Removing Potato Flowers.

[Bigmallly]

I think we discuss this every year so I thought why should this year be any different...........
Last year I forgot to remove the flowers off my tatties but this year am gonna do it in the hope that the energy it uses to produce seeds will instead go down to the crop.
Please feel free to put in your twopennce worth.

[Bill HH]

Well heres threepence worth, I didnt bother, I dont think it makes a jot of difference.

[Bigmallly]

That were only a pennys worth Bill. You can do better than that................

[Kristen]

My thinking is that if it made enough difference farmers would have figured out a way to do it ... (But maybe that is also mentioned every year? )

For a decent test you need to do half-and-half ... and post the results of course

[Nicos]

I'm going to put in my florin's worth ( cos I think I am older than you BM )....

I did try taking off the flowers on some a couple of years ago and it didn't seem to make any difference. If it did, it was too minuscule to notice.

Spud size for me being affected by the amount of moisture in the soil.
I haven't even noticed a different yield between those chitted and those not!...again, maybe too little to notice??


and so...this leads to my lateral thought.....Is it the act of flowering per se which wastes energy ( probably miniscule) or ...more likely...the running to fruit?

And having said that, How many times have I had a potato successfully run to fruit...and then it ripened????
I've never had more than a couple of fruit established in 150-200 spuds I plant each year...



..leading to my next question...would they turn red like a tomato if given time?
...my spud plants have always died back before they ever get anywhere near doing any of that!

[chris]

They go purple-y/browny - I've grown some spuds from potato seed before - I did have them marked out when I put them out on my allotment but forgot about them, and no doubt discarded them as they probably would have been small spuds.

[darcyvuqua]

I had two rows last year and took flowers off of one row come harvest not a noticeable difference won't be wasting my (wife's) time this year!

[Nicos]

They go purple-y/browny -.

Oh right...I thought that they were blighted!!!

[chris]

lol maybe mine were

Dunno, I just picked them when they were that colour, opened them up and dried the seed out on some paper.

It germinated fine. I got the idea from a thread here!

[Bren In Pots]

I leave any that come on my plants just in case a passing Bee fancies a feed from them.

[Richard Eldritch]

Quick question ( not worth a new thread) I planted rocket spuds on 7 Feb. They're 70 days so about ready now and they've just started flowering.Should I wait a week till the actual flowers bloom or just go for it? Never had spuds in april before ( still may not!)

[Bigmallly]

Have a little furtle Richard.....................

[Richard Eldritch]

I worry about the roots too much Mal and I don't anticipate a huge harvest so by the time I've found any I may as well have dug 'em up! anyway the missus has barred me from emptying the pot tonight, so it'll be monday. Far to excited to wait I think, I love a tata reveal!

[Bigmallly]

Good luck, let us know how you got on.

[Richard Eldritch]

Good luck, let us know how you got on.

PS thanks for the pointing out the square foot thread, It's what I do. There are some great tips so far....