potato size

[Tigerella]

Hi

How much is the resulting crop affected by the size of the potato they come from?
If I have some quite small potatoes, can I plants them and get a good crop?
My Arron Pilot potatoes from Wilkos are quite large.

Nigel

[gojiberry]

I got my spuds from T&M the other day and they were a bit on the small side. There was a letter enclosed to say they were sorry and when planting leave 15" between potatoes instead of 18". They said I should still get a god crop but slightly reduced. Hope thats a bit of help.

[smallblueplanet]

Its reckoned that the 'ideal' size for a seed potato is hens egg size. That of course begs the question how big is the hens egg?

My grandad used to cut up his big seed potatoes and plant seperate bits (avec eyes), not done as much nowadays.

[Snadger]

I try to use tubers that are about hens egg size myself, as recommended, but one of the blokes on the allotment reckons "Big seed taters grow big taters"

If you've ever noticed the size of spuds the farmers use they always seem huge, so possibly there's some truth in it?

Another thought is that individual spuds give differnt sized crops, therefore if you are being selective and growing for size, you will harvest seed potatoes from potatoe shy's/shore's that have large potatoes only!

PS The above, would only be theoretically true of maincrop chippers!

[Nicos]

I'd just stick them in and let us know how you get on!

One of my neighbours cuts her large spuds into 3 ( making sure they have some growing points on them) and plants each one as if it were a whole potato- just as SBP has mentioned.
She gets larger potatoes than I do!

[rustylady]

Hi

How much is the resulting crop affected by the size of the potato they come from?
If I have some quite small potatoes, can I plants them and get a good crop?
My Arron Pilot potatoes from Wilkos are quite large.

Nigel

My Arran Pilot from Wilko were also huge! So much so that I'm considering cutting them in half and making myself two for one. Generally good seed potatoes are considered to be about the size of a hen's egg. Size of resultant crop depends more on growing conditions than on the size of the seed potato, or so I've found.

[Paulottie]

I think they used to plant the peelings with eyes in the war! If you've got large spuds and room for another row cut them up a bit. But, they need enough strength to produce a decent plant with a vigorous enough haulm to produce a good yield. It makes no differance to the size of the resulting spuds.

as stated a small hens egg the traditional guide

[nick nack]

Lad I used work with told me his dad used cut his potatoes in half, the cut side he treated with an anti-fungal treatment. Has anybody else heard of this

NN

[Tracey]

I think they used to plant the peelings with eyes in the war! If you've got large spuds and room for another row cut them up a bit. But, they need enough strength to produce a decent plant with a vigorous enough haulm to produce a good yield. It makes no differance to the size of the resulting spuds.

as stated a small hens egg the traditional guide

Paul

What's haulm?

T

[Snadger]

Lad I used work with told me his dad used cut his potatoes in half, the cut side he treated with an anti-fungal treatment. Has anybody else heard of this

NN

I think 'Flowers of Sulphur' was used to coat the cut face.

[Snadger]

Paul

What's haulm?

T

A haulm is just the name for the multiple stems coming out of the ground just as a 'Shy, shore or shaw' is the name for one potatoe plant in it's entirity!

[Tigerella]

Hi
Thanks for all the advise, if I feel I don't have enough potatoes, I might just plant any small ones in containers.
T

[Paulottie]

Lad I used work with told me his dad used cut his potatoes in half, the cut side he treated with an anti-fungal treatment. Has anybody else heard of this

NN

You can use Athlete's foot powder at a pinch. Its getting like dig 4 victory...'there's a war on you know!'

[nick nack]

Thanks Snadger & Paulottie.

[Tracey]

A haulm is just the name for the multiple stems coming out of the ground just as a 'Shy, shore or shaw' is the name for one potatoe plant in it's entirity!

Thanks Snadger