tropical spuds

I'm not sure I might make the tallest cabbage this year but I'm wondering about going for the tallest spud.

My Pink Fir Apples are more than 5ft right now.
They look almost tropical.

Anyone else got similar problems.

 

More like Douglas Fir, than Pink Fir, Pete.

 

Wow. Fantastic. This year I grew the biggest tattie plant I've ever seen (and I've seen plenty). Mine was like a lowly dandelion compared to yours. You've raised the bar there.

 

Hi Pete.

Flippin' eck, they look fab ! Hopefully there are spuds to match, you'll have to come back and let us know.

 

Just struggled out into the daylight, swore I spotted a WW2 Japanese soldier in there, but I might have been mistaken,:D

They get tall most years but I think I've managed to keep a few upright this year, so they look bigger.

I'll come back in September, hopefully, and show whats underneath.:WINK1:

 

Jeez, I thought mine were big at 4ft. Is that not normal then?

 

Well I think maincrop usually grow a lot bigger than earlies, but normally they fall over.:WINK1:

 

Blimy Pete you must have put some good sh*te under those...

 

My PFAs have been suffering from the wind(bet Dai knows a poem about that) this year and are only 3 ' high.

Got some Charlottes at 4' but nothing like that

 

Just chicken poo pellets roders

 

Pete - those are amazing looking plants. Which reminds me of a program I saw on TV. As I don't grow veg, I took little notice of it except when they talked about the weight of potatoes produced. I think there was a chap growing a single potato plant in a builders merchant bag, and he claimed that anyone could get a huge weight of potatoes from one plant if it was treated right - ie watered and fed. I think he claimed something monstrous like a quarter of a ton per plant or perhaps it was only 250 lbs.

I've Googled, but can't find any reference except that in 1974 Eric Jenkins in England took 370 lbs off one plant.

Which brings me back to a subject that I can't get my head round. Why do some plants grow really well at times and very poorly at other times? Just yesterday I read a description of Tithonis rotundifolia as a plant that can reach 7 feet. Mine have reached one foot and given up.

 

Good job Pete, mine are only 4ft at a stretch.

Peter, I posted about that large potato crop somewhere on here a while ago. Here is the link to a video guide...1 ton of spuds from six plants! Using pentlands. But really I think its just a Mantis ad.

The Grow Your Own Channel - 1 Ton of Potatoes

And here is a discussion on the topic on the JBA seed potatoes forum, where several people are trying it out this year.

1 tonne of potatoes?

Steve...

 

Thanks Steve - actually I do remember that thread - I must have been thinking of that. As I said not being a veg grower I was only half concentrating.

I found the discussion you mentioned under the subject "1 tonne of potatoes ?". I read a good part but will have to come back to read the rest. I have never seen so much info in one place about one plant - you could spend a week reading about potatoes. That's fantastic.

I am still interested in the principle of the perfect growing conditions. I am tempted to think that growing that amount of potatoes has been achieved, having seen programs about extreme growing of veg - pumpkins, leeks etc for competitions. But I think the key word is extreme, and depends on massive mounts of feeding and watering. For instance, it is often quoted and I can well believe that gross feeding of Brugmansia will produce ten times as many flowers as not feeding. There are a lot of people who feed them every day.