potato growing

@Kristen .....i can't even find PFA on the Kings web site...or is that just me being a numpty...

I've used Kings for seeds but not potatoes and they were OK but i wouldn't have been happy just being sent a replacement of 'their' choice.......

@Jungle Jane ....it took over 2 weeks for my Roosters from T&M ...got my seeds OK albeit in dribs and drabs

 

T&M / van Meuwen send me everything in dribs and drabs. Must cost them (and thereby: me) a fortune in postage ... and, for a horticultural outfit, not very Green either :(

Although I do have some sympathy for plants being more difficult to "pick" from a warehouse than books from Amazon ... but Seeds? "Stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" applies surely?

 

Haven't been out for a look yet, but got to get my barnet chopped later, so I'll have a browse. Got a Wilkos near the hairdressers, and as you rightly remember x-Wyevale is my nearest GC. Failing that I might Shock!Horror! plant some saved from last year - what do you think?

 

If they look OK i'd give them a go....i've had a reasonable crop from 'second/third' year 'stored' potatoes...by stored i mean ...ones that i missed even after double digging

 

Yup, will do that if I find some, was just planning ahead in case don't find any.

Not had blight around these parts, that I know of - even in "monsoon" Summer of 2012. Dunno if that makes a difference?

 

I must have ordered my potatoes well over a month ago now. I ordered some other seeds which showed up but not my potatoes. Wondered if it's time to contact them yet or if I'm being impatient as usual.

 

End Feb is quite a common shipping time. They will (I hope!) be in cool-store, and not sprouting, so it saves you having to manage them, chitting, for quite as long ...

... provided you aren't wanting an early start "in bags"?

I don't buy spuds, mail order, from the big seed brand names because they ship willy-nilly, regardless of how cold the weather is, and there is a risk (but not this year!) of them getting frosted en route.

I get mine from JBA 'coz they cease shipping if there is a cold snap.

They didn't have any (nor any empty rack space where they might have been - its a big footprint store, but they often don't seem to have the things that other folk are saying are on offer - maybe we are poor relations over here?, its only relatively recently that Wilkos arrived locally)

I tried B&Q too - none there and all the Spuds they did have had sprouts at least 2" long :( - Not Much Cop.

However, x-Wyevale had 2kg bags for £4.99, so I'm sorted (Kings was £5.45 for 2.5kg, so even x-Wylevales price is reasonable, which is not often the case!). Made a detour past their discount rack and they had a Cymbidium that was just finishing flowering with a 3-quid Managers Discount sticker on it; never seen that before in Wyevale, only ever 50% off - or in extremely rare occasions 75% off. Anyways, this pot plant started life at £24.99 so well chuffed with that!

Me neither, now. Probably removed because they are, now, out of stock. Dunno why companies do that - rather than just mark them "Out of stock" or "Discontinued" - what about if you want to look up the growing requirements, having bought something?

Although ... might be because of the product code foul-up. But I still think it could still do with a product page being there, for growing instructions, for anyone who had bought them.

The product code for Arran Pilot is indeed the same the one on my order confirmation for Pink Fir Apple.

 

I listed all the varieties Wilko sell both in store and online here http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/wilkos-15kg-sacks-of-potatoes-online.58991/ but don't see PFA listed

 

Substitution Anya have arrived (anyone want some Arran Pilot? - Sorry, its rhetorical, unless you can collect, too much money/trouble to ship them). Tubers have shoots on them up to 2cm long - most of which have knocked-off in transit. This is obviously not a problem, and chitting them will start off new, more suitable, shoots. I haven't spoken to Kings, so only making an assumption which is that it seems unlikely that they have cold storage. Either they are drop-shipping to me direct from their supplier, or they have had a bulk delivery, stored in a warehouse and shipped out, and that hasn't been cold stored so the tubers have started to sprout in dark storage.

Either way, I'm going to stick with my normal [specialist potato] supplier JBA next year, I just need to put an early date in my diary to make sure I order before they have run out!

 

Have bought some pink fir apple ones to try this year does anyone know if they are like

 

They are on our Top 3 list.