Potatoes - avoiding gluts

[cazp]

I want to plant first and second earlies in several buckets/containers. I appreciate I will not produce vast amounts but how best can I time things to avoid a glut and still enjoy a fresh tasting potato over the summer/autumm months.

Does it work to stagger the chitting and sowing of seed potatoes over a period of weeks?

Or should I plant all my seeds early on and then store ready potatoes until needed.

Since seed potatoes are in abundance in the shops right now I am not sure whether to buy my full requirement in one go or not. Any insights appreciated.. thanks!

[scarletrunner]

I buy all mine at once and refrigerate them in a domestic fridge,(around 3-4 degrees c.)and chit them as and when required. Container grown give best yeilds for me.Plenty of advice on container grown spuds to be found on this site.

[SarzWix]

I just grow them all at once, and when they're ready cut the tops off the plants and then harvest them as and when I need them. Keeps us (a family of 5) going with new potatoes until the early maincrops are ready

[Two_Sheds]

A glut of spuds? No such thing my friend

Anyway, you just leave them in their containers until you want to eat them.

[bazzaboy]

Time to maturation seems a very variable science (doubtless depending on any one year's temperatures, rainfall, sunlight etc) but if you're growing 1st and 2nd earlies there should be some spread of a few weeks there anyway (between say 13-17 weeks). Any that arrive too early you could store in dryish compost e.g. in bins in the garage (a variation of SW's and 2S's techniques above, tops removed, even temperature in darkness). You could also grow maincrop and even late maincrop (e.g Pink Fir) in containers, don't put too many in, they might not be huge but quite usable, will come ready over an even longer period and store longer. Companies also now seem to be introducing more "Christmas potatoes" for containers which work if you can provide somewhere light but frost free... e.g. I'm still cropping and eating Christmas Charlottes and they're fine. I was a bit crestfallen when I offered my neighbour some and took round a plate with sufficient for good portions for Sunday lunch for two adults and two children only to be met with the comment "Oh is that it, I was expecting a sackful!" Duh!

[Aberdeenplotter]

The important thing with spuds is to be able to get a crop of new ones at the time when the new ones in the shops are extremely expensive. New potatoes will crop after about 10 weeks in the ground in normal circumstances. You don't say how big your family is so it's difficult to advise on how many to plant but a single stem i.e the plant growing from a single seed potato normally feeds me and my better half amply. Second earlies will crop two to four weeks after the earlies so try to estimate the number of earlies you will need from that. Of course the other benefit of growing earlies is that they can be off the ground before blight can become a problem so bear that in mind as well if blight is a problem in your area and plant more earlies as a precaution.

[Aberdeenplotter]

A glut of spuds? No such thing my friend

Amen to that

[Potstubsdustbins]

I will be planting some of my first earlies as soon as this cold spell is over. They will sit in the GH until I need the space for something else as this gives them a bit of a kick start. The rest will go in in mid March as a follow on.

I will have a furtle in week 9 and if there's a boiling out that pot comes. Also remember that the longer they are in the pot/ground the better the harvest so by week 11/12 I expect to get 2 to 2/3 boilings per pot.

Colin

[SarzWix]

I also plant some early main-crop salad potatoes, usually Harlequin, in potato planters. You get a much heavier crop for the space used (they actually DO grow further up the stem as you fill the container with compost, unlike the earlies which don't have to time to do that before the tops die off) and means you get salad potatoes right up to September in my experience.

[cazp]

Great advice all, many thanks.

With space at a premium I am going to experiment with around 10 standard buckets this year, and a range of different varieties - see what we like best and how much we get. I'll probably grow all at once in the knowledge they store with the tops cut off (something I didnt cotton on to last year with my two large sacks of Foremost that I harvested all at once!).

You don't say how big your family is so it's difficult to advise on how many to plant but a single stem i.e the plant growing from a single seed potato normally feeds me and my better half amply.

Hi we are a family of three - at the moment we might use up say a kg bag of new potatoes per week - I wont match this quantity growing my own i know, but just to serve up something fresher and a bit different from the shop varieties at some meals is all I hope for! :-)

[Potstubsdustbins]

One of the things I do is to grow two varieties of first early. One Swift a very quick growing spud is used purely as a first early and grown in Morrisons buckets. The other Lady Christl (a later maturing first early is grown in larger containers and used as a first early/second early. This way I get first earlies and some lovely chippers/bakers.

The first pic is Swift, pic 2 & 3 are Lady C.

Colin

[katholicos]

Alas, i am yet to have a potato glut.