Disappointing potatoes

[busylizzie]

I emptied out my bucket of Charlotte potatoes yesterday and there were not very many of them and all quite small.

What went wrong? The plants were flowering and have been planted for 12 weeks, so should have been ready to harvest. There were 3 seed potatoes in the bucket, planted into compost, earthed up probably about 12-18 inches in the end. I would say they have been well watered, but as it's my first time with potatoes, maybe they needed more? One of the seed potatoes had gone all gooey and mushy - could that be something? the other two seemed to come out of the bucket much as they went in!

Just hoping my other 4 buckets (different varieties!) are slightly more productive!

[stv]

How big were the buckets?
They may have been short of growing room with 3 seed spuds in each

[zazen999]

Hi BusyLizzie

Or perhaps they needed less water? I've not watered mine at all after last year's disappointing yield, I put down to too much water.

But, I tend to agree with the 3 potatoes per bucket [if they are usual bucket size] - that's quite alot for one bucket.

[busylizzie]

Oh sorry, they're not ordinary buckets, they're potato buckets. Don't know exactly how big they are, maybe about 50-60 litres?

[parrot1974]

I've planted more than that in a potato bucket and done well, but it does sound like they may have needed more water during the flowering season, to help the tubers grow. Not sure, though, without knowing more.

[Flummery]

Charlotte is actually a second early - they do better with 14 weeks. Keep them watered and goive them another fortnight and they should be less of a disappointment.

[Two_Sheds]

I agree with Flum (as usual). They didn't have enough time ... this spring has been cold and wet, so 12 weeks isn't really long enough. Another fortnight and you'd have been alright

[Alice]

Hello Busylizzie, Charlotte need 13 weeks minimum in ideal conditions, so another couple of weeks would have helped. Unless I'm desperate to get at them I leave the potatoes until I see the foliage yellowing and dying down.
Give the rest of your potatoes a few more weeks, keep them well watered now, and I'm sure they'll be great.

[terrier]

I think Alice has hit the nail on the head. Harvested too soon. I've got first earlies in buckets that still arn't ready.
I could be wrong on this but when the plants have matured and the potato's are ready to be harvested, the seed potato usually does turn to mush.

[busylizzie]

Okay dokey, I thought they were supposed to be ready when they were flowering, but I'll leave the rest of them a little while longer and see how they do.

I have to say they were absolutely delicious though!