How many spuds?

[Alison]

Now I'm getting a lottie has set me thinking and planning. I'm going to (eventually) have a series of raised beds which can be used in a simple rotation pattern. However, unless I have absolutely enormous beds it hardly seems worth planting spuds so I was thinking of resorting to just growing earlies. I know a lot of you also bother with main crop and was wondering how much of your plot you tend to devote to this and how you then manage to get this working with your crop rotation?

Probably a pretty basic question but I've only ever grown a few in buckets in the past so it's a whole new world!

[Two_Sheds]

Spuds go in my Root bed (the others are Brassica, Allium & Legume).
I love early spuds, so grow lots, planted about a foot apart, they only take up room until July/Aug, then I put pumpkins in the gaps.

[markwcel]

i prefer to devote a whole bed to main crop...grew to many earlies this year that we were getting sick of them...maincrop about ready now...

[marigold007]

I'm trying to figure this one out too. There are only two of us, and I would like to grow all our spuds if I can. I guess we'd need about 4 weeks of first earlies which would make a meal two days a week until the second earlies pop up. That's 8 meals, about 40 normal sized potatoes, or 120 really small ones. I am unsure about how many spuds one can expect off of a plant. If I got 5 large pots on each plant, I'd need 8 plants. How many small spuds can one expect on first earlies?

I don't think 8 square feet is a lot to devote to early potatoes. Now the 220 sq ft that will feed us starch for 2 meals twice a week for the rest of the year is another matter! In a cost analysis, it might be better to grow blackberries. Abel and Cole are selling organic blackberries 125 g for £4.99!

Don't take what I've written here as expert advice. I've only grown potatoes once in my life.

[SarzWix]

I usually devote 1 bed to maincrop potatoes (1.2mx3m), and several huge tubs for earlies. We didn't get anything like enough maincrops to last over winter last year from that space, but we really enjoyed the ones we had. I hope to get more from the space this time through deeper planting & earthing up. The tubs of earlies have been easily enough to feed 5 of us since the end of June though.

[Demeter]

We planted a second early in a bed about 3mx2m (30 seeds, in all honesty I never counted the plants so I don't know if they all came up!!) It was wonderful having the new pots, but tbh we are still digging and eating them now as big potatoes and that's also superb.

I think next year I would like to go (mainly, at least!) for an all-purpose spud and harvest a few early as new pots and just keep digging them as I use them until the last lot are lifted as "maincrop" for storage if there are enough left.

If I might hijack the thread - Does anyone else do that, is it a viable idea, and if so what varieties would anyone recommend??

[rustylady]

Don't usually bother with maincrop, but you can't beat new potatoes straight from the lottie to the pan. Never grown potatoes in tubs - is it really worth it if you have ground available? One thing to consider is if you're taking on a new allotment spuds are useful for clearing the ground. The roots go deep and help break up the soil, and the leaves cover quite a bit of ground and help shade the weeds out. This might be something to consider doing on open ground while you are getting your raised beds organised.

[PAULW]

Last year I planted 5 Riviera (fe) 10 Lady Christl (fe) 10 Vales Emerald(fe) 20 Foremost(fe)20 Charlotte(se)20 Maris Peer(se) 20 Smile(em)20 Maris Piper(m) 5 Vales Sovereign, dug into the Vales emerald first and they were piddly little spuds so left them for another week and started on the Riviera which were of a good size and I was digging 5 pounds of spuds to the root when I got to the Lady Christl they were like baking spuds I have 6 sacks of spuds in store which should get us through to almost the next harvest, a couple of years ago I grew king edwards as a main crop and non of them were any bigger than a chicken egg so its swings and roundabouts you cant guarentee how many or what size spuds you will get.

[Snadger]

I have two 10 pole allotments next to each other and run a flexible four year rotation.

Incorporating Potatoes, Legumes, brassicas and roots.

This means that I devote half of one allotment to spuds each year.

I grow earlies, second earlies, maincrop and late maincrop. At present I've just emptied a 4 foot by 12 foot bed of earlies and planted leeks.
I will start on the same size bed of second earlies soon. I also have two similar sized beds of maincrop and one of late maincrop.

I am far from being self sufficient in spuds and reckon I would have to devote one whole 10 pole plot to them to get anywhere near!

[kentvegplot]

Although this year I've got a mixture of potatoes, last year I settled on 'Nicola'. It turned out to be a great decision - lovely earlies, all lifted at the end of July because of blight, but stored really well and finished around the end of January.

If you were to only grow one, I would recommend this one.

[Two_Sheds]

My fave is Pink Fir Apple (late maincrop salad potato) - but until that is ready I would go for Arran Pilot (salad) and Rooster (roasting spud)

[tootles]

I have now cleared three large plots approx 15x4m each. Each plot is split into 9 raised potager style beds (ie no fixed edges). Two plots will be split into two, legumes/brassicas and roots/alliums/courgettes/usual greenhouse fare (toms/peppers and aubergines- all happy outside here) the third plot will be used in it's entirety for spuds. I think this will work!!!

[Alison]

Next year will be a bit random and I think we're going to grow spuds on through membrane in the area where we eventually hope to have a poly tunnel as well as possibly else where. However, the eventual plan is for a four year rotation with one of those years being spuds (well this is the current plan anyway!). This allows for 4' wide raised beds, total length about 27' long (but probably split into 3 beds). We had thought about putting earlies in one bed and then main crop in the other 2 but working out the number of spuds I can put in at the right spacings this seems like I can only put about 6 or 7 of main crop in each bed (assuming they're about 4' by 7' long) which is hardly any or am I not working it all out properly? Note that this is based on 15" between tubers and 30" between rows.

[Two_Sheds]

If you're doing raised beds, you don't need rows at all.
Just plant your spuds 12"-15" apart from each other, without having a big old 30" gap.

[Alison]

Ah, I knew that was the case for brassicas etc but was worried that I wouldn't have enough soil to earth up if I didn't go for the row spacing in one direction for spuds. Thanks.