Planted my first ever potatoes today-help!

[kittyk]

Just joined up and this is my first post.

I've always grown flowers, herbs, tomatoes and bits and bobs in containers but want to grow more this year. I have a big garden but it is shared and very well established with shrubs, trees etc so i am limited to container growing. i have successfully grown tomatoes and herbs this way. I have a big half barrel and loads and loads of other pots.

This is my first year of attempting to grow some other things. I have been busy chitting potatoes for a few weeks and was going to put them in sooner, (they are earlies and second earlies,) but what with a lot of travelling and funny weather, i have just put them in today.

I am growing them in those green plastic recyling boxes and just planted them with some drainage at the bottom and a little earth followed by compost. I just read the 'compost' bags again wnd realised they said 'multi purpose organic soil improver.' I got them from the recycling centre where they make their own compost and bought them as compost-will it be ok or have i made a big error? Do I need to go and dig them up and start again?

Also, I ended up putting five tubers in each container as I kind of ran out of containers and filling even more with compost would have cost a fortune! Is this too many?

Any tips gratefully accepted!

[hypnophil]

Hi
i put my potatoes in yesterday, i used compost bags with some compost and soil and put 5 to a bag which is a 75 litre bag, i am just gonna see what happens.
Not too fussed about growing spuds, these are vales emerald and i probably should have put them in weeks ago!

[smallblueplanet]

We are growing spuds in 'council recycling boxes', we did some last year quite successfully. We're also using 'council compost', I think they call it 'soil improver' so you don't go sowing seeds in it - its a bit 'rough and ready, but it'll be fine for spuds. We put some pelleted chicken poo in too and then 'earth up'/cover up with more compost as the haulms grow.

We put 3 spuds per box last year and thought it was too many, so they two boxes we've done this year have 2 spuds each in. I guess if you've more you'll get the same amount of total spuds grow in the box, but maybe more smaller and less per plant? You could've put the spares one per bucket and get more crop - used more council compost it'd be fine.

[SarzWix]

As SBP says, you'll just end up with smaller potatoes, which isn't necessarily bad if you're using them for salads etc. Don't worry too much, just make sure you keep them moist and they'll be fine!

[baggyman]

Put my tatties in a couple of weeks ago. There's no sign of 'em yet, how long do they take to show ? I'm starting to get a bit worried.

[kittyk]

We are growing spuds in 'council recycling boxes', we did some last year quite successfully. We're also using 'council compost', I think they call it 'soil improver' so you don't go sowing seeds in it - its a bit 'rough and ready, but it'll be fine for spuds. We put some pelleted chicken poo in too and then 'earth up'/cover up with more compost as the haulms grow.

We put 3 spuds per box last year and thought it was too many, so they two boxes we've done this year have 2 spuds each in. I guess if you've more you'll get the same amount of total spuds grow in the box, but maybe more smaller and less per plant? You could've put the spares one per bucket and get more crop - used more council compost it'd be fine.

Oh thanks for that..... we are doing virtually the same thing then-that's good! I'm not sure whether to go to the 'recycling' centre to 'recycle' some more recycling boxes or just go for the smaller potatoes and allow for some wastage. If I get more boxes, they will need to be filled with more compost and I want to grow some other stuff too and don't want to spend a fortune on it!

I have been composting in my new bin for a few weeks now but it will be a while before i'm self sufficient on the compost front!

[Rich75]

Put my tatties in a couple of weeks ago. There's no sign of 'em yet, how long do they take to show ? I'm starting to get a bit worried.

can take 4 weeks or so depending on the weather.. I stuck mine in mid last month, and they started coming up a couple of weeks ago.. but they've had second thoughts due to a bit of recent snow.. but they seem fine. I reckon yours will be up in a week or two if the weather stays reasonable

[baggyman]

Thanks...I was going to dig one up to check on it's progress but I'll give it a week or two more.

[Rich75]

you'll be able to see when they're about to emerge.. you get these mini earth mountains popping up