My First Potato Harvest

I grow a few spuds in large pots, last week harvested Charlotte and today Corolle - usually get about a kilo from each pot - not a lot of course but fun and very tasty.



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We have been growing Charlottes in old feed bags.

It was great because I just upended the bag into a wheelbarrow and went through the soil like a bran-tub - picking out the prizes:

 

There's something great about harvesting spuds isn't there. I don't know why it is, maybe its because the spuds are below ground so you never what you're getting until harvest time, but yes, it is like winning prizes I think

 

I dug up another plant yesterday for my father in law and the tubers were much smaller and the crop not as big as a result. I wonder if this was because that plant was closer to the others than the one I dug up last week. Perhaps I should do this in the future to see if I get smaller ones.

Cor' yours look much better than mine. Almost like they came from the shops

 

I think the most satisfying thing is that I know that I only put three seed potatoes in each bag so the yield is very obvious..... and I know that there aren't any hidden ones that I have left in the soil 'cos I checked through the soil in the wheelbarrow thoroughly.

I've got another 11 bags of these!!!..... and more going in now for Christmas

 

Can I use on of the tubers I've harvest to regrow another crop then? I was going to go out and buy another load of tubers. Thinking it would effect the next crop if I used one that had been growing in the ground already.

 

Not really, they need to be out of the ground for some weeks before you can chit them. Generally ones from this years harvest that get left in the ground won't grow again till spring.

Some nurseries will be getting seed potatoes in again soon especially for sowing to get new potatoes for Christmas lunch (Usually Charlotte again, but they won't get as big growing them on the tail end of the year, about hens egg sized

 

the chap on the next plot to us bought at quiet an expense some of those so called seed potatos where you plant them in the autumn and you are supposed to be able to harvest spuds on Christmas Day.Only trouble was the frost killed the whole lot off on the plot before Christmas Day so as well as paying a fortune {£7}he got nothing for his efforts...

 

They need planting by 01-August. Outside they will be fine, but tops killed by the frost, as you say, so then they won't grow any more ... but with a late-ish frost they will probably have made a decent crop, and you might be able to protect the first few, light, frosts with fleece ... but ... I wouldn't bother, I grow my Christmas potatoes in bags. They start off outside, and then move into conservatory shortly before first frost is forecast.

JBA sell cool-store conditioned seed potatoes for late Summer planting, for a Christmas harvest.

 

However ... you need to, first, question whether you want New Potatoes at Christmas. Its a novelty, and nice to have definitely, but not the traditional roast potatoes, so you might on balance not bother with trying to grow New Potatoes for serving mid-Winter. Purely on a cost-basis its very expensive!