Low Yields Of Potatoes?

I've pulled my spuds up today (oo-er!), 8 plants in total. Two were flowering, which were in my veg patch, and 3 were in bags. Rocket and Charlotte. I've got a panful from them, probably feed 4 with small portions. Any ideas as to the problem? The ones in bags were earthed up when the shoots were showing about 4" through, and the ones in the patch were earthed up at a similar size. I had a decent yield last year, and pulled them at a similar time?

Thanks.

 

Hi NG,

Its been the dreadfull lack of rain i'm afraid.

Even watering the plot for an hour at a time through the drought, only the top few inches were actually moist.

I would have thought the bags would have done better, easier to water them thru.

 

I am wondering if you might have harvested them a bit too early but I am not sure whether your varieties are early/second early or lates without looking it up.Early varieties need about thirteen weeks from planting to harvest and lates twenty two weeks from planting.

As Ziggy says it might be due to the dry conditions we have had again this year because last year we had plenty of top growth on all our plants but very little underneath...

 

I go along with the Kandys "too early" theory, maybe a bit more watering and feeding perhaps.
For some reason everyone seems to be in a rush to get spuds out the ground, I find the longer you leave them the better.

But of course "earlies", which I only have a few of, are supposed to be dug "early", but even so a couple of more weeks can make a big difference.
I'm of the opinion that if the top is still green and healthy then the spuds are still growing underneath.

Interestingly, I bought all the same variety of earlies but there are two distinct kinds of plant growing, so I'm not sure you can always trust you are getting what you think you are.

 

That is very true pete. It must be very easy to pick a stray seed spud up off the floor & lob it in the nearest bin. If seed potato factories are anything like the hell on earth that retail potato factories are, the poor workers don't have a second to spare.

I've dug a few earlies but have bought a sack of spuds to enable us to leave the rest in the ground for a few more weeks to make up for the drought.

We've had a damn good soaking now, just need a bit of sun & they should get bigger.

New batch of feed should be ready now so will use that on them when the rain subsides.

 

I say too early.

When I harvest my spuds I don't go by the calendar. I was always taught to wait until the flowers have finished and then give it another week or two.

The potatoes don't grow at a linear rate. If you consider the purpose of the spuds as far as the plant is concerned, its nothing but an energy store to see the plant through winter. Like a wasteful youth compared to a prudent older person, the young potato plant doesn't bother saving for the future until it has its mid life crisis and then it starts storing everything it can, and hence the spuds grow.

 

That's just it ziggy, the bags seem to have done the worst, with one bag not even getting any spuds whatsoever? The bags got watered regularly, and were kept in partial shade for times of the day, but no different to last year. Ah well. Time to prep the veg patch now for everything else I think.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll write it off as experience I think.

 

I set my earlies in the greenhouse on the first of February as I do every year, & dug the first root on the 31st of May. Lots of water & plenty of top growth but very few potatoes. I'm having to dig 2 roots each day for 2 of us. In a normal year I would be digging 1 root for 2 days, I'm baffled.

Eric Walker

 

Sounds just like my problem that Eric, an abundance of green, but no worthwhile spuds. I used the same growbags as I did last year, the Evergreen Peat ones.

 

I have to admit, there is something a bit odd going on with my spuds this year. I only planted half a dozen or so this year and they're all coming on nicely, but one plant stands out above (literally) the rest. I was quite late putting them in, but they all went in at the same time. All except one are about a foot tall. However one of them is a very impressive mass of green bush standing about a 3 ft tall and nearly the same wide, and its only just started to flower. It has crossed my mind that soil conditions at that specific point might be unusually nitrogen rich, giving lots of deep green leafy growth at the expense of the spuds below. Time will tell. I reckon about a month til its due to come out.

 

I always keep watering my bags whether it's rained (unless really heavy/prolonged) or not as the spuds are so far down (B&Q rubble bags) and the rain is shed by the leaves beyond the edges of the bags, falling onto the surround ground. At least with the ones in open ground you know that the rain's gone into the soil they're growing in.

 

I was wondering about the cooler conditions this year, apart from a couple of days, it hasn't really warmed up yet.

 

Interesting, I grew some first earlys in a planter I made.....



I waited the 12/13 weeks it said on the packet but got very little in return for my efforts I intended to plant a main crop in the planter but was so let down by the crop I've been using my planter as a compost station for filling trays and pots.

Tho I'm going to BnQ later with a mate so might see what tattys I can still put in?

Plant Potty.

 

I've been sticking the hose into the bag to water them, and leaving it for a while to water. I use the bags the councils give to recycle paper, because they offer good drainage :D

 

Yes, re-cycling bags have multifarious uses: