Christmas potatoes question

**shirlthegirl43** · 28-07-2008, 11:50 AM

I usually put one tuber per 10 litre bucket. I started some spuds in a regular dustbin last year and set 3 tubers on 3 inches of compost at the bottom - once they had grown up and been earthed to almost halfway up the bin, I set another 3 tubers. They were growing nicely and looked quite promising until they got hit by blight last year.

I find that one tuber per 10litre bucket usually gives a meal worth of spuds for our family (two adults and two hungry teenagers) so will be planting my Christmas spuds at that ratio.

As to planting before you go away - the spuds won't do a huge amount in the first two weeks so they should be fine so long as you leave them in a shady spot where the compost won't dry out too much. Set the seed spud on around 3 inches of compost and manure, cover with another few inches of compost. When the stems are around 6 inches high, cover the bottom 4 inches with compost so that the leaves are still above the soil level. Continue like that till bag/bucket is full and keep frost free.

Good luck with them, my first year trying them properly for Christmas too.

**nick nack** · 28-07-2008, 06:18 PM

Winged one sorry to pinch your thread on the xmas potatoes.

I planted Jersey seed potatoes in buckets and I started to harvest them last week, very impressed with the yield by the way so I will be growing them again next year.

However the seed potatoes have not gone squashy, are very firm and still sending out shoots so I am going to plant them up again for xmas spuds and see how they go. Has anyone else done this before and was it successful?

NN

**Winged one** · 29-07-2008, 07:59 AM

Thanks for that Shirl - will give it a go later this week then.

Sorry Nick Nack, I've no answers for you, but hopefully someone else will soon. Hijack away!!

**terrier** · 29-07-2008, 08:40 AM

You don't need the seed spud to grow a plant, Nick Nack, as long as you have the shoots they should root themselves, even potato peelings thrown on the compost heap will produce plants from the 'eyes' (that's how I you'st to get my Chrismas spuds).

**SueA** · 29-07-2008, 10:41 AM

I'd give it a try Nick Nack, as Terrier says if they've got shoots still growing off them these should produce potatoes. If the crop you've lifted is healthy you could always save a couple of those & use them as seed potatoes too.

**SueA** · 29-07-2008, 10:47 AM

Winged one I'd put 3 in each bag & you should get a decent crop but probably not as big as spring planted ones. You can leave the bags outside & they should be fine, the tops will start to die off if we get a frost though but you can cut them off & leave the potatoes in the bags until you want to use them they just won't get any bigger. I grew some last year in a tub outside, forgot about them & found them, perfectly alright this spring when I came to empty out the tub to re-use it! Some people put the bags in a greenhouse as this gives you a longer growing period avoiding the frost or you could also cover the tops of the bags with fleece if frost is forecast. I'm trying Carlingford this year & they're going to have to take their chance outside.

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