Too early to plant potatoes?

Hi all

I am about to go away for a month so should I put my potatoes in now or when I get back

Cheers

Dave

 

What type are they? Earlies or maincrop?

I just planted all my first earlies

 

Hi they are main crop majestic pink fir Apple and some others

Cheers

Dave

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

You could plant them now, but i'd rig up some fleece over them, we may still get frosts that would take the tops off.

 

we planted earlys yesterday but I tink its too early for mains yet , id wait

 

I'd wait and plant them when you get back. It saves a lot of messing around. I normally plant mine around 14th April, and still have to watch out for frosts.

 

Hello and welcome

I think you'd probably be ok to plant now, but personally I'd wait a bit yet. It doesn't matter too much if frost comes straight after you've planted, but if frost comes after they've started to come through, they will be damaged.

 

My earlies are in, but in a potato sack in the polytunnel. My mains are still chitting indoors and will be sown towards the end of April.
Last year we had frost in early May and if I'd not had the mains covered with fleece they'd have been damaged.

 

Earlies mids or maincrop - there is no difference in when to plant. You plant potatoes so that they appear above ground just after the last frost date in your area. They all come up at the some rate, just that earlies are at their best before maincrops.
So, roughly speaking you plant them three weeks or so before the last frost date. Never accept a given date. Your area of the UK is probably different from mine. In Eastbourne you can plant you spuds a month or so earlier than in Harrogate. All depends on on the date of the last frost in your area.

 

Mains can be planted same day as Earlies - or even before, e.g. if the ground is ready for Mains and not yet ready from Earlies. Difference between Earlies and Mains is the number of weeks to harvest.

If they are main crop you could consider planting them on the basis that they will take longer to get above ground than then, faster, Earlies. If they have not been chitted as yet then they will be a week or so longer until they are above ground.

Even if we get a late frost it will only knock the foliage back ... especially if they are only just through the ground.

if you plant them then best to earth them up at the same time, so they have more soil to grow through before getting to daylight.

But you could leave them until you get back - its a toss up between "a bit early" and "a bit on the late side". Eater is the traditionally time, but its a silly date to choose as it moves about, and this year is particularly late.

I suppose if you plant them early, and then get Blight, any you can harvest quickly are more likely to be of cookable size

As for myself, I plant late in order not to have to rush out with a torch in the dead of night to fleece them when I either forgot, saw the late night weather forecast was predicting frost or, more often, took the dogs out for their late night pee and thought "Jeepers its cold tonight"!

I now grow enough Earlies in bags in the greenhouse such that I can plant the rest, outside, late enough to avoid any fleecing - barring ridiculously late frosts.

 

I started typing a new thread about "Too early to plant Potatoes" checked through the threads and here is the exact same comment I had started in 2014. Great thanks for all these answers.

I am going to start some first earlies, Pentland Javelin in the greenhouse very soon in the hope of getting an early crop.