Poor spud harvest

[Marb67]

Well I have Rocket and Charlotte early and first early spuds growing in bot garden soil and some in containers. Planted in late March. Given organic potato feed and appropriate watering. Result - Patheticly small number and size of spuds. Reason ? I have no idea

[bearded bloke]

The warm weather was a bit late arriving this year, so maybe give those you have not yet harvested a few more weeks for the tubers to plump up a bit more.

[Lumpy]

I have also had pathetic Rocket so back to Charlottes next year.

Like BB said the weather has again caused havoc with most of my veggie but the tatties seemed to have suffered the worst.

As I am in the same boat as you we might as well turn it into a cruiser as I think a lot more people might be joining us later on.

[Greenleaves]

That's gardening Marb, two years never the same. My lady C weren't great this year but last years were fantastic.
If every year was the same I would soon get bored, plus I have learnt you can over fertilise at planting.

[roitelet]

My charlottes are still in the ground. We are eating the Armandine atm gone a bit floury due to lack of water.

[Bren In Pots]

I always thought Charlotte was a second early I did had a furtle the other day and got enough Charlottes for tea and the rest will stay in the ground until they're a bit bigger.

[rhonsal]

What's the consensus on removing the flowers so the plant puts energy in to the tubers - saw it in this months magazine, and had never heard anyone mention it before.

Has anyone tried and noticed a difference?

[Potstubsdustbins]

My Lady C took a couple of weeks longer than usual this year. The first bucket harvested after 12 weeks gave enough for a small boiling for two. The next after 14 weeks was much better and the harvest has been going up ever since. Now after 18 weeks I am getting bakers as well as new potatoes.

Just goes to show with gardening you have to work with nature/weather because you aren't going to beat it.

[Dorothy rouse]

Sorry you're all going to hate me but my Rocket spuds are great, have been using since first week June, some now getting big enough to bake.

My Charlottes are in bags they'll probably be useless.

[Marb67]

Well Monty Don had a huge harvest on GW.

[roitelet]

How long were your spuds in the ground? They recon that Charlottes are useable as new potatoes after about 90 days and for keeping after about 120 days.

[Martin H]

Some of my Charlottes have now finished completely with their haulms died down. I was a bit lax on watering them so they finished sooner than I expected. I've only dug one up so far: enough lovely clean boiled spuds for four healthy appetites. That's probably 6 normal people. So I'm happy with mine.

[Knight of Albion]

That's part of the 'magic' of growing potatoes. You never know what you're going to get.
There are good years and bad years ... It's all part of the game.

[Knight of Albion]

I remember many years back I bought a bag of seed potatoes from the now defunct Woolworths. They were in the 'to clear' section. I think I paid 20p or something like that. They'd sprouted with a vengeance under the bright fluorescent shop lights.

I took them home, dug a trench, placed them, covered them over and ... nothing. Didn't round them up. Didn't water them. The stems went up to about 18 inches!
The result? The biggest and best harvest of potatoes I've ever had!. Go figure....

[veggiechicken]

That's part of the 'magic' of growing potatoes. You never know what you're going to get.
There are good years and bad years ... It's all part of the game.

One day they'll "invent" see-through soil so that we can see what's growing without digging it up. Wouldn't be half so enjoyable though