25-08-2011, 01:26 PM
1
Potatoes
Yesterday we harvested our first Main Crop Potatoes and although we were a bit worried about the crop we actually got 15 pounds of Potatoes from our 10 seed Potatoes.We did have one plant that didn't produce that much compared to the others but we were quite pleased with what we got, especially as our 1st and 2nd Earlies were quite good, grown in bags again.
The Main crop were grown in our raised beds and the big worry for us was that they grew so fast and so high - 4 feet tall above the bed level and eventually 8 inches deep after earthing-up.
Does anyone know if that's about right for Main Crop Potatoes?
They'd had 21 weeks altogether but as we are off on holiday soon we harvested a bit early.
There were only about 10 teeny ones that were not really of use but the rest are all "normal" size with 25% Roasting size. stevmk2
27-08-2011, 07:43 PM
2
Re: Potatoes
My maincrop seed spuds were a few Desiree that my neighbour had left over, and I just shoved them in the last bit of spare ground. We harvested them two weeks ago and they were fantastic, weighing in at over 20lbs from 7 seeds, yet my well tended Charlotte first earlies were pretty much a failure, with low yield and poor quality.It's been an odd year in the garden overall, with the only really reliable crops being fruit, which has been staggering in it's quality and quantity, the best year we've ever had and my freezer floweth over......
28-08-2011, 08:17 AM
3
Re: Potatoes
Originally Posted by plantman
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My maincrop seed spuds were a few Desiree that my neighbour had left over, and I just shoved them in the last bit of spare ground. We harvested them two weeks ago and they were fantastic, weighing in at over 20lbs from 7 seeds, yet my well tended Charlotte first earlies were pretty much a failure, with low yield and poor quality. It's been an odd year in the garden overall, with the only really reliable crops being fruit, which has been staggering in it's quality and quantity, the best year we've ever had and my freezer floweth over......
I had Charlotte and we had a pretty good crop from them; better than the Duke of York first earlies.
We don't grow fruit, apart from tomatoes and Gooseberries but our goosegogs were rubbish again! stevmk2
31-08-2011, 09:14 AM
4
Re: Potatoes
It sure sounds like the goodness of the potatoe went into the foliage. Did you cover the foliage up as soon as it started to show through? You need to cover up continunually until your mound is about 9 inch high, that way the growth is held down and the goodness goes to the roots.31-08-2011, 11:08 AM
5
Re: Potatoes
Originally Posted by Antibrown
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It sure sounds like the goodness of the potatoe went into the foliage. Did you cover the foliage up as soon as it started to show through? You need to cover up continunually until your mound is about 9 inch high, that way the growth is held down and the goodness goes to the roots.
They were grown in a raised bed after chitting and planted about 10" below the top to allow for earthing-up. Within three weeks they'd reached that level so were earthed-up but they continued to shoot up, reaching 3 feet above the top of the bed in 5 weeks! There was no way that I could earth-up that amount of foliage as I'd not really expected it, although my 1st and 2nd Earlies also got quite tall.
As our garden is North-facing I've had a number of problems with all kinds of ornamentals etcetera and vegetables before but I'd never had Potato plants grow quite so high in the four years now that I've been growing them.
As for the harvest, I was quite pleased with it but I didn't quite realise this time just how much water they needed and the excessive foliage had to be supported. stevmk2
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