Chicken deficient Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 This year we planted our veggies out a bit late, on account of a new addition to the family. Our earlier potatoes - Charlotte - did everything as expected. They grew plants, flowered, died off and we are still eating fantastic waxy potatoes. However, our Main crop ones - Cara - are confusing me. They grew plants, I earthed them up, they flowered, but then they grew quite a lot of high up potatoes - the ones that look like tomatoes and the plants STILL haven't started to die off. Any suggestions? Should I start digging them up anyway? I'd quite like some mash and baked potato at last! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 No idea,but we discovered a crop of rogue potatoes growing away merrily behind the veggie beds the other week. They are still growing strongly too & we have no idea what strain they are,as we didn't plant them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 the 'tomatoes' are seed pods and are not eddible Cara is a late main crop and as such won't start to die back untill about late September-middle of October depending on when it was planted,were in the crountry it was planted,blight and when the first air frost happens that saidwith all this rain I'd cut the steams off to about 4icnhs from the soil then leave the spuds in the ground for about 2 weeks for the skins to set then preforbale on a dry sunny morning dig them up the eithe wash the soil off or let it dry on the spuds then gentle rub off as much as possible sort the damaged ones out them place the rest in brown paper sacks them store them somware cool frost free and dark for about a month (late mains are better stored for a bit) the enjoy. care should keep till march if stored right I'm hoping to lift mine next weekend still got Cara, red cara, pink fir apple, rooster, congo,Blue Danube,Russet Burbank and Shepardy in the ground the last 2 I doubt will have much on as they went in late and them got blighted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken deficient Posted October 3, 2010 Author Share Posted October 3, 2010 Brilliant! Thank you so much. I couldn't have hoped for a more informative reply! The seed pod tomato things though - are they worth doing anything with? I thought it was always the way to plant actual spuds, not the seeds - does it just take longer from them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Brilliant! Thank you so much. I couldn't have hoped for a more informative reply! The seed pod tomato things though - are they worth doing anything with? I thought it was always the way to plant actual spuds, not the seeds - does it just take longer from them? your welcome. spuds are my hobby I have a small collection of heritage, conservation and rare varites that I grow and display at a couple of places I took 50+ to Hanbury Hall last weekend for they're apple day and I'll take some to Painswick at the end of the month you can sow the seed but it can take 3 or 4 years before you know weather or not the spuds were worth the trouble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 We still have our Sarpo Axona in the ground because they are still green. We are going to leave them for as long as we can, so that we will have some later potatoes that will keep into the spring. They are a very dry fleshed potato, they are hard to use for mash and baking, but make lovely crunchy chips. We had fab spuds this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Axona will keep growning 'til the first frost and it dosn't always improve the longer it's in the ground just get bigger and bigger. the advice Alan Romans has given is when Axona is at the size you want then it's ready,then cut the halms to 4 inch off the ground leave for 2 weeks or so to let the skins set the dig up on a personal note I think Axnoa is the better of the 2 red Sarpos, it can be baked and mashed but it needs to be lifted early and it takes longer to cook so best not to mix it in with other spuds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Thanks for that, if they are anything like our other potatoes this year they will be huge especially with all this rain. I Will cut half of them back and leave half as an experiment, we are not short of potatoes this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C&T Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Don't know about unexpected Potato behaviour, more unexpected Chicken behaviour.... I have no potatoes thanks to them shredding and eating the tops one afternoon while I was busy and looking the other way - not a potato in sight. Though they weren't supposed to eat them, and they had ignored them for weeks! Next year.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
