Potatoes

[Moorland Prepper]

A few weeks ago we planted potatoes (Maris Peer) in a vegetable grow bag and these are now starting to flower. I've been looking to see when the best time would be to harvest these but am getting quite different times from a Google search.

Anyone any ideas please?

The bag was a 10 gallon one and we planted five potatoes (too many). I intend to start 'excavating' from one side of the bag to remove the potatoes over time. Does anyone see any problems with this, or can anyone suggest a better way to get and keep fresh potatoes?

We have planted the remaining five Maris Peer potato seeds, two in one bag and three in another. When the first bag of potatoes have been removed we shall plant a 'winter' potato. Any suggestions as to what type please?

Thanks

[rik_uk3]

Nothing to stop you having a feel around from the top but if you planted end of August I'd say its too early yet and leave them a few weeks. I planted up a 40cm grow bag two weeks after you and I won't touch them until around 22nd December to serve with xmas dinner. I'll lift earlier if the foliage dies. If you dig while the foliage is still green the potatoes may be smaller and thin skinned; let the foliage wither and you'll have bigger spuds with thicker skins (peelers) which store much better.

For storage you want dark and cool, under 10c if possible.

[Moorland Prepper]

Hi Ric-uk3

The potato crop was a complete failure. I cleared out the three lots that I planted in late summer and there were hardly any potatoes.

We are over 700 feet above sea level and this year has been one of the coldest and wettest on record. We also had some heavy snow in November. My plan for next year is two crops, one in April and the other later in the year when these have matured. There doesn't seem any way of a winter crop where we are.

The turnips that I planted are doing quite well, and just one of the ten brussel sprouts is looking OK. The leeks and carrots seem to be growing, albeit very slowly.

This is the first year that i have been doing container gardening and it's not quite as easy as it looks on those YouTube videos that I have been watching

[jennyjj01]

Hi Ric-uk3

The potato crop was a complete failure. I cleared out the three lots that I planted in late summer and there were hardly any potatoes.
...
This is the first year that i have been doing container gardening and it's not quite as easy as it looks on those YouTube videos that I have been watching

I wonder if yours suffered the Tomato blight which was endemic this year and which affects spuds as well as tomatoes.
I read that you harvest Maris piper 15 to 17 weeks from sowing, so you might have sowed them a bit too late, as I did with my tomatoes. It wasn't much of a growing season, as I remember it.

Agree that none of it's as easy as the experts on youtube. They take for granted simple stuff like what kind of soil/compost to use. I recall shopping around for topsoil and compost deals on a price per kg or per litre basis. In the end I went for a 50/50 mix of topsoil/ general purpose peat free compost. It looked like dirt and wasn't full of stones or rubbish, unlike the dirt I might have dug from my garden. No idea if it was the right kind of dirt or if it was any good. Having grown my crops in it this year, I guess it's depleted, but god only knows how I feed it or fix it.

If getting the soil right is essential and we are not all expected to be chemistry experts, then we take pot luck at stage #1. Then we have to figure out seed selection and propagation: Stage #2..... And if we get that right, we need to love and nurture our veggies.

And still the bu66ers can just die, bolt, or get nobbled by critters.

Last year I had a plant pot of coriander which had no love at all and which literally blew and rolled around the garden all year. It refused to die. But can I get my new two pots to prosper? Can I heck as like.

We beginners need a few idiot proof staples to bolster our confidence. A few failed crops are to be expected and accepted. Failur happens for the best and most professional gardeners.
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/ga ... nts-blight

[jansman]

Also ,plants need sun and daylight ,in quantity. One reason why farmers plant in Spring,harvest in Summer / Autumn. Late planted spuds ( in my experience) are rarely bigger than very small new potatoes. One good strategy is to plant first earlies ( I like ‘Rocket’ ) in pots under cover,frost protected, in February. I choose St Valentines Day,and can get my first crop for Whitsunday dinner.

[GillyBee]

Growing your own involves practice and experience. This is why those "store and forget" survival seed kits are such a waste of money. Having tried to grow my own for a fair few years now I know that my little garden will never do more than add extra flavours and vitamins to bulk foods bought elsewhere. Still valuable but I will never be self sufficient.

Next year you will do things differently and do better in places, worse in others and learn more

Jenny - You can reuse compost in large boxes/troughs if you are careful.

1) Don't try to grow the same crop family as last year - if you grew tomatoes/peppers/potatoes then try salads of greens in the compost this year.
2) You will need to add a good slow release plant food to replace the food used last year and probably top up with liquid feeds as well. Starving plants wont grow big or crop well.
3) If the plants do badly you will definitely need to change the compost for next time.

I usually dump the compost onto a bit of the garden and use fresh where I can. I do have one large box that just gets plant food and grows beans every year but I also know that if the beans do badly or get diseased, I will have to change the compost out and/or give it a break from beans for a few years.

[Moorland Prepper]

We started container gardening earlier this year, never having tried it before. I think that the main problem has been the wet, cold weather. Also, the bit of the garden where we have been doing the bulk of our container gardening is a little too shady but is sheltered from the worse of the winds that we get here. It’s not the best environment for some plants. We were still getting ground frosts in May and during the cold spell in November we had heavy snow and an outside temperature of -6c one night. The garden is quite large but is a woodland/wildlife one laid out with stone paths that wind around ponds and cascades with plenty of undergrowth for the wildlife. I can’t just dig up a bit of lawn and turn it into a vegetable garden. I must work with what I have!

We used decent compost and topsoil and fed the plants as required - OH knows a bit about plants.

We know what did well last year so will change things a bit next spring/summer. I’ll also check out which plants are tolerant of cold and shade. We have a small greenhouse, but this is used by OH for some of her bonsai collection and succulents in the winter.

Still, we have learned a lot and if we get a half decent summer next year should do better.