Potato Growing 2024

Took three of the smaller rocket seed potatoes and bunged them into a 30l pot in the greenhouse. Hopefully have a couple of meals from them before the outside ones are ready. I'll put them in outside in two weeks

 

I grew Charlotte our firstyear here but we were having a drought and they turned out floury rather than firm. Flavourless too.

I've resisted growing them since then but OH insisted we try again when we found seed potatoes already in a GC in mid January. We have Désirée which I've not seen here before either to grow or eat and Dolreine which is new to us.

I set them chitting in the west window of an unheated room and they're only just showing enough shoots to plant out. It's been an unusually cool, grey and wet winter. That also means the ground is utterly sodden so they'll have to linger a while before I can plant them out or they'll rot.

 

I've noticed that the small spuds I missed last year are now growing and above the surface, so the ground must be warm enough, and they haven't rotted.

 

There's surface water on the bed ear-marked for potatoes. We're due some dry and sunny days from mid week so I hope we can get in there to finish weeding. My spuds can wait another week or so to be planted.

 

I've ordered a bulk bag of topsoil/compost and will be growing my Pink fir apples in containers this year, got some really big pots that were thrown in the recycling at a local nursery.
I dont need that many, just nice to have a few on the go.

 

Today's the day !

Traditional date for planting seed potatoes.

I have Main crop Sarpo Mira, second earlies Wilja and Nicola to plant in 30 litre plastic
containers.
Last year; 1st photo could be Casablanca, the pinks are Sarpo Mira

 

I grew potatoes in bags for the first time last year and chose Swift and Orla but I wasn't blown away with the yields. I'm giving Valor a try this year in the hope of bigger spuds so we can get more than just a couple of meals. They're currently chitting away on the kitchen windowsill.

 

@Loofah I believe I put three in last year.

 

And how many did each bag of 3 produce?, what weight would you say?