potatoe flowers

[j.flett]

old boy on my allotment said pince off any flowers on the spud plant and so get bigger crop.anyone out there know of this ?,i know it works for some crops but dos it work on spuds,??

[poultrychat]

I think this has been bought up in another thread but I can't find it to direct you there - sorry

[multiveg]

Bob Flowerdew said something on Gardeners Question Time about this - removing flowers could give you a bigger crop of spuds.

[leona]

it would make sense wouldnt it? i mean, you dont let herbs flower (most of them at least) as it detracts from the leaves and flavour. i let a basil flower last year and the taste just went.

[sewer rat]

The way I look at it is if the commercial growers don't do it, why should we. You may get slightly bigger tubers but not more tubers

[Squirrel]

Seems an awful waste of time taking off potato flowers! Would much rather be planting out other veg or nibbling on my non existent pea pods!

[iainhawk]

Seems an awful waste of time taking off potato flowers! Would much rather be planting out other veg or nibbling on my non existent pea pods!

Yeah where are the pea pods...? Last year my pea plants were smaller but i had mange tout and pod peas before now. The plants now are huge- about 1.5m high and bushy... but no flowers or pods yet...? not enough sunlight yet?





Back to the subject of potato flowers.. why dont we try it out and see if we can work out if taking off the flowers has an effect. Try it on half of your spuds - so in 2 rows take the flowers off one row and leave them on in the second row. Harvest the plants in pairs-one from each row - and see which plants do better on average? Then we can learn what is best.

[Squirrel]

One lot of my peas are growing away quite strongly, but the other lot look as though they are on their last legs after only two days of sunshine! Got some soil improver yesterday and gave them a feed as well, as perhaps by sandy soil has leached with all that rain we had!

No - not a pod in site or even a flower yet. Broad beans are in full flower and thankfully no black fly yet either.

[Jaxom]

I've been picking peas for weeks. Perhaps its to do with where in the UK I live or it may have something to do with Moon gardening?

[Squirrel]

You could be right Jaxom! A lot of people swear by it, but I have not managed to get on with it very well - my own fault not the method!

Am hoping that it won't be long before I start getting peas and beans - I NEED fresh veg from the garden!