Not having much luck with my potatoes!

One of my dustbins that I am using for growing potatoes in has become waterlogged this week. Thankfully it was only one and it had become a bit boggy previously but I wasn't overly worried as they just had the last of my potatoes in it. But with the rain of this week I thought today I would empty it, the potatoes were pea sized but it was the maggots I found in the watery compost manure mix that freaked me out.

I googled maggots with tails ( sadly after I'd squished a few of them and put the rest in the compost) and found that they are in fact rat tail maggots :euw: and the larva of the hoverfly / dronefly, which I know are good for gardens but their offspring are really something else!
But can I have a prize for the smallest potato please?:hehe:

 

If you want a prize for small potatoes Louse - you've got it.
Haven't seen the potatoes but will take your word.

We're still early June - what made you think those potatoes were ready ?

About growing in dustbins - I mentioned this before - I grow potatoes in buckets and tried them in dustbins. Given the difference in size the crop from a dustbin was nothing like the difference in size between them.

Thanks for the info on Hoverfly maggots. I'll look into that.
Last year we had hoverfly outbreak on prize winning scale.
I know they are harmless and beneficial but this was at the level of open a window and there were hundreds in the house. Every morning I had to sweep the cemetry from the floor. Really upsetting and sad.
This year I hardly see one.

 

I didn't think the potatoes would be quite ready yet, but they were so waterlogged I didn't think that it would be doing them any good so decided to pull them out. I did think I might have found a couple of decent spuds though, the only one there was the pea sized one on the root in the photo.
I will try buckets next year, thanks for the tip. I was going for bigger is better but maybe not, be interesting to see what I get out of the dustbins though and that shouldn't be too long away as they are just starting to flower.
Really, anything I get this year is a bonus as I haven't grown anything before, just hope my learning curve isn't going to be too steep or too expensive! Potatoes grow anywhere I was told:confsd::lollol:

 

Louise, if you've still got those potato haulms you pulled out of the bin you could try replanting them in a bucket - nothing to lose.
One time I emptied a bucket and was disappointed with the crop. There was some good potatoes and a lot of marbles. I picked the good potatoes and put the rest back in the bucket. A few weeks later when the top growth died down I emptied the bucket and got a good crop. Worth a try.

 

Did you drill any holes in the bottom of the bin to allow drainage? We use the tall potato bag things and they have 4 or 5 holes around the base for drainage.

 

Bloomin heck, not seen rat tailed maggots like that outside of a pond. Like the littlegardeners said, check your drainage.

 

It was a combination of heavy rainfall and bad drainage. There were holes on the bottom but they had become clogged up. Needless to say I have made them a bit bigger now.

 

I was going to mention drainage... problem solved.