how are your spuds doing?

[clare]

I have just returned from a 10 day holiday,my neighbour watered the patch and fed the chickens for me.My potatoes were looking really yellow and brown so I chopped off the tops and dug them today,they are main crop and I got a third of what I got last year but the earlies look ok so we should be ok till new year.Has anyone else had problems with all the rain?
Clare

[chickenchargrill]

I got very few this year. I don't plant loads, 5 sacks (earlies) and 1 bin (maincrop), but the 5 sacks only had about 20 potatoes in, which is a lot less than last year. Not emptied the bin yet. To be honest, I'm blaming the slugs more than the weather for mine.

[Rosendula]

The earlies in my raised bed were fairly decent but the ones in the "proper" ground have been really disappointing so far. I haven't lifted any maincrop yet which are all in the ground, so still keeping my fingers crossed but not getting my hopes up.

[GeorgeSalt]

Very bad with spuds here (also in Norfolk). Groundwater is high in the area where my souds are this year, just over a spit down the soils was a wet slop for most of the last few months. Only the top twelve inches are consistently free-draining across the plot as a whole this year. I will be making a lot more use of lazy beds next year. Where I've raised lazy beds the crops are doing much better.

[demi]

We're doing alright with our spuds. Although we're not in the UK
We are infested with that colorado potatoe beetle though. But we are digging up early spuds just now that are left over from last year and are growing like weeds all though our other veg. They are small, but very good. Not touched the actual crop of spuds we intentionally planted yet though as there as so many 'weed' potatoes to be dug up!

[clare]

Ooh I love accidental crops,I had three great tomato plants and 2 pumpkin plants from spilt seeds and dropped fruit fabulous,the pumpkins were huge and this years basil are all from last years plant self seeded.

[sarahkeast]

Blight got mine. Or at least it meant they were dug up early. The Earlies were fairly productive and remarkably slug free [I do confess to using a few 'organic' slug pellets, once] but decided to take up main crop too as going on holiday tomorrow and didnt want to risk it. Very disappointing crop. Ho hum. Leeks are all in the bed now at least.

[citizentwiglet]

Pulled my Red Duke Of Yorks last week. Very pretty, but not many of them - but the ones we got were of a decent size, at least. Enough for four meals from 2 potato sacks. My Orlas are still in.

I'm not convinced that potato growing is viable for us, financially. One potato sack uses a lot of organic compost, the stuff in my compost bin is nowhere near good enough quality and is riddled with slugs, so I have to buy it in; and I'm loathe to waste space in my raised bed at the community garden growing them.

It has been great fun for the three year old this year, though. He helped plant them, water them, earth them up and harvest them. Expensive, but worth it.

[narmour]

Every single plot on our site got hit by blight. Every one! Far too wet. I was late planting my main crops so they only got about 2 months in the ground at most. I managed to cut the plants down before they affected the tubers but the crop will be small this year.

[narmour]

I'm not convinced that potato growing is viable for us, financially. One potato sack uses a lot of organic compost, the stuff in my compost bin is nowhere near good enough quality and is riddled with slugs, so I have to buy it in; and I'm loathe to waste space in my raised bed at the community garden growing them.

Why dont you try looking for riding schools in your area? They usually have a mountain of horse shit which they should be happy to let you take some. There's a school just around the corner from us and they supply shit to nearly all the plots for free. You have to pick it up yourself so a trailer is recommended! Gumtree is a good place to find free manure.

[garye]

I had some in two small beds in the Polytunnel and one larger bed outside. Polytunnel ones varied from really disappointing (ie. 2 tatties per plant) to a bit better (ie 5-6 tatties per plant). Outside ones are much better - best one so far had 13 tubors and weighed in at over 4lbs. All were earlies a mix of Arran Pilot and Pentland Javelin. Still got about 3 plants to lift.

[Pach]

We're doing alright with our spuds. Although we're not in the UK
We are infested with that colorado potatoe beetle though. But we are digging up early spuds just now that are left over from last year and are growing like weeds all though our other veg. They are small, but very good. Not touched the actual crop of spuds we intentionally planted yet though as there as so many 'weed' potatoes to be dug up!

Bulgaria, also big problem with colorado beetle here, lost a lot of plants, eaten to the stem in few days. Many do still have potatoes but the damage is great. Any ideas on how to control colorados?

[Skippy]

I've had no problems with diesease and not too much problem with slugs and pests so the potatoes I've lifted are ok, but not as good as last year. This year they seem to have an awful lot more of the small ones, still edible though.


Pete

[finleyfreyaseth]

my early spuds were literally washed out ,rotten very few spuds so i done some for xmas and instead of earthing up we soil ive planted the tubers on the soil covered we straw and ave been earthing up with straw as they grow upto now they look really healthy and strong ill try put pic up later to show you the progress im very new to growing only had my ex overgrown wild plot 14mths so im experimenting with growing tecniques that i read on growing websites