Are your spuds in?

[rana]

In some years I have planted spuds in early Feb but not this year. The ground is still far to wet and cold to plant, even here on the south coast, with regular frosts and NE breezes. To encourage chitting of my seed potatos I have stood them in trays of slightly damp compost. I like Flummerys idea of potting some up in the greehouse for some early pickings.

[-pat m]

5 weeks chitting came to an end today they are going in the poly tunnel at approx 08:50 hours today And at 12:00 hours I will refill the egg boxes with the next lot!

Pat

[MaureenHall]

not even thought about planting them yet! All mine are chitting away in egg boxes in the conservatory

[womble]

Not yet!

I still have 5 inches of snow on the potato bed to be. The sun hasn't got high enough in the sky at this time of year to get to that bed yet, so there isn't much point me scraping the snow off and putting black plastic on it.

I shall do the age old method of "the pulling down of the trousers in the dead of the night" and "the applying of the buttocks to the ground" to find out if it is warm enough to plant them.

If I decide to use the OH in the method above, I may have an impromptu "fertility rite ceremony" as well.

[greenfingers007]

I have only started to chit my early charlotte's last weekend, so should be going in in mid march going to start second earles this weekend and then starting my main in about a weekafter that.

[lottyrep]

There used to be a school of thought that said main crop tatties went in on Good Friday. My late father in law who lived in the outback of wildest Lincolnshire always planted his then with the proviso that they had two chances-they either grew or they didn't. He grew some of the best tatties that I have ever seen . I would suggest however that because Easter is very late this year, a good time for planting would be two weeks before Easter for main crop and two weeks earlier than that for earlies. Hope that helps
Alan

[geoff]

PLANTING?! Took some veg peelings to the plot's compost bin yesterday; the ground was still frozen! Max/min thermometer on the outside of the shed read -7C for the prvious night!
It'll be a few weeks yet, I think

[zazen999]

I have been saving the offcuts from any potatoes [shop bought] that I like the taste of over the last few weeks, and I've chopped the 'chits' into tiny pieces, and planted them into roottrainers today. Once they have made big enough roots, I'll pop them up the lottie and see how they fare.

[burnie]

If you're in the channel islands or the scillies you can plant now,other wise you wasting good seed potatoes with this weather.

[King Carrot]

If you're in the channel islands or the scillies you can plant now,other wise you wasting good seed potatoes with this weather.

ditto for the coastal southwest of Ireland,

had a look at my earlies in the coldframe today - the biggest one that was about 9" tall is now 3" tall, was it the frost, snow or cold in general - NO it was a bloody slug - I could see the tell tale slime on the stalk, anyway have dispensed a few blue smarties for the buggers - that'll learn em

[-pat m]

I am afraid I messed up with my second earlies, They have been put in a dark cupboard so I ended sticking them in today next to my first earlies (in poly tunnel)which I planted yesterday, I am sure it isn’t good form to put your second earlies in a day after your first earlies!
Any whoo we will see what happens - a bit sad that I messed up though I won’t be making that mistake again.

Pat

[piskieinboots]

I have been saving the offcuts from any potatoes [shop bought] that I like the taste of over the last few weeks, and I've chopped the 'chits' into tiny pieces, and planted them into roottrainers today. Once they have made big enough roots, I'll pop them up the lottie and see how they fare.

oh, this sounds interesting - so you have just stuck a 'chit' into compost in a RT and that's that?

I need to know more

[zazen999]

Intensive Crop Growing Project - UK Trial no 4

A bit like this...i did it straight into buckets last year and got a smallish harvest from each chitted peeling - so I'm going for this method this year and then into the ground.


ETA; as well as normal chitting and planting out, and if I get my act together - duronal's experiment.

[Plot17B]

Well I've just got our early, 2nd early and lates out of the box for chitting and...they've chitted themselves in the dark cupboard at an average of 5 degrees through the last month. Bum.

So laid them out as too early to plant here although ground thawed, but will give them 2 more weeks then start planting up I guess.
P17B

[gojiberry]

Will be putting in about 6 early potatoes today and see how they do. Put some in the same time last year and got away with it. However it is a lot colder this year so only time will tell. Will be using rocket, used charlotte last year.

Ian