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potatoes

wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets
Charlottesquare
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Re: potatoes

#398731

Postby Charlottesquare » March 24th, 2021, 8:20 pm

Nimrod103 wrote:I will be growing potatoes again this year in large pots. They were very successful last year, and I just used some old supermarket spuds which were sprouting. As mentioned above, the correct way is to see the new shoots and leaves forming then bury them in more earth/compost. Do this successively till you reach the top of the pot/bin/whatever. They need good drainage, and plenty of water in the summer, also plenty of fertilizer.
The advantage of pots is that they seem to be disliked by slugs, and if you use new compost each year, it avoids the issue with blight spores in the soil. I make new potting mixture each year from a mixture of leaf mould, bonfire ash, and rotted stuff from the compost bins.

I will be planting Pink Fir Apple this year. I've never grown it before, but it is supposed to be the best variety of all.


You just need to be careful with the compost that it does not carry anything over, I tend to not compost my potato haulms and the used soil/compost from the buckets/bags is used to top dress my shrubs in late autumn. I think from memory you also need to be careful using on strawberries as I think they can cross infect. (My gardening knowledge is a tad erratic, I picked some up from my dad who was a really keen gardener over many years but I am not instinctively green fingered)

If interested "You Garden" have a line in potato pots , plastic 30litre, four for £14.99 which is not too expensive though I have not received or used them yet (Prior years mainly bags, but these look a little untidy)Earlier today I ordered from them 18 seed potatoes (6 of 3 types) as a set with three pots and fertilizer for £19.95 plus another 8 pots (2x4) and will plant the seed potato out 2-3 to each pot and likely stick some herbs and rocket in the pots not used for potatoes.

sg31
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Re: potatoes

#398863

Postby sg31 » March 25th, 2021, 11:11 am

I grew potatoes in 50 litre bags last year. One potential problem is when you water it sometimes doesn't penetrate to the middle of the container but runs off the top , round the sides and out of the bottom. I got round this by sticking a 11/2" plastic waste pipe through the middle of the container. Cap the bottom of the pipe and drill holes in it at various heights and the problem is solved.

Each bag produced about 8-10lb of potatoes which wasn't a bad result.

I have wire worm in the veg patch so I had to resort to growing in bags. This year I've buried carrots around the veg plots to see if they get attacked by wire worm, if not the potatoes will go in the soil. Bags are ok but the watering is a pain. I would expect to produce much more from seed potatoes in the ground.

I used a lot of compost filling the potato bags but it's been a great addition to my new no dig bed system.

Charlottesquare
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Re: potatoes

#403910

Postby Charlottesquare » April 13th, 2021, 3:06 pm

sg31 wrote:I grew potatoes in 50 litre bags last year. One potential problem is when you water it sometimes doesn't penetrate to the middle of the container but runs off the top , round the sides and out of the bottom. I got round this by sticking a 11/2" plastic waste pipe through the middle of the container. Cap the bottom of the pipe and drill holes in it at various heights and the problem is solved.

Each bag produced about 8-10lb of potatoes which wasn't a bad result.

I have wire worm in the veg patch so I had to resort to growing in bags. This year I've buried carrots around the veg plots to see if they get attacked by wire worm, if not the potatoes will go in the soil. Bags are ok but the watering is a pain. I would expect to produce much more from seed potatoes in the ground.

I used a lot of compost filling the potato bags but it's been a great addition to my new no dig bed system.


That's clever.

I have used the buried half cola bottle for watering before to keep foliage from getting wet, but thinking about your idea, just cutting the base away, fitting the screw cap and punching holes down the sides and burying would certainly work.

For this year's new raised bed (scaffold boards awaiting sanding/construction) I am going to be trying a porous hose through the bed and a water butt about 2.5 ft off the ground from the rear gutter of the new summerhouse/greenhouse to try to gravity feed (Summerhouse was last year's Covid project, I built it out of lots of timer I could access at no cost)

This year's additional project is vertical gardening, I have ordered in total 20 no 72cm,x 20cmx20cm planters and scaffold shelfing units are to be built fitted down the shed end wall, along part of the fence and as a frame at the back of an existing raised planter. 20 x0.72x0.2=2.88m2 extra growing space, though not much good for potatoes.

Still to work out the watering system but as each has a small reservoir at the bottom of the planter some plastic tube dropping down via each level may work (£19.99 for four on Amazon, Sohler by Eurotrade)

scotia
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Re: potatoes

#404559

Postby scotia » April 15th, 2021, 5:00 pm

Aphids carrying virus infections is a problem in growing virus-free seed potatoes. So cold windy climates reduce greenfly infestations - however other control measures are also required. There is a note on this from the Scottish Agricultural College

https://www.sruc.ac.uk/download/downloads/id/1343/tn492_aphids_and_aphiod-borne_virus_disease_in_potatoes.pdf

Its chiefly irrelevant, since I don't think there is any intention to set up seed potato production in plastic bins :) But it explains the difference in production between seed potatoes and ware potatoes (as purchased for consumption).

mutantpoodle
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Re: potatoes

#406090

Postby mutantpoodle » April 22nd, 2021, 11:09 am

ok so my potatoes are now showing shoots through the soil in which they are planted
i realise i need to cover with more soil
how tall should I let the shoots get before covering again
and do I cover with 3 inches soil...or???

mutantpoodle
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Re: potatoes

#406094

Postby mutantpoodle » April 22nd, 2021, 11:25 am

ok ok
i just found info on other website
they need to be covered again when they 6-8 cms

which is about 3 inches in real money


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