Potato confusion

I've got a bucket of seed and store bought potatoes that are sprouting nicely, but that's as far as I know what to do with them. When do I know that they're ready to be planted? Do I need to do anything else with them?

Potatoes confuse me...

 

In the past, I've held off planting early varieties until mid-April. As I recall, they come up after maybe 3 weeks or so? That means having to keep an eye on overnight temperatures for a further 3 weeks, bearing in mind that frosts can still occur up to the last week in May. I used to earth up as soon as the shoots appeared, and continued to do this until the end of May. Doing this not only protects from frost, but also helps increase the yield.

 

Hi Sarah, I've dug in plenty of manure into my potato bed, I think they are a hungry crop & I think the manure helps hold a bit of moisture. In the past I've planted them in good Friday but as Freddy says they do come up in a few weeks so this year I'm going to wait until The end of April, planting them earlier than that you have a constant worry about frost! The only other tio I can give you is to give them plenty of water. Good luck Sarah

 

I dig a trench out following a string line (set high above the ground) to get it straight, and it is dug one spade deep (9 inches), a couple of inches of well rotted manure (black and crumbly) go in the bottom of the trench along with a handful of Fish Blood and Bone for every 6-7 foot of trench, this is lightly forked over (mixed) and the seed potatoes placed as below. A few *slug pellets* are sprinkled on and the trench is filled in.

Now I earth up, yes I do this before the plants show above the ground to help avoid late frosts and it makes my potato bed work free until harvest time. I earth up as high as I can get it, 12 to 15 inches following the previously high set stringline. I will water well now, sprinkling the ridges so as not to destroy them and drowning the valleys and I probably will not water again.

We are on a clay loam soil here so it holds water well, and I am in the lake district so we get reasonable rainfall to make those lakes. Even in very dry spells I can dig down a couple of inches and find moist soil and its by doing this that I judge if they need watering.

First earlies: Plant 12 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart. You wont get much of a earthed up ridge on these due to how close they are planted. 12 weeks (3 calender months) in the ground and they are done, you can start looking and possibly harvesting at 10 weeks

Second earlies: Plant 15 inches apart in rows 15 inches apart. These will earth up a bit higher and are ready after 16 weeks (4 calender months).

Main crop: Plant 20-24 inches apart in rows 24 inches apart. These will be ready when the haulms are dieing back.

I always start harvesting first ealies before they have flowered at around 10 weeks, I will either have a little furtle around the base of the plant carefully pulling away the soil to see what is there or just dig one haulm up to see, if there is nothing there I will look again in a weeks time. Main harvest of all the spuds is after they have flowered. Maincrops I will leave until the haulms are dieing back.

My Calender: A rough guide.

End of March, ALL potatoes are planted in one day or over two.
End of June, first ealies ready.
End of July, second earlies ready.
End of August, Maincrop ready.

I feed bi-weekly with homemade Comfrey tea.

At the start of June I water the whole crop with Nematodes (at the base of the plant, NOT over the top of them) and start to apply organic *slug pellets*.

There are many different ways to grow potatoes and every single gardener will do it differently, this is what works for me and gives me a well protected (from weather and bugs) and a very well fertilised crop, with the added bonus of not having to pay them much attention whilst they are growing.

*Slug pellets* When planting the seed potatoes I have learned to use 2 or 3 pellets per potato, this attracts and kills the slug, use anymore and it just deters them away somewhere else. The same applies to when I use them later in the season above ground, just 2 or 3 per plant is enough, every couple of days.


Steve...

 

I have no idea what the store bought ones are, they seem to be the most sprouty at the minute but were just some tesco value new potatoes so I think it's anyone's guess.
I bought some maincrop seed potatoes though which have started sprouting but not as much as the others.
My allotment's soil is heavy clay, but there's some well rotted compost from previous years and a steady source of manure. I picked up some potato fertiliser too but another question is where to put them, as I've already dug up some old potatoes while preparing other beds so want to try and find somewhere that hasn't already got some random old ones in! The ones I dug up also had holes in. What is that from? The plot had been vacant for at least a year prior and the guy didn't do much in his last year anyway.

 

Even Tesco value should have the variety written on the bag somewhere, that will then let you know how to treat them.

My advice would be to either eat them or bin them and buy proper seed, especially as its your first year on this new plot.

As for the sprouts there are two types, dark and small and the other is long, leggy and green/white. You want the shorter darker sprouts or "chits", the photo below was taken 3 mins ago and shows the chits on my second early variety "Kestrel" in my greenhouse, this is what you want. The reason you want the smaller stockier ones is because the moment you put the longer ones into the soil and bury them, they break.



As for location, its likely the spuds you dug up where from plants grown last season (2014), thos plants could be what we call "volunteers", left over spuds from the previous years harvest (2013). I would go ahead and plant them wherever you want to put them and start your crop rotation yourself.

As for the holes in the spuds they could be one of many things such as eelworm, potatoes have many pests and diseases, many make small holes and other bugs come along and make those holes bigger, slugs for example are a pest and its why I use "nematodes!

It is quite the minefield, but you will learn as you go, and very quickly too when your crops are at stake.

Steve...

 

Tescos finest mystery spuds

 

Vs the seeders ...