4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[chooklady]

Last year I grew some spuds with limited success.

This year things are looking much better. I have grown them in rubble sacks, I started off with about 6 inches of compost in the bag (9 bags) and the chitted potatoes and I have topped up the bags to the top over the weeks, that was a few weeks ago. I now have a few flowers, but literally only 1 per bag.

My question is how do I know if the spuds are ready without disturbing them? The leaf growth is flopping over a bit now.

Many thanks

Nicola

[Old Speckled Hen]

They should be ready after they have flowered but it's OK to leave them longer.

I cheat and put my hand into the sack and have a feel around.

I planted a bag of Maris Peers mid March and harvested 4lbs yesterday.

I have had flowers for some three to four weeks though and I've been picking them off.

[chooklady]

Thanks for your reply. I planted mine about the same time as you. Do they have many flowers or just a few. I have had a feel around and so far I haven't found any spuds! I do hope there are some there. Mine are Maris Piper too.

[Old Speckled Hen]

Mine were all in the bottom of the tub.

As you have nine I would sacrifice the first. Tip it out and have a look.

If you have only a few you can leave the remaining eight.

My Pa-in-Law leaves his new spuds till the foliage has fallen over and he always has great crops. Me, I'm too impatient.

[Cinnamon]

Whats the thinking behind picking the flowers off?

I have never heard of that before.

 

I always wait until the foliage is yellow & wilting before harvesting my spuds

[Old Speckled Hen]

Whats the thinking behind picking the flowers off?

I have never heard of that before.

 

 

I think it just gives me something to do when I'm admiring the plants, something constructive while I walk around the garden.

 

I had a friend who came from a rather grand family and his father used to "garden" walking along the asparagus rows with his hands behind his back, stopping to rock on his heels now and then saying, " Yes, Time to get Walter (his gardener) to pluck those tomorrow"

 

Pa-in-Law says it keeps the goodness in the spuds .. well, he's been growing them for 74 years and while there is probably no scientific need it keeps him happy when he visits and inspects my veggie patch.

[bluekarin]

 

I had a friend who came from a rather grand family and his father used to "garden" walking along the asparagus rows with his hands behind his back, stopping to rock on his heels now and then saying, " Yes, Time to get Walter (his gardener) to pluck those tomorrow"

 

 

What an excellent way to garden! Mind you, I quite like getting down on to my hands and knees and getting all muddy.

[craftyhunnypie]

My spuds are quite tall - with lots of leaves at the tops of the plants, but not many on the stalks. I've earthed up that many times, but they grow so much overnight. I even dug over the chicken enclosure & put some of the top layer around the spuds. Hope they will be ok. They are looking good plants. They are all Rooster potatoes. I too will wait for them to flower & wilt. Yummy yummy spuds.

 

Emma.x

[Matthew]

you only have to earth up a couple of times not each inch of growth and stop at about 12-15 inches

[chickencam]

You only need to wait for the tops to die off if you are growing main crop potatoes for storage. the skins set properly that way.

 

New potatoes can be harvested when the flowers open, at which point the skins will be so thin that you can just rinse them off.

[Egluntyne]

They are all Rooster potatoes.

 

 

:lol:

[craftyhunnypie]

Seriously they are ' Rooster' potatoes. Come on, everyone knows Roosters don't lay eggs, but potatoes - well?!

 

Emma.x

[bluekarin]

are they the red skinned ones you can buy in shops? If so they are excellent spuds. Very tasty and so versatile; mash and roast really well. I should work for the Rooster marketing board

[craftyhunnypie]

Yes they are the red skinned ones - suitable for everything.

They make great mash & jackets. Yum! Can't wait to see how they've grown.

 

Emma.x

[Lesley]

We've grown Rooster as well

 

As we now have a big area put to potatoes, we decided to plant them in the same way as commercial growers - we had to move a massive pile of topsoil anyway, so my son piled it in mounded rows and we planted seed potatoes quite deeply into them. We haven't had to earth up once....they're just doing their own thing.

 

We ran out of time to earth up and weed last year and we had such a poor crop as the weeds took over while we were on holiday and we lost the will to live while trying to weed when we got back Our harvest should be so much better this year!!

[sjp]

I'm going to lift my first spuds sunday one root of Orla. had a fertil about wednesday got some about ping pong ball size they boiled up a treat if i wait for flowers they'll still be in the ground next year orla don't always flower

[sparkysmum]

Hi folks, well we've looked after our tatties like babies this year and with great anticipation emptied out one of our sacks containing first earlies - vale emerald. Result ? disaster - potatoes the size of marbles but lots of them We clearly haven't watered enough during the growing period. I'm so disappointed Anyway I've taken this as a warning & gor OH to set up the sprinkler for the pots in the ground. Fingers crossed for a decent crop. So take heed unless you want teeny weeny tatties water lots and lots Ax

[Valkyrie]

Supposed to be nice tomorrow, so we are going to lift all our new spuddies, wash them and dry them. Hopefully they will be OK.