conflicting earthing up advice

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm growing for exhibition in 17ltr bags. No earthing up.

[Penellype]

I chit my potatoes because when I buy them it is too cold to plant them outside. You can't actually stop them chatting unless you plant them immediately, but the worst thing to do is leave them in their bag in the dark as the chits will all get very long, tangled and fragile.

I grow them in 30 litre buckets, putting about 2 inches of compost in the bottom, then 2 or 3 seed potatoes and then filling the bucket to an inch or 2 below the rim straight away. No earthing up. Potatoes are produced on the stems, not on the roots below the seed potato, so leaving a lot of compost below the seed potatoes is fairly pointless. The odd potato appears near the surface and goes green, but the vast majority are underneath.

I find the buckets much easier than the bags. They are easier to lift and move around, and the sides don't bend when the foliage starts to lean on them - I find bags bend down and let out the water, meaning the plants dry out. They are also easier to harvest as you just cut off the remains of the foliage and turn the bucket upside down, and everything comes out much more easily than from a bag.

[bario1]

You can't actually stop them chatting unless you plant them immediately

I look forward to this typo every year!

[Potstubsdustbins]

I have received my seed potatoes today. They will be set out in egg boxes to chit as always mainly to give them a little start before planting time comes round.

As to earthing up I don't bother in my buckets or 30ltr containers new spuds, but do in my 80ltr dustbins maincrop spuds.

Just one small point an 8ltr plastic bag is approximately 2 thirds the size of a Morrison's flower bucket... has anyone tried to fit 17.5 pounds of main crop spuds in there complete with growing medium must be hell of a squeeze.

[Bren In Pots]

I chit my potatoes because when I buy them it is too cold to plant them outside. You can't actually stop them chatting unless you plant them immediately, but the worst thing to do is leave them in their bag in the dark as the chits will all get very long, tangled and fragile.

That's the reason I chit my potatoes, then I grow them in redundant recycling boxes with no earthing up. Seems to work for me.

[Potstubsdustbins]

#19 Like a dog with a bone me.

Re T&Ms post 17.5lbs of spuds from an 8ltr bag don't get disappointed folks if you don't achieve these kind of results. Even I don't get that much weight from my 30ltr pots and from my 12ltr buckets I get a couple of good boiling's.

That in mind I had to do some checking.....what am I doing wrong well not that much really.

Picture one shows a 1ltr measuring jug filled to overflowing with some of my seed potatoes and as can be seen the weight is just over one pound. A litre capacity is a litre capacity the volume does not change neither does a pound in weight. So unless the potatoes were made of lead I would have to say someone has been pulling the Horticultural Directors leg.

Picture two is an unopened 2 kilo bag of spuds just to prove to me that SWMBO's scales are accurate.

[spamvindaloo]

I grew in 30 litre heavy duty pots, the same as Penellype. I agree they are incredibly easy to harvest and so intend to grow this way again even though I have got beds prepared on my allotment this year (last year - my first year - nothing was ready for planting in so I had to use pots).

I think 5" is a bit shallow and I also think you'd get green spuds on the surface. My seed spuds were about a third of the way up and I think even that was a bit high.

Also, either last year or the year before, Beechgrove garden did an experiment and the results showed that there was definitely more success with chitted potatoes as opposed to non chitted.

[Penellype]

I look forward to this typo every year!

Damn auto-correct lol.

[Penellype]

Stopped off at my local Wyevale yesterday to check for seed potatoes and found plenty. Managed to get a 2kg bag of Lady C which I have not seen there before. Going to try these instead of Rocket this year as although the Rocket produced great crops I found they hadn't much flavour.

I was going to get 10 Rocket and 10 Lady C for comparison, but they only sold the Lady C in 2kg bags. I now have 29 Lady C tubers chatting ( ) happily in the spare room, but no idea where I am going to plant them all as I have space for 20...

[Jonnyt]

In my own 8L bag trials last year using Lady C the biggest yield I got was 670g from a 10 bag sample.
Therefore I think the 17.5lb is actually 1.75lb.

[jonny the plant pot]

I grew some in an old manhole it was around 4ft high I put 8 Chitted potatoes in it and ended up with 18kg of Albert Bartlet roosters

[sparrow100]

Stopped off at my local Wyevale yesterday to check for seed potatoes and found plenty. Managed to get a 2kg bag of Lady C which I have not seen there before. Going to try these instead of Rocket this year as although the Rocket produced great crops I found they hadn't much flavour.

I was going to get 10 Rocket and 10 Lady C for comparison, but they only sold the Lady C in 2kg bags. I now have 29 Lady C tubers chatting ( ) happily in the spare room, but no idea where I am going to plant them all as I have space for 20...

I love LadyC, they are a proper treat! Not realising I could get spuds at Seedy Sunday I've gone for a bag of Dunluce this year. Am crossing fingers they will taste as good.

[jackarmy]

This is why i love this place , lots of differing views and ideas that surely cant fail to point someone in the right direction, bought my first seed pots today, swift from wyevale, thanks again all for the massive ammount of advice and differing thoughts

[jackarmy]

So yesterday i set up three pots in the greenhouse wrapped in bubblewrap just in case of a frost.
All in morrison type flower buckets, one to be earhed up as normal, one set at the same depth and topped up to the rim and the last one done a la t&m,bucket filled up and spud pushed down about a fingers lenth, so lets see how it goes.

spud was swift btw , all roughly same size and three chits on each.

[Kirk]

Plant mine in large pots of 20-24 inches deep, put potato about 3-4 inches up then basically fill the pot to the top, couple of inches down. That is it.

Not growing for a large crop just a supply of fresh easy to get at potato's, which may or may not be a significant factor.