2015 potato harvests

[vixylix]

Rocket potatoes from 4 seed potatoes - didnt weight them but very happy with the results!

[Penellype]

Harvested my dustbin of Charlotte, grown next to the bag of 3 seed potatoes that yielded 1.8kg. The dustbin contained 4 seed potatoes and I was disappointed to find that the yield was again 1.8kg.

[roitelet]

Just finished digging the Charlottes. From 24 seed potatoes I have harvested about 60 kilos. Don't wish to gloat but I didn't think that was bad. Didn't do anything special just planted them, never watered them and it has been very dry. They have been in about 4 months. Quite a suprise

[1Bee]

We got back from hols and decided to dig up one small haulm of Desire (planted mid-May) to see what was going on. Only 1lb 10oz, but that's only at 14 weeks, so we're happy. Got to be patient with the rest...

So happy to see home-grown potatoes again.. first out of this plot.

[Snow]

Dug up my King Edwards. 50L tub. Think the plants would have lasted a little longer but the snails had eaten a lot of the leaves, so they were giving up. Copper tape next year then...

Got 3.9 kilos (8.6 lb) and they are all in great condition so pretty happy with that. They are actually really pretty washed;I'd enter them in the show if only I had three the same shape and size but I don't really. Looking forward to roast potatoes.

[Nannysally99]

Pentland Javelins again, 5 seeds in a large bin
15 1/2 lb - complete with SCAB
They say pride comes before a fall, how true.
Could someone tell me where we went wrong. These were sown in MPC and fertilised weekly. Watered daily
Keeping our fingers crossed that thus is the only one

[Potstubsdustbins]

Two types of scab common scab, ragged edged marks, only skin deep, peel and eat.

Powdery scab, not seen very much round marks with raised edges, scabs feel er, powdery. Pentland are susceptible.

[Nannysally99]

Thanks Potty, just harvested the last Pentland bin and got another 15 1/2 lb, so that's 31lb today, 10 seed potatoes.
I think they may have been there just too long. Also, we should stagger our plantings a bit.
Live and learn eh. Have documented every bit of our potato growing this year, mainly due to this excellent thread

[Penellype]

Took my new luggage scales to my friend's house and harvested the rest of the Charlotte and Desiree potatoes to keep them out of the way of rats and slugs. Now all happily stored in the garage, safely, I hope! 30 litre buckets, 3 seed potatoes in each:

Charlotte bucket one 2.8kg (just over 6lb), bucket two 2.75kg (~6lb).
Desiree bucket one 2.95kg (6.5lb), bucket two 2.45kg (nearly 5.5lb)(somewhat shadier position under trees).
A tiny amount of scab on the Charlotte, a couple of rotten ones in the Desiree, but the others look fine.

A spectacular improvement on last year when 8 Desiree seed potatoes planted in a raised bed yielded about 6 edible potatoes, the remainder having been eaten by rats. Buckets are the way to go

About 24lb (nearly 11kg) potatoes from 12 seed potatoes here. Totally agree with Nannysally about this thread helping to keep track of how things have done. I don't normally weigh my produce.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Whoop! Whoop! Just harvested a 80ltr dustbin of Picasso and beat my own pounds per seed ratio, 4 seeds just over 16lbs. The plants died back early week 18 so no asteroids but plenty of lovely spuds. I still have other containers with a nice green haulm so there is still a chance of some big ones.

Now I have a problem, I think we would all agree its been an excellent year for spuds, but I made a slight change in my feeding pattern. As well as my usual regime I have been giving my main crop a good liquid seaweed douse once a fortnight from week 10. So is it just the year or has the seaweed also made a difference? I will have to find out next year..

[Snow]

Pentland Javelins again, 5 seeds in a large bin
15 1/2 lb - complete with SCAB
They say pride comes before a fall, how true.
Could someone tell me where we went wrong. These were sown in MPC and fertilised weekly. Watered daily
Keeping our fingers crossed that thus is the only one

I got fairly bad scab on some of the ones I planted in the ground, but not much, if any, on the ones planted in containers. I have limestone soil so that explains the difference for me, but I'm not sure why this batch of yours in containers have it when others didn't. It may just be bad luck as some seeds can be infected with it (small amounts are allowed) and that would increase the chance that that batch get it. I guess with several seeds in larger containers the liklihood therefore increases.

Anyway, great yield!

[Snow]

Whoop! Whoop! Just harvested a 80ltr dustbin of Picasso and beat my own pounds per seed ratio, 4 seeds just over 16lbs. The plants died back early week 18 so no asteroids but plenty of lovely spuds. I still have other containers with a nice green haulm so there is still a chance of some big ones.

Now I have a problem, I think we would all agree its been an excellent year for spuds, but I made a slight change in my feeding pattern. As well as my usual regime I have been giving my main crop a good liquid seaweed douse once a fortnight from week 10. So is it just the year or has the seaweed also made a difference? I will have to find out next year..

What a great harvest, they look fantastic too! One of my favorites this year, Picasso.
Good question r.e. the seaweed feed. I have been using a seaweed feed this year too, but havent tested it against anything else. So look forward to hearing from you on how it does against something else next year.

I did record whether I used compost and potato fertiliser or compost and horse muck this year though, so I'll report back on that later this year once the test is finished.

[Penellype]

I always completely forget to feed mine

[Nannysally99]

Because ours are all in containers (apart from the volunteers in the resting bed, more on those later), my hubby has a strict watering regime and Friday is feed day.
The scabby ones don't look so bad now they've dried out. Once peeled they are ok, but I don't think that they are Pentland javelin, too creamy a colour.
Could be Charlotte or Casablanca, according to what I bought.
I'll let you know later lol

[Penellype]

Hmm, good idea to have a regular weeklyfeeding day. I've got the watering pretty much sorted, but definitely need to be more organized with feeding rather than waiting until tomatoes look as though they need something.