Potatoes with no greenhouse

Hi guys and girls,

Just looking for some advice for growing potatoes with no greenhouse.

I bought some seed potatoes (Maris Peer) that werre labelled as 'autumn potatoes', saying I could plant them July and August - and I have :D

The first three went into a bag on my decking on the 1st of August and have come up and are growing well as far as I can tell. I just put the second lot into a bag yesterday.

Now I know I have to protect the plants from the frost if the potatoes haven't been harvested by then - but how with no greenhouse?

Would a cloche or some sort of other cover work? I could bring them inside but I can't see them getting much light - plus they'd have to go in my spare room and I'm not sure about giant bags of compost and spuds cluttering up the place :D

 

I think one of the main reasons for 'earthing up' is to offer some protection from frost. Not sure if it is effective against prolonged frosts though.

 

You 'earth up' potatoes so that the underground stems are forced to get longer and thus produce more potatoes and/or to stop the tubers poking through the surface, going green (when exposed to the light) and thus becoming poisonous.

You could, as JWK suggests put some horticultural fleece over them, perhaps some bubble wrap around the bags or even - as my Dad once did - wrap an old blanket round the bags, without central heating (at the time) my Mother reckoned 'those ruddy potatoes' were warmer than we were!!

 

That's what I've always been led to believe, but a few times I've failed to earth them up, and still got about the same yield.

 

Me too!

 

Thanks everyone! I've been earthing them up as they come through anyway so I'll carry on doing that, can't hurt

I wondered if a blanket would work! So I'll give that and the fleece idea a go too. They're in a walled garden so I can put them in a corner close to the house too, hopefully keep them a big snugger! I won't be heartbroken if they don't last past the frosts but at least now I have a few tips to try :D

 

Of course, one thing we haven't mentioned yet - if (or when) they're ready to harvest - assuming it's before a really heavy frost - you can always lift and store them.

 

Yeah, I was hoping this would be the case, especially with the ones planted really early on in August, but I was just curious as to what to do if the later batches were still a bit young when it got cold. Oh well, I guess they're new potatoes anyway, I don't mind eating tiny little potatoes :D