potato debate.... help please

[lynda66]

i have 8 potato plants in the back garden they were buried about 6 inches below ground, and i've earthed up about another 18 inches on top, the plants are about 3- 3 1/2 foot above ground, they still look healthy and have got pretty lilac flowers, dunno what type they are (from corner shop)

i'm itching to dig one up, (cant really have a furtle, cos too deep) so am i supposed to wait till the plants start dying off? or till the flowers drop off, or .... when am i supposed to dig them up, i'd prefer bigger spuds if poss, so can leave them ..... or are they likely to be a good size now?

Thanks

Lynda xx

[SarzWix]

The potatoes from the corner shop, were they big (for mash/chips/bake/roast) or smaller (for 'new' potatoes) ?
If they were the big sort, then you need to wait until the plants start dying down, or at very least, until the flowers have been off a while. If the new/salad sort, then it'd be worth digging one plant up now, there'll be some spuds there

[lynda66]

they were fairly big, not huge baking, but made decent sized chips. not new potato sized. but i'm hoping mine come out of the ground that clean i'm just fed up of buying spuds lol.

[Hans Mum]

why not just dig one lot up and see what they're doing then you can decide and you'll have some nice spuds anyway whatever the size....not that size matters

[PAULW]

LYNDA
Its only the seed that is 2 ft underground the main of the crop will only be a couple of inches below the surface so have a scratch and see what comes up.

[zazen999]

I agree, furtle and I'm sure you will find some dinner.

[Eyren]

LYNDA
Its only the seed that is 2 ft underground the main of the crop will only be a couple of inches below the surface so have a scratch and see what comes up.

Exactly - the point of earthing up is that the spuds grow from stalks at the base of the stem and will therefore go green if not covered. The more you earth 'em up, the more spuds they grow in an attempt to get some near the surface where they can break free and roll away to become new plants

[lynda66]

oooooo how exciting ....... i'm gonna furtle when i've finished my brew ...... i thought the spuds would be mostly under or at the same level as the original spud ..... that's good though, cos i didn't think i'd get many from the front garden ones as theres only about 8 inches of decent soil, but i've put another 1 1/2 foot round the spuds, so i might get some there as well, the weird thing is, the potatoes all came out of the same bag, but the ones in the front garden have got white flowers, whilst the ones in the back have got lilac lowers ...... is confused

[zazen999]

Come on then - what did you find???

[gojiberry]

May be a bit early if your original spud is 2ft down, as it will take a while for the plant to produce potatoes at that depth. I would be inclined to wait till the flowers have finished.

Ian

[lynda66]

Come on then - what did you find???

dug the soil away about 18 inches down, next to the plant ....... and nothing, no roots or anything ..... can definitely say there will be no green potatoes ..... tried it with another and its just the same, think i'll leave them a bit, can't really dig any further, the soil keeps collapsing.

[Demeter]

My back garden spuds have been very slow (much slower than the ones at the city farm). They don't get as much sun.

They have now been in about 4 months, my second earlies "should" have been ready at least a month ago but last time I tried there was b-all, a few decent ones, a few small ones, and loads of smaller-than-marbles baby ones. Gonna try again this weekend I think, if it doesn't pour with rain that is. We've been digging the farm ones (exactly same back of seed spuds) for about 6 weeks!

[afrench108]

Best to wait for the green leaves to die off and they should be ok, i placed 4 charlotte potatoes in tubs and when they died off i emptied the 4 tubs to find 2 carrier bags full!! stored them in dry cardboard boxes lined with newspaper in the shed and just about to finish them off ready for my main crop to come up!!