Potato growing 2021

Many thanks @JWK. I will politely tell know it all that there is nothing much wrong with my way of growing potatoes and suggest they keep their unfounded criticisms to themselves..

 

Is Sweet Potato discussion included in this thread? Aside from the Chillies, I am also growing 2 - an orange and a white

 

I have never grown them before.
Was hoping to get some advice here!

At the moment, they are in relatively small pots in my greenhouse.
Should I be gradually increasing pot size?
Or put them straight into as big a pot as I intend growing them ?

Also, the growth / runners are all over the place. Clambering over the neighbouring plants. What is the best way if restraining that ??

 

I've tried them a couple of times without much luck.
I know they seem to be selling new more cold hardy varieties but I still have a feeling our summers are not really long enough.
I'd say a poly tunnel plant perhaps, but that is just my thinking.

 

They are in my greenhouse at the moment.
And the intention is to keep them in there. Just need to somehow make space for the big pots they will need

 

Be interesting to see the end result.

 

Unlike many on GC I am not an experienced potato grower. I started growing them maybe 7 or thereabouts years ago.
I could not pick my own seed potatoes this year due to Covid restrictions so was not exactly thrilled when I collected my order as the Charlotte seed potatoes were way bigger than I would have chosen. I decided to take the risk of cutting then in half as read that others on GC do that.
I planted the halves in large tubs in my greenhouse to hopefully get an early crop. I know Charlottes are 2nd earlies but not that keen on 1 st early potatoes. After a “ false start” where I was far too impatient and investigated only to find things the size of peas I waited until today and tipped a tub out. Really pleased as from only one 1/2 I have all these.

I weighed them and they are just over 1 kg which to me seems a pretty good result. Is that quite good or about the average from 1/2 a Charlotte? From memory I doubt I have had a better result from a whole seed potato of the same variety. Certainly if I can’t get egg sized seed potatoes next year I will repeat the process. Off to to cook and enjoy my first potatoes of the season with lashings of butter.

 

I tend to think if you cut a spud in half you might get one good half and one bad half.
Bearing in mind that one end is the eye end and the other,..........isn't.

 

Got early blight on my Picasso's, so dug one up to check how big they are. Despite being too early some were over 500g, so cut the tops off to harvest later this week.

EDIT: When I went back this evening discovered a neighbouring plot has late blight, glad I cut my tops off before they also got that.

 

My potato plants have finished blooming now and are flopped over and looking a bit messy but are still quite green (there are some stems dying off, however they're in such a tangle I think those that are dying off are actually due to broken stems).

Just stuck my hand in the bag and had a good root around and found only one moderately sized potato down there so I think I'll wait a fair bit longer. I think they need a bit more water as well as the soil felt quite dry, so must remember to give them a solid soaking (they're in felt bags which dry out quite quickly).

Last year's potatoes were a failure. I harvested them around this time because my OH was getting annoyed that their flopped over leaves were getting in the way. Admittedly they are annoying. When should I be looking to harvest? When they have properly started dying back? They are early maincrop.

And for next year... I have grand plans to dedicate a bed to Christmas Dinner 2022 so I'd like to get some late potatoes growing but need to do so in a manner they will stay supported as OH is unlikely to be happy about overgrown looking plants in our new house (he's very precious about the garden looking too messy). What's the best solution to support slightly out of control potato plants?

 

Dug my first root in the ground today of international kidney, was a reasonable amount of tubers even though the tops are still massive due to the wet.

How do you stop the tops flopping?
Just put some sticks and string around, but they will still look a mess, I really dont care how messy the veg looks as long as its good.

I think the so called christmas spud will need some protection from frost, unless you live in a very mild area.

I've still got the 2020 christmas turkey in the freezer, what a waste of money that was.

 

Kent can be pretty mild but I was planning on making a cold frame or two anyway to go over the raised beds.