternoon.
A kilo of Pentland Javlin.
A kilo of Arran Pilot.
The two packs for €6.

[bikermike]

Bought mine yesterday
Sharpe's Express
Desree
[another one I've forgotten]
I'll be re-planting my pink fir for maincrop.

Is there a limit as to how often I can chit from last year's crop? (I rotate everything and the pink firs laughed off the blight that took out some other spuds I had in).

[Dalrimple]

I know a lady who knew the man who developed the Sarpo range. She always grows Mira but lifts them early and uses them as little spuds.
I've grown Mira but prefer others from the Sarpo stable.

we had new spuds yesterday lunch and these were sarpo mira that I grew in buckets sown in july (I think)they were small about the size of a pullet egg but they tasted better than the big main crop sarpo mira that I grew in 2016 ! so i'm told that i'll be growing them this year but they will be earlies and picked when small as above! atb Dal.

[Dalrimple]

aswell as the sarpo mira I will be growing marris peer ,charlots, pinkfirs, and owt else that catches my eye on my visit to the potato day event ! atb Dal

[Small pumpkin]

I noticed today wilkos have started stocking their spuds. They have anya, cara, kestrel, swift, nicola and sharpes express in small packs 5 seed spuds for a quid which got me thinking, I could do a variety test with five or six different varieties in this next year.
Does anyone know of anywhere else where I can get small numbers of spuds to check out some different varieties to save me buying a Kg and only having ability to test 2 or 3 varieties a year. Or would people recommend growing fewer varieties but larger numbers to make a bigger sample size for each variety?

That's exactly what I've done. Got all 6 small pack varieties from wilkos ( and a couple more potato grow bags ). They arrived this morning. So excited . Only thing is the sowing and harvesting instructions they came with are exactly the same for all of them. So I've used the information off other potato suppliers websites.

Simply seeds do a few variety packs of seed potatoes 5 tubers of each. But I'll not be using them again in a hurry. But that's just me throwing my toys out of the pram because they wouldn't send me the spuds ( because I live on Mars or something ! )

[TrialAndError]

I had so much success last year with Jazzy that it's definitely on my list of varieties to grow again 2018.

I've heard quite a few excellent reports about an even newer first early variety, Vitabella, which will also be included on my 2018 list.

More potatoes in grow bags and less in open ground is also on my list of changes this year. We have a multi-burner stove for heating much of our house and the plastic bags which the logs come in are just the right size. Bigger than your standard potato grow bag but not massive. And of course, they are free.

[Jimny14]

Well decided what I'm doing with the potatoes this year. I'm doing a trial with a few different varieties of potatoes. I'm growing arran pilot, pentland javelin, red Duke of York, Charlotte and either kestrel or marina (whichever arrives). All will be planted at same depth and treated same as they'll be in the same bed. I am planning on letting them do their thing and start harvesting as the flowers start to go over (unless I get impatient). Should be interesting.

Trial and error, out of interest why do your logs for your burner come in slightly oversized grow bags? We have a log burner we use for supplementary heating and get logs delivered in those big builders dumpy bags (also v useful around the veg plot)

[TrialAndError]

We get the smaller bags rather than the builders bags. Now I know that I'm OK with the wood burner I will soon start ordering the larger sized bags. Those will also be used on the allotment.

[geepee]

We get the smaller bags rather than the builders bags. Now I know that I'm OK with the wood burner I will soon start ordering the larger sized bags. Those will also be used on the allotment.

?????Tangentization ???... About what logs and Bags have to do with Potato Decisions .....I'll get me coat .....