potato, early, second early etc etc

What I'm wondering is this.

1. Can you plant maincrop at the same time as first earlies?

2. Can you leave first earlies in the ground till much later in the year like maincrop?

3. Whats the best way to store potatos for a long period to keep them fresh and stop them sprouting till you actually want them to sprout (chit)?

4. Is there any proof that chitting actually makes a difference?

thanks

 

We always plant our late and early spuds at the same time.We have been doing this for years despite what the books and the TV tell us to do.We find that the earlies get a move on quicker than the lates,but overall we are pleased with the results,apart from this year where, because of the heatwave we had we had a very poor crop of lates.They were very small and the original seed potato was still intact.Usually we have a very heavy crop...

We grow Foremost for our earlies and find that if we don't eat them fast enough and leave them in the ground they grow quite large and end up looking like late spuds...For our later spuds we grow King Edwards and Desiree the latter being a good all round spud for mash, chip and roast...

We store ours in carboard trays we get from Tesco's so that we can set them out and keep an eye on them.We keep them in the garage which is dark and cool,and they even come through the worst of the winter weather ok.At the moment we have some Foremost that has started sprouting even though it is dark in there.It is too early to put them out,so will probably throw those out...

We always chit ours, but I am not sure if you can put them straight in without chitting them.We usually do ours in the garage because in the house they get too long in the sprout,before we put them out.We got ours last week from the local garden centre and I have heard this week there might be a shortage because of the heat last year on the volume of crops...

Good Luck

 

thanks Kandyfloss.

I helped an old guy dig some tatties last week from his plot and they seemed perfect! They were Desiree, he says he often leaves tham in the ground till Feb/March and they come up looking great!

 

Hi Sawfish,so there was no need to buy any Desiree,because we gave up trying to dig ours out because the ground had begun to get sticky when it did eventually rain and because they were so small just gave up..We often have some regrow that we miss whilst havesting,but I expect ours will be full of slugs if we try digging them now after the wet we have had...

 

Gardeners World did a test on chitting last year. However, I cannot remember the results, maybe somebody else on here watched it and can remember.

Oooooppppssss!

 

sawfish you can plant maincrop at the same time as earlies but the earlies will mature quicker and will be ready a few weeks before the maincrop. I think earlies are best eaten as soon as they are dug whereas maincrop will store better. I dont store any of my spuds because they are always eaten as soon as they are dug but i think you could keep them in hessian sacks in a dark place. Gardeners world did a trial and the unchitted potatoes performed better than the chitted. Hope this helps

 

heres a link to Montys potato trial and other stuff. Thanks for the hint Badsal72.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/tv_and_radio/factsheets/pages/19.shtml

 

JUst hijacking this thread - if that's ok !

I just received my seed potatoes, its going to be the first sowing for me so am keen to get as much info before i start.
My varieties are:
First Early : Rocket
Second Early : Nicola
Maincrop : King Edward

My confusion is as per sawfish.: I only have limited space and was planning to plant the FE & SE together in a few weeks time, and planned on not planting maincrop till i've pulled some of the first sowing. If I bank on the FE being ready in about 6-8 weeks, will this give me enough time to plant & then harvest the maincrop in the same growing season ? If not, then I may consider planting the maincrop in a black dustbin on the patio.

Any advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

TTFN

 

Sorry Ok, I don't know the answer.

Has anyone grown shop-bought spuds before (as opposed to certified seeds)? Most books advise against this, but John Seymour (smallholding expert) says you can get away with this if you're lucky - and so does an old Italian guy on my allotment who seems to know what he's doing.

Has anyone tried and had success or failure? I'm going to give it a shot and will report back in 6 months!

 

oktarine maincrop spuds take longer to grow and mature so its not a good idea to delay their planting. I think commercial growers used to aim to have maincrop in by the muddle of April and if planting was delayed they would be estimating a loss of yield for every day delayed.
If you want to plant spuds after something else, so you are planting late, it is best to plant earlies, that you have held back by keeping cool, cause they will grow faster. Some people do plant their earlies in succession through the season.

 

Also if I read this right I would not follow one potato crop with another. I think it is too risky in terms of building up disease. Follow the earlies with something like leeks, from another plant family.

 

Timecharger - yes, I've done that, and had perfectly respectable potatoes. I think if you have shop-bought tatties, and they start sprouting, you've nothing to lose. We used to plant some of those in the late summer, in a potato barrel, for having at Christmas, and it was great to nip out and get really fresh spuds! I have some now waiting for a week or two until the worst of the frost is likely to be over, then I'll put them in the barrel again, and a few in inside-out compost sacks, amd a couple of buckets...... I do like my spuds, but the leaves spread so much that they get in the way of my narrow paths...... so containers are best, as I can put them on my monoblock areas.

 

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your response and comments. Really appreciated.

The dilemma ( if it is one ? ) is that my spuds bed is only going to be 7' x 3' .

Could i fit 3 rows in there for FE, Se, & MC ?

I could plant all at the same time ? I have 10 seeds of each, so if I spaced them 5 - 6'' apart I could get 10 in each row.

Thanks again.

TTFN

 

I would not have thought so. I have a limited amount of space so am only going for earlies. I ma planning on putting them in 12 inches apart in the rows and rows 24 inches apart. Sometimes you get a better crop if you give the plants enough space rather than cramming too many in, cause you end up with them competing against each other and just gets lots of little tiddling spuds.

 

Trditionally as a guide here in South Yorks and easy to remember. First earlies go in not before St Patricks day 17th March ..Main crop or second earlies go in not before Good Friday .. I sow mine on or as near to these dates as weather allows ... Jim