Container potatoes - hype or not?

[Peggy Sue]

My plan next year was to bury the spuds really deep to stop all the wastage from green spuds- if they will creep to the surface anyway I could be wasting my time, but I had more than a whole net of green ones this year and you can't even compost them

Must look up that bit in Genesis, my memory seems to be failing me - could be my age...would that have been before or after the Peter Gabriel years?

[Odsox]

You can compost green potatoes Peggy provided they are not blighted.
The trick is to peel them, or at least peel the ends where the eyes are, that way they can't sprout and grow in your compost bin.

would that have been before or after the Peter Gabriel years?

After Peter Gabriel but before Madonna

[Peggy Sue]

Good info about the composting of green spuds- thanks.

I wonder if 'in the air tonight' was really about blight then?

[andiewill]

Hype.....

This is my third year and was the best yield i have got from containers (In tyres 4 stack), as like everyboy's else thinking i would get tubers all the way up the tyre's but no, only in the bottom stack which supprised me alot as i had earthed up as stated and it was looking good, growing nicely and no blight which i had last year, but i did harvest before it set in but only got about 3 spuds for my effort last year, and nothing exept rotted spuds the year before, this year approx 15 all shapes and sizes, but as stated all in the bottom as in previous years.

I also planted some in my raised bed to see if there was a difference, but hey about the same yeild and less hassle, so yes hype is where i am comming from, i will abandon the container method for now as i don't think it was worth it so i will use the tyres to build some garden feature instead and stick to my raised bed for potatoes which produced a great yeild.

[Durgan]

I would like to determine what people are considering a good harvest of potatoes.

For the last two years I have been weighing the tubers from each individual plant, and am getting from three to eight pounds per plant. The year 2009 was a bit below standard. The seed potatoes are planted at 12 inch intervals, with 18 inches between the rows, and hilled usually twice as necessary to keep the new tubers covered. The chitted seed was planted about 15 of April and got hit with a bit of frost, but they survived. I was away all of July so never watered or removed bugs and the plants produced as shown below.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?VFDVZ 22 August 2009 Red Pontiac Harvest
Red Pontiac row of potatoes were dug today. Total weight was 60 pounds from 16 plants for an average per plant of 3.5 pounds.The crop weight is a little below my average. The tubers are solid with no hollow centers. The largest potato was 1.25 pounds.

[MKG]

I'd regard your lowest figure as a success - 3 lbs per plant. But 8 lbs per plant? That's some going. What on earth are you feeding the brutes on?

Mike

[Durgan]

I'd regard your lowest figure as a success - 3 lbs per plant. But 8 lbs per plant? That's some going. What on earth are you feeding the brutes on?

Mike

The eight pound figure may be suspect. I will check the figures for the 2008 crop which was a good growing year. I suspect for the eight pound plant that two seed tubers were planted in error.

Here is figures for the 2008 crop 4.5 pounds per plant.. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZLQOP 19 August 2008 Chieftain Potato Harvest 10 plants

My only fertilizer is city supplied vegetative compost, pickled up during the month of May. The allowance is about half a yard per day.

In 2010, I am going to baby four rows of four varieties, about 80 plants, for maximum production - meaning size and weight.