Potato planting time.

[whiskywill]

Can anybody tell me why the advice sometimes given, including on this website, that different potatoes should be planted at different times? As I understand it, the only difference between First Earlies, Second Earlies and Maincrop is the length of time needed to reach maturity. So why stagger their planting other than to get a harvest at a very specific time? If they are all planted at the same time you would get a natural succession of potatoes to harvest.

[4Shoes]

See this thread ...

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...otatoes-2.html

Many people like to try and get Earlier "Early Potatoes" and have all sorts of tricks, So yes, they all go in same time ish. Growing times are approx. Just make sure they don't pop their head above ground before the last frost

Early 10 weeks
2nd 13 Weeks
Early Main 15 Weeks
Main Crop 20 weeks

[Jungle Jane]

I only stagger my earlies,I don’t want all of them ready at the same time,I want some to harvest as early & as late as possible,main crop go in as soon as possible all at once. Second earlies go in after my earlies & maincrop but before the last of my earlies,sounds like a riddle,solve the planting dates lol

[Martin H]

Earlies have been bred (or selected) to mature more quickly, but also to be slightly more tolerant of cold weather. So if you are trying to steal a march on the season and risking an early planting, you should hold back a bit on the slower growing ones. But don't wait too long or you'll run into the blight season before they are ready to harvest.

Things are never quite straightforward, are they!

[geepee]

My Mentor always told me 'Never plant a Potato in the ground until it was warm enough to sit on( 'Bare bum') and read the daily paper.....I never tried it , but think there could be some mileage in it.
Gp

[bikermike]

My Mentor always told me 'Never plant a Potato in the ground until it was warm enough to sit on( 'Bare bum') and read the daily paper.....I never tried it , but think there could be some mileage in it.
Gp

Tabloid or Broadsheet - it's have to be pretty warm before I planted my unclad posterior in the ground to work through the whole of the Torygraph (specially if it includes doing the crossword...)

[nickdub]

May have the making of a gardening version of the "ice-bucket challenge". My money is on the Eastern Europeans as being made of tough stuff, and having experience with low temperatures.

[bikermike]

and shorter newspapers too...

[Nicos]

In all the years we have been here we've only had a couple of springs when the last frost was in May...the rest have been in the first 10 days of June!!!

Even with the fleece covering and earthing up, we seem to always get caught out and the tops go black and turn to mush due to the late frost.
They do seem to catch up eventually but it certainly stops the temptation to plant them out early!
Not easy to anticipate when your last frost will definately occur...

[Jungle Jane]

Does the fleece touch the potato leaves Nicos? We always get low temps & I have to use a plastic tunnel cloche to house my potato leaves,having the bags in a line helps the plan. I’ll be planting some out soon I just want to check the overnight temps for the next week or two,I had a look at my seed potatoes today,they’re really exciting looking

[Nicos]

I suppose they do touch in parts, but we occasionally get such strong winds we need to firmly pin the fleece down...I'm sure that doesn't help, but they all get caught, touching or not.
Like the idea of the cloches...we have a block 12 ft x18ft of spuds so it'd be expensive to cover it all with them...plus I'd be worried the cloches would take off like kites!!!

My spuds are chitting up nicely too JJ! ( need to get some charlottes going soon too!)

[It never rains..it pours]

Had a look this evening and was very surprised how much heat the black sheet has put in the soil today, guess keeping water and snow off has assisted. So plan to get earlies in now when time permits

[It never rains..it pours]

Planted the first earlies (arron pilot) this evening (2 days later than last year). Soil temperature at 4" was 7c (didnt use the sitting test described above). This year did some fertilizer placement under each spud (as advised on here) inch soil gap to spud. Black plastic back on and will see what appears

[jonny the plant pot]

Mine go in good friday all at once and get covered up if theres chance of frost .

[Baldy]

Digging my trenches next weekend - popping spuds in weekend after - only do first earlies as my plot is blighty mcblighy blight face...