Tatties

@JWK & @Scrungee

The winner will be the one with the greatest weight of potatoes.

I've got a spare Morri bucket and I've measured across the top, *not* including the lip, it meets the 10" criteria and is roughly 10" deep too oh and it is definitely "flimsy" (top tip! ) so that could be the way to go. I'm only concerned it may be too flimsy? The grow bag idea and extra holes is excellent

Think the spud has already decided to sprout, but, as requested, here are three photos (top, bottom and side view):

Top:

Bottom:


and side:




Probably should have put something beside it for a size comparison but I would say it is roughly the size of kiwi fruit, maybe a little bit smaller. Oh and that is a supermarket, bag of 6, size kiwi fruit and not the farm shop plump, dobber kiwis

 

Just to add a little bit, I have always been told when planting seed tatties to rub off some of the chits (sprouts) because if a plant has too many stems, you will get smaller potatoes, more of them but smaller. So if anyone can confirm this and if the competition is for the number of potatoes, that would be the way to go.

Also, another thing that springs to mind is it will be one potato plant without the support of a row, you might want to set up some canes and string to support it.

Good luck!

Steve...

 

Thank you @Steve R I've got plenty of bamboo canes and it will be much easier to put them in the pot from the beginning and it wouldn't have occurred to me.

 

Well, you did ask!

 

Have a look around garden centres for a pot like the one on the left

 

Probably better if you could use some wire and attach the canes on the outside of the pot, or put them direct into the ground around the pot, putting them inside takes away valuable potato space!

..and has a singly planted spud ever got so much forum attention ?

A well chitted spud could be cut in half to grow two plants!

Steve...

 

I'd just come back to mention supports (but SteveR has beaten me to it) that will protect haulm from wind damage, help raise above slugs/snails on ground, etc.

If using a 'normal' pot it might be worthwhile making a removable collar so the pot can gradually be filled right to the brim with compost, water poured into collar + growbag/open ground the pot's buried in and there'd also be some room above the pot for a moisture retaining mulch.

 

Guys: you are the *best*

And .... it isn't even planted yet!

 

Some stuff on that here http://www.nsalg.org.uk/crop/potatoes/

When going for giant spuds I go a bit further and fiddle around underneath and remove all but the biggest tuber.

I was wondering about whether it would be within the rules to cut that single seed spud in two and whether 2 plants in the pot would produce a bigger yield of tubers.

That's just not any old potato, that's going to be the winning potato!

 

Just for a bit of fun I intend having a go at this myself, just to see what sort of results I can get. I'll be seeing a 'potato expert' at the weekend so will try and get some more tips.

@"M" When is the weigh off? That should influence when to plant the spud, especially if it's say Aug Bank Holiday when many shows are held and it's a maincrop variety needing a long time to crop.

P.S. I have 2 King Edward seed spuds and thought it might be interesting to grow one without any special methods, fertilizers, etc. and compare against one grown using every trick in the book.

 

Excellent! It'll be fun to have you along for the ride @Scrungee

The pots will be emptied out for weighing in October

 

lovely looking spuds everyone!!!

im doing some for the first time this year

i started chitting my earlies 4 weeks ago tomorrow, they have eyes about 1cm high so far, do we need to wait for the last frost before we plant spuds? as this site is saying the last frost isnt till the 2nd week of april in southampton?
http://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/vegetable/potatoes/potatoes-growing.php

4'th week of chitting by Martin Young, on Flickr​