Hopeless gardener

[lee's mum]

Hello All,
I joined yesterday evening and spent last night looking through the topics.
I dont think I can be a very good gardener as I planted some potatoes in my poly tunnel ( I now know that was a stupid thing to do) as you experianced people know yes youve guessed I have about 4ft of beautiful green leaves. I had started to worry that they should not have grown so much, so I pulled up one plant and it still had the seed potatoe attached and nothing else. Can you help me please

[rustylady]

Not necessarily a stupid thing to do Lee's Mum. Your lack of potatoes could be simply because you lifted them too soon.

Whereabouts are you, when did you plant the potatoes, and can you remember what variety they were?

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Lee's Mum

[veggiechicken]

Hello Lee's Mum and welcome! I think you're just a bit too early to find spuds - you'll have to give them a few more weeks yet. Have you been earthing up the green shoots as they sound very tall at 4'

[lee's mum]

thank you for answering I live in Derbyshire and the potatoes are cara

[rustylady]

That is part of your problem then. Cara are a maincrop variety and take about 20 weeks from planting to harvest.

[Two_Sheds]

I have about 4ft of beautiful green leaves.

That suggests to me that:

- they're too shady, so are reaching for the light
- you've fed them (too much nitrogen, which produces green foliage)

There's nothing wrong with planting them in a polytunnel, per se. You have pulled them up about 2 months too early though

Next time, have a furtle before you pull the whole thing up

[PyreneesPlot]

Hello and welcome.

Lots of info on here and people with heaps of knowledge (and compost) will come along and give you loads of help. But possibly not compost.

Enjoy the forum

[Feral007]

Welcome.

Always good to have a go at these things. At least you only pulled one up, so the rest should be good!

[Glutton4...]

Hello, and welcome to the Madhouse!

[marchogaeth]

Croeso i'r Vine.