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Potatoes

wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets
Paupertas
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Potatoes

#453961

Postby Paupertas » October 28th, 2021, 7:38 pm

For the last year or so we have been container gardening, which isn't as easy as it looks!

We put two seed potatoes in a container a few weeks ago. These got absolutely battered in the torrential rain a week or so ago. The main stem was snapped off one of the plants and a few smaller stems from the other. Both look rather worse for wear and the one with the broken main stem having some leaves turning yellow.

I'm tempted to bin these plants and start again, but I'm not sure - or should I just leave them and see what happens?

Any advice appreciated

bungeejumper
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Re: Potatoes

#454065

Postby bungeejumper » October 29th, 2021, 8:58 am

It's been a while since I've grown spuds (our soil is too wet), but the way I recall it, half the point of earthing up potatoes was that making shoot growth "difficult" was to encourage the root (ie the potato) to make even greater efforts. :) If that's right, then you've probably got nothing much to lose by leaving things as they are.

That said, I never grew late-season spuds. Mine were always out of the ground by mid-October. Which variety are you growing?

BJ

Dod101
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Re: Potatoes

#454067

Postby Dod101 » October 29th, 2021, 9:08 am

Paupertas wrote:For the last year or so we have been container gardening, which isn't as easy as it looks!

We put two seed potatoes in a container a few weeks ago. These got absolutely battered in the torrential rain a week or so ago. The main stem was snapped off one of the plants and a few smaller stems from the other. Both look rather worse for wear and the one with the broken main stem having some leaves turning yellow.

I'm tempted to bin these plants and start again, but I'm not sure - or should I just leave them and see what happens?

Any advice appreciated


In a normal year they would not be growing at this time of year as it would be too cold and/or too wet. I would bin them and start again next April.

Dod

sg31
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Re: Potatoes

#454114

Postby sg31 » October 29th, 2021, 11:50 am

There is a potato growers 'thing' about having home grown new potatoes for Christmas day. It is too much trouble for me but it involves planting 'earlies' at about this time of year and then moving them to the greenhouse before the first frost.

It may be this was the OP's intention. If so good luck with it. If not it is far too late to grow potatoes in the UK climate. Normally they are planted before the last frost date so they pop their leaves above ground just after the last frost.

I'm no potato growing expert. I stick to main season, main crop.

Paupertas
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Re: Potatoes

#454160

Postby Paupertas » October 29th, 2021, 2:03 pm

Which variety are you growing?


Maurice Piper

In a normal year they would not be growing at this time of year as it would be too cold and/or too wet. I would bin them and start again next April.


I thought that I could get them in by September and have potatoes up to Xmas. I’ve got another three lots in containers all in various stages and all outside. The potatoes in one container look good (if their leaves are anything to go by), the other two are doing OK. I've just put another two in a container but will have these in the greenhouse at the first sign of a frost.

We had Maurice Peer during the summer and didn’t do too well with them.

I’m new to growing veg. It’s a Covid-19 thing. We are semi-retired and would usually be away two or three times to warmer climates over winter, so I’m not too experienced at growing stuff. It is harder than I expected.

It's certainly a lot of work and effort considering what we get. I've got some turnips on the go and some look fine. The other week we were in Lidl and I noticed a large swede on sale for 47p!

We somehow like the challenge! We learned a lot from our failures over summer and will be much more aware of what we are doing next year.

It also made me realize how precarious agricultural society in the past must have been. A bad harvest meant that they didn't eat too well for quite a while!

bungeejumper
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Re: Potatoes

#454180

Postby bungeejumper » October 29th, 2021, 3:38 pm

Paupertas wrote:
Which variety are you growing?

Maurice Piper

What, good old Maurice? I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. Don't think he'd be too happy about being disinterred now. And his missus wouldn't approve. You probably meant Maris Piper? :lol:


I thought that I could get them in by September and have potatoes up to Xmas. I’ve got another three lots in containers all in various stages and all outside. The potatoes in one container look good (if their leaves are anything to go by), the other two are doing OK. I've just put another two in a container but will have these in the greenhouse at the first sign of a frost.

FWIW, here's a bit of know-how on growing Christmas spuds:
https://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/g ... -potatoes/

BJ

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Re: Potatoes

#454207

Postby Lootman » October 29th, 2021, 5:28 pm

Paupertas wrote:I’m new to growing veg. It’s a Covid-19 thing. We are semi-retired and would usually be away two or three times to warmer climates over winter, so I’m not too experienced at growing stuff. It is harder than I expected.

It's certainly a lot of work and effort considering what we get. I've got some turnips on the go and some look fine. The other week we were in Lidl and I noticed a large swede on sale for 47p!

That's the thing. Growing veggies for purely economic reasons is not really viable unless you do not put a value on your time and effort. Vegetables in a shop are fairly cheap, especially root vegetables like turnips, carrots and potatoes. Worse, potatoes take a fair amount of real estate to grow.

One can argue home-grown veggies are fresher, and of course you know what went into them. But after decades of growing our own in the back garden, and even having an allotment as well, we decided it was far easier to just order boxes of organic vegetables from a local farm supplier. They deliver to a house very close to us for regular weekly orders.

We still grow herbs, and tomatoes in the greenhouse, but that is about it.

Paupertas
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Re: Potatoes

#454278

Postby Paupertas » October 30th, 2021, 8:51 am

One can argue home-grown veggies are fresher, and of course you know what went into them. But after decades of growing our own in the back garden, and even having an allotment as well, we decided it was far easier to just order boxes of organic vegetables from a local farm supplier. They deliver to a house very close to us for regular weekly orders.


It's something that we started last year and I'm determined to do it successfully - I like a challenge :)

The other day I saw a YouTuber empty a grow bag of potatoes which produced five and a half pounds of potatoes. I then emptied mine and got three medium sized potatoes and a few 'marbles'. I'll keep going until i can match this.

Besides potatoes We have brussel sprouts, carrots, leeks and turnips.

We have what we call a 'summer house' at the bottom of the garden. It's made of wood with a good roof and no sides, apart from the wooded supports - we have it made along the lines of an African hut! I've moved the patio furniture out for winter and now have some of the veg. in there and am surprised to see that it does better than the veg. outside in the open which is a bit of a puzzle. I'm still researching this. I can only imagine that it is the rainfall that makes a difference but I'm not too sure.

I've now got a greater respect for farmers around the world as this gardening/farming life isn't as easy as I once imagined it to be.

Dod101
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Re: Potatoes

#454287

Postby Dod101 » October 30th, 2021, 9:54 am

I used to have a large and productive vegetable garden but the only potatoes I ever grew were first earlies. They had to be in by the middle of April in Central Scotland where I live and I would harvest in July in a good year. I could never see the point in growing main crop since they were plentiful in the shops by the time they were cropping and anyway they take up so much room in the garden, I would rather grow something more worthwhile.

Growing potatoes for Christmas? Too much faff for me.

Dod

sg31
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Re: Potatoes

#454308

Postby sg31 » October 30th, 2021, 11:15 am

I grew container potatoes in the first covid year. We are in an area prone to wire worm so it seemed the sensible thing to do. I've very little experience of growing veg other than runner beans and tomatoes although I grow a lot of fruit.

It takes a lot of compost to grow in containers but it's great as a soil conditioner when you have done. I grew main crop potatoes.I was late getting them in due to shortage of supplies as there was massive demand at the time. I think I must have been a bit heavy handed on the fertiliser because the plants grew exceedingly tall. I thought that would be a good thing as it would enable the plants to produce a good crop. In some ways it was a problem because they fell over a lot in the wind until I surrounded them with canes pushed into the outermost bags and tied cord right round them.

Watering was a long job. It took a lot of time even with a hose, they are thirsty plants.

Yields were mixed, from memory the best bag produced 9lb of very nice potatoes, the worst was about 4lb. Considering the time, effort and expense I think they must be some of the most expensive potatoes ever produced. I enjoyed it though but wouldn't do it again.

This year I grew them in the ground, the wire worm damaged some potatoes but overall I got more potatoes for less time, effort and expense.


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