2015 potato harvests

[Snow]

One dustbin with four Casablanca seed potatoes
Yield was 7 1/2 lb. tasted great, now they are all gone.

Almost 2lb per plant seems a very good result. They look great; I can see why they have been eaten already!

[Nannysally99]

A dustbin with 3 charlottes is tomorrow's job.

[Potstubsdustbins]

#13 Noosner, if you are growing in any sort of container root growth is bound to be restricted and the only goodness the plant can get is what in the container.

What ever your growing medium it will start to lose its zest at five to six weeks. Therefore with new spuds I give a high nitrogen feed (I use Miraclegrow) at 6 weeks then a high potash feed (I use tomorite)at 9 weeks. The ones I leave in for a longer period to grow on I repeat the high potash every 2 weeks.

A spud is about 80% water at harvest so consistent watering is a must, particularly in the last half of the growth period.

[Bill HH]

I cant emphasise the importance of lots of water. I water my containers well then go back and do them again, yet I watered some international kidneys this morning then my wife asked for some so i turned out a container and the centre was bone dry. only two days ago we had an inch of rain too.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Bill I have found over the years to totally ignore the rain once the haulm is up, wish my umbrella worked half as well!!!!

[Noosner]

Snow, PTD and Bill, thanks so much for your advice. I haven't tried growing spuds in bags before and now you say it, it makes sense that they need added nutrients.

I have fallen down on both feeding and watering. I have watered the bags about every other day but not bothered when it rained. But the umbrella effect sounds absolutely true, PTD! I was really surprised when I tipped out the Kestrels yesterday - the compost was so much drier than I thought it would be.

Onwards and upwards (next year that is!) Thanks again.

[maverick451]

Whats worked well for me this year is self watering containers.

I buy large 80x80 garden trays then stand the 30l pots in the trays (you can get 4 pots in each tray) on feet so they are just above the top of the tray with capillary matting strips going from teh water up into the pots, basically a DIY version of a root grow that greenhouse sensations sell, I also put a bit of feed in the water as well.

It costs a little bit to set up but so so easy, just top them up once a week and once the potatoes are done I just whack something else in and away you go.

Ive never been a great potato grower but using this method im getting very simular yields to the experienced youtube guys for very little effort.

[sparrow100]

It is a really good year for spuds. I have had 3 of the half-size gravel trays full of spuds from 12 Lady Christls so far - enough for us for a while and to share with some friends & my Mum. I have tried staggering the planting this year as I live in a flat and storage is a bit of a problem. I've left some LC's going as I'd like some big spuds too, but next up are the Charlottes and their haulms have been HUGE this year.

[bussinspain]

In my first early row of 9 Vivaldi potatoes I have harvested at total of 5.330kgs! Good flavour and texture.

[Pendipidy]

This is my first year of growing spuds...in fact it is my first year of growing anything!
I put three Charlotte seeds in each potato bag and this is the first bag harvested.

Is it an expected amount? Or good? Bad?
The leaves and stems had completely fallen over, but still didn't have flowers so I wasn't sure what to expect.

[WPG]

That looks like a great crop Perdipidy
I don't grow my potatoes in pots, but was interested in a recent youtube video by Allotment Diary (Dan) who harvested a couple of his potato pots a few weeks ago and then replanted the plants back into the containers to see if any more potatoes would grow. He'd harvested carefully, so that any tiny tubers were left attached to the roots. The results were really good, basically he got a second harvest. It's at about 13 minutes on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNximTrTjvg

I might give that a try next year

[Nannysally99]

Just harvested 4lb of Charlottes from half a dustbin box. Nice size in the main as well.
By the time we get to bucket/sack number 15, lord knows what they will yield lol

[Snow]

Some great harvests from everyone. Thanks all for sharing.
Here is my latest, some Lady Christyl I think (need to check my notes) which came from the ground. Three plants and over half of the crop came from a single plant, while the other two appear to have been lazy. One of them to be fair, was competing for nutrients with a rose bush, but still. 2,034 grams total.


These are the largest potatoes I've had this year so far. And three of the large ones had some slug (or perhaps leatherjacket?) damage.

And there was a little scab on one of two of them.

But I ate some of these yesterday (roast) and today (boiled) and they were fantastic. Best boiled. The best I've had this year for sure, so I can see why the slugs couldn't resist.

There were almost none of the usual tiny potatoes on these plants. Nevertheless, I have replanted two of them in buckets as they looked like they had more life in them and I am going to see if they produce a second crop.

[maverick451]

Looks good snow

I didnt get a picture but last night I got my best harvest of 2.2kg (5lb) of Duke of York potatoes from a 30l container, 2 seed potatoes and harvested after 87 days.

[Snow]

Looks good snow

I didnt get a picture but last night I got my best harvest of 2.2kg (5lb) of Duke of York potatoes from a 30l container, 2 seed potatoes and harvested after 87 days.

That's a fantastic result, nice one. I have some Duke of York in the ground at the moment that I am looking forward to digging up in the next week, or so.