Small spuds

[Somerford]

Just started digging the spuds - seem small compared with last year yet they were watered...anyone else found this ?
Will dig them all this weekend and then cover the patch with a good 6” of FYM

 

[enrico]

Ours were ok. Haven't dug the sweet potatoes yet. All main crop up and stored.

 

[pargyle]

Dug some of mine up .. Desiree .. about average size I'd say but I didn't water as much as in the past as it seems to encourage blight which my spuds have always suffered from on my allotment. No blight this year ... but I've got some with potato scab ... unsightly but the actual potatoes are fine. Perhaps needs something to increase the acidity this winter. I rarely get potatoes large enough to become baking size but I've got really heavy clay soil and it doesn't really favour potatoes to any great extent. I get a good crop but they do tend to be pretty average. I stick to reds such as Desiree or Rooster as the wire worms seem to avoid them whereas whites get riddled by the damn things.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ours were ok. Haven't dug the sweet potatoes yet. All main crop up and stored.

He do you store yours ?

 

[Woodland bees]

Down here in Devon ours are surprising large. King Edwards are a good to large baking size.

Just had to remove the foliage due to the first signs of blight but the spuds seem ok.

 

[happyculteur]

Down here in the mountains excellent crop in spite of dryness. For large size i put in Spunta.

 

[enrico]

He do you store yours ?

In a sealed cupboard to stop mice, in wire trays in dark cool garage

 

[Erichalfbee]

In a sealed cupboard to stop mice, in wire trays in dark cool garage

I must investigate something similar as ours sprout before we have eaten them all. Monty Don has a marvellous tailor made cupboard like you describe.

 

[happyculteur]

From January onwards I go through mine about once a fortnight and rub the eyes off. Only thing that I know of apart from powdering with chemicals.

 

[enrico]

I must investigate something similar as ours sprout before we have eaten them all. Monty Don has a marvellous tailor made cupboard like you describe.

I use an old full height kitchen cupboard....inside that is a sliding wire tray thing that I bought years ago from homebase. It fitted perfectly. I keep all my onions and garlic in strings which go over bamboo poles and hang on a clothes rack bought years ago from IKEA. It's even on wheels do I can move it around! That stays in my annex utility room which is also dark and cool. I am lucky having the space!!! But I hate throwing things away as you can tell!
E

 

[captain666]

Why not try the old way of storing them in a potato clamp? Lots of information on the web.

Fred.

 

[beeno]

I always miss some when digging them up. Come spring I could harvest them, but I use them for seed potatoes. Makes me wonder if one can just leave them in the ground if it does not get water logged?

 

[Amari]

Just started digging the spuds - seem small compared with last year yet they were watered...anyone else found this ?
Will dig them all this weekend and then cover the patch with a good 6” of FYM

Nearly finished harvesting Zazzi - a lovely salad spud. Good size, taste and yield - manured last autumn. Hardly nibbled by ?voles. Gave surplus seed spuds to a neighbour whose yield is poor size - didn't manure or fertilise. National Kidney ( = Jersey Royal, early) very poor - won't grow those again, heavily nibbled.

 

[Bryang]

I had a good crop (as usual)...I grow Nicola and Picasso. from approx 50 seed spuds of each variety the return was Nicola 12x14litre black builder buckets.....Picasso 14 buckets, most of the spuds were of a good size with some very large ones...The only fertilizers I use are Blood/fish/bone and pelleted chicken manure and I give the "patches" a covering of well rotted stable manure every 3rd year. To help the manure to rot down I give it a dressing of chicken manure pellets , approx 4 handfuls per cubic metre...My brother gets a very large crop by using "Spuds Galore" fertilizer When I can get help I get a trailer load of seaweed and put it straight on top of the soil in the late Autumn and cover it with black plastic until it is time for the seed spuds to go in.

 

[Amari]

I had a good crop (as usual)...I grow Nicola and Picasso. from approx 50 seed spuds of each variety the return was Nicola 12x14litre black builder buckets.....Picasso 14 buckets, most of the spuds were of a good size with some very large ones...The only fertilizers I use are Blood/fish/bone and pelleted chicken manure and I give the "patches" a covering of well rotted stable manure every 3rd year. To help the manure to rot down I give it a dressing of chicken manure pellets , approx 4 handfuls per cubic metre...My brother gets a very large crop by using "Spuds Galore" fertilizer When I can get help I get a trailer load of seaweed and put it straight on top of the soil in the late Autumn and cover it with black plastic until it is time for the seed spuds to go in.

We've finished the Zazzi and almost finished the Anya - lovely salad variety similar to Ratte which I couldn't find this year. Only Desirée left now. Wish we had seaweed nearby...

 

[Bryang]

We've finished the Zazzi and almost finished the Anya - lovely salad variety similar to Ratte which I couldn't find this year. Only Desirée left now. Wish we had seaweed nearby...

Seaweed really improves the flavour of potatoes...Tried Anya and Desiree in the past, Desiree gave a good crop for a few years than it was decimated by blight...didn't get much of a crop from Anya, early spuds don't grow well up here, too cold and wet early in the year.. Tried Sarpo Mira when they first came available some years ago in this country ( recommended by a local gardening expert noted for giant veg), They failed miserably and to this day I can't grow spuds in the patch. If I plant spuds in it, the seed pots rot. Yet any other veg grow well, I always get a really good crop of peas from there.

 

[Swarm]

Interesting observation, Bryan.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Seaweed really improves the flavour of potatoes...Tried Anya and Desiree in the past, Desiree gave a good crop for a few years than it was decimated by blight...didn't get much of a crop from Anya, early spuds don't grow well up here, too cold and wet early in the year.. Tried Sarpo Mira when they first came available some years ago in this country ( recommended by a local gardening expert noted for giant veg), They failed miserably and to this day I can't grow spuds in the patch. If I plant spuds in it, the seed pots rot. Yet any other veg grow well, I always get a really good crop of peas from there.

Potato root eelworm infestation? My dad was a market gardener who mostly grew tomatoes. Sterilised the soil every winter to combat the build up and absolutely forbade growing potatoes anywhere on the nursery.

 

[enrico]

You can't beat red rooster for roast potatoes but crap for boiling!

 

[Bryang]

Potato root eelworm infestation? My dad was a market gardener who mostly grew tomatoes. Sterilised the soil every winter to combat the build up and absolutely forbade growing potatoes anywhere on the nursery.

Could be, if it is/was they came in with the Sarpo Mira seed spuds that I planted approx 10 years ago.. Adjacent patches are not affected... Tried a row of 5 seed pots 3 years ago and had the same result. The "patches" in the allotment are seperated by deep rubble filled paths, each patch is approx 2 mtrs X 7 mtrs...I can grow any other veg in the infected patch with no problems.