Author Topic: Potatoes  (Read 4141 times)

levitator

Potatoes
« on: 05 September, 2014, 09:56:34 am »
This is a tale of serendipity.
I'm not really the green fingers type, my wife is better at that sort of thing.  Anyway, we get a regular organic veg box delivery, and one day about 18 months ago we found that we'd forgotten some potatoes in the kitchen, and they'd sprouted to the point that they were no longer useable.  Rather than waste them, my wife put them out in the garden.  Unlike supermarket spuds, organic ones are not treated with anti-sprouting chemicals, so they can be used as seed potatoes.  And lo and behold!  Six months later we had a splendid crop of giant, tasty spuds.  :P

As so often happens, in digging them up we overlooked one which remained in the ground, so this year we've had a repeat performance.  Only one plant this time, but it still yielded well over 1Kg.

Point is: our gardening efforts have been half-hearted in the past.  Courgettes - peas - spinach - tried all these generally total failure, usually the slugs get there first.  Perhaps we should concentrate on the humble spud?

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #1 on: 05 September, 2014, 10:22:29 am »
Self sown spuds (or 'Volunteers' as my father used to call them) seem more resistant to frosts and some diseases, but you have to be careful not to spread blight.

Well done for gardening success. it's great to grow your own veg.
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #2 on: 05 September, 2014, 10:23:47 am »
We did the same with an Aldi left over. Kept in a pot, tried to remember to water it and 4-5 months later we had one meal worth of spuds. We took one of these spuds and replanted it and inna few weeks we will have our second crop.

I will build one of these potato towers, we have a stone slap garden, ready for next year. Hopefully the should yield more then a plate full, since you can plant 5-6 potatoes and layer it up high.

How many times do you have to replant a spud to call it organic?

I will ask my folks to send me a spud from Samsø in Denmark, to see if grows over here. The new baby potatoes from there are ever so yum, better than Jersey ones.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #3 on: 05 September, 2014, 02:31:16 pm »
Re supermarket spuds: I've never noticed any anti-sprouting treatment. I've planted old ones that had sprouted & got tolerable yields.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #4 on: 06 September, 2014, 10:24:22 am »
Our supermarket spuds sprout all too readily at the right time of year. We even grow taters accidentally when some of the peel with an eye in it is put on the compost heap but somehow escapes into the garden.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

levitator

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #5 on: 07 September, 2014, 02:04:50 pm »
Maybe it depends which supermarket?  I think I heard about this anti-sprouting stuff from hearsay, maybe things have changed?

Anyway, if potatoes for eating sprout so readily, is it worth buying expensive seed potatoes from the garden centre?

Or maybe they don't breed true?  I think they do: what we've got are, I think, variety 'Wilja', and it was the same last year.  A large floury potato, easy to clean, good flavour, ideal for jacket or mashed.

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #6 on: 12 September, 2014, 09:32:48 pm »
The majority of supermarket spuds will not have been treated with much sprout suppressant as it is easier to control sprouting by keeping the store temperature  below 4 deg C . Supermarkets are generally against post harvest chemical treatments.
Sprout suppressant will only be used if the temp rises  (e.g if the store has no refrigeration gear or if outside temp rises rapidly and using the cooler gets expensive.)

However ,cooling potatoes that are used for crisps or chips usually results in the creation of soluble sugars which lead to brown chips or crisps. So "processing" potatoes are usually stored at higher temperatures and therefore need chemical treatment.
If a sprout appears on the potato they will usually grow( chemical suppressant usually inhibits eye opening) regardless of whether they are organic or not.

Many gardening books do not advise growing many potatoes if you have a small garden, because they are so cheap and occupy space for quite a long time. However there is nothing like digging your own spuds and it is quite easy as well , so why not.

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #7 on: 07 July, 2015, 12:54:56 pm »
We lifted our first "boiling" of Arran Pilot last night. Just delicious. :)

PH
Bees do nothing invariably.

Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #8 on: 22 July, 2015, 09:35:41 am »
We lifted our forgotten-the-name-of-the-damn-things about 3 weeks ago. 5 potatoes planted. Got back 8 small ones. Not sure what the unit cost is for eight, but most likely higher than buying from a shop!!!!

Better luck next time.
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #9 on: 22 July, 2015, 10:52:51 pm »
I think I lifted more than that from each of the two plants I've dug up so far, & they're mostly a lot bigger than the seed potatoes we put in. A few dozen plants to go . . .

You have my sympathy. Too dry?
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #10 on: 23 July, 2015, 08:40:09 am »
Who knows? Could be. We're in Brighton. Chalky free-draining soil.
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #11 on: 23 July, 2015, 08:48:26 am »
My one red potato got nearly 2 feet of plant above, still waiting for it to flower. I hope it is as keen below as it is above.

Oh BTW ones cupboard is a great place to grow, or the very least start them off. Found one with about a foot or more roots behind some plates the other day.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #12 on: 23 July, 2015, 01:40:10 pm »
Oh BTW ones cupboard is a great place to grow, or the very least start them off. Found one with about a foot or more roots behind some plates the other day.
Long spindly roots in the dark is a bad thing. They drain the stores of the potato before they're able to get more nutrients from the ground.

Seed potatoes are 'better' because they're certified disease free. (And mostly come from Scotland).

Ma & pa moved house with some potatoes. They'd sprouted in a wheelbarrowload of compost.

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #13 on: 23 July, 2015, 01:52:49 pm »
Had many compost potatoes over the years :)
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #14 on: 23 July, 2015, 03:05:01 pm »
Thinking this method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HfIHK7vUYU  might be worth go.
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

caerau

  • SR x 3 - PBP fail but 1090 km - hey - not too bad
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #15 on: 23 July, 2015, 05:21:58 pm »
Nice  :thumbsup:


The only caveat I'd add to the above is that if you just keep growing potatoes and nothing else, then you will eventually wear out the soil for that particular crop and it will start to become low yielding or indeed blighted.


Best to rotate crop types.  Grow some beans or peas next time, they replenish the nitrogen and are easy peasy too.
It's a reverse Elvis thing.

caerau

  • SR x 3 - PBP fail but 1090 km - hey - not too bad
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #16 on: 23 July, 2015, 05:23:21 pm »
Seed potatoes are also a very good way of getting alternative types of potato that you just won't find in the shops.
It's a reverse Elvis thing.

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #17 on: 23 July, 2015, 07:20:53 pm »
We're currently lifting Pentland Foremost, with International Kidney to follow  :D
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #18 on: 23 July, 2015, 10:02:42 pm »
Instead of early and mid season potatoes, I've been growing Charlotte salad potatoes for the last few years. They give a consistant, maily slug-free crop on the clay based soil we have on the allotments and can be cooked as new, salad or mash - they even roast reasonably well. I'm about 2/3 through the first of the 5 rows I am growing (10 metre rows). Each plant is cropping about 10 goose-egg sized spuds.  :smug:

I also have 4 or 5 rows of maincrop potatoes that will be lifted in autumn and stored for use over winter and spring.

I chit the seed potatoes in trays on top of the utility room wall cupboards, aiming for strong green shoots about an inch long when it comes to planting. Potato planting around here is traditionally Good Friday, but usually anytime a week-or-so before Easter.
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #19 on: 27 July, 2015, 10:22:43 am »
Potatoe planting around here is traditionally Good Friday, but usually anytime a week-or-so before Easter.

Which, as Easter moves by around a month, is, like most "traditional" saws, a load of nonsense  ;D
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #20 on: 27 July, 2015, 10:50:45 pm »
Instead of early and mid season potatoes, I've been growing Charlotte salad potatoes for the last few years. They give a consistant, maily slug-free crop on the clay based soil we have on the allotments and can be cooked as new, salad or mash - they even roast reasonably well. I'm about 2/3 through the first of the 5 rows I am growing (10 metre rows). Each plant is cropping about 10 goose-egg sized spuds.  :smug:
I've been growing Charlotte for a few years, & as well as being tasty taters* & cropping reasonably well (not super-heavy crops), I've also found 'em pretty slug-free. I stopped growing Rocket, despite liking the flavour, because I was sick of providing a slug banquet.

This year's crop is from last years leftovers, the sprouting ones still uneaten when planting time arrived.

*Mrs B's no potato-lover, but she quite likes 'em.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #21 on: 28 July, 2015, 08:11:02 am »
Sometimes a lack of potatoes to harvest is simply impatience.
The plants need plenty of water at flowering time in order to set the tuber numbers. They then need some liquid feed and sunshine to fill out the tubers to eating size. You can move a bit of soil away from the roots to check on progress and cover them up again if the spuds aren't big enough.
Potatoes are a hungry crop so you should add some granular fertiliser to the compost if growing in pots or bags.


caerau

  • SR x 3 - PBP fail but 1090 km - hey - not too bad
Re: Potatoes
« Reply #22 on: 28 July, 2015, 09:43:33 am »
Current weather conditions favour blight mightily :(  Hope you avoid that.
It's a reverse Elvis thing.

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #23 on: 28 July, 2015, 03:54:05 pm »
My Charlottes have missed it (too late for it to attack them now), but I'm worrying about my tomatoes.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Potatoes
« Reply #24 on: 29 July, 2015, 07:58:16 pm »
We have found a rather good garden centre near Derby and the other day went to get some plant food for when we are away for the tomatoes, and they were selling packs of seed pots which should be ready Xmas day. Yes we succumbed..lol

 Well we lifted the last of the first earlies, Arran pilot today and promptly planted up 5 tubs with Charlotte and Pentland Javelin for Crimbo. Will advise of the outcome. :)

PH
Bees do nothing invariably.