Pathetic spud harvest (again)

[Marb67]

Well here I go yet again with a very small, poor harvest of first early spuds. Charlotte and another variety I can�t remember grown in containers. Fed with organic potato fertiliser from Poundland and watered when needed so no idea why they are so poor

[Jimny14]

Hhmmm OK, so a few questions. Where do you get your seed from? What growing medium is in your pots. How big are the containers? When were the spuds planted and harvested? When you say watered when needed what do you mean?

[Baldy]

My container grown spuds avoided the slugs but the dry weather meant they didn't bulk up. Lack of water for me - but the spuds in the ground were decimated by slugs so potato bags for me going forward blue sky thinking etc... just need to figure out the water

[Jay-ell]

Same thing here - the Pentland Javelin and Purple Majesty I had in pots didn't amount to much. Four tree buckets of each produced enough of each to fill a seed tray.

They were in my regular compost amended with chicken manure, BFB and the same Poundland potato feed and fed with Comfrey in their water.

The problem is with the extremely dry weather we've had lately once the medium in pots dries out unless you stand the pot into a trug or bath of water it's impossible to get the whole mass moist again.

When you stand with the hose or watering can the water may look as if it is soaking in but once it hits the junction where the pot meets the compost it makes the path of least resistance with the water just running down between the soil and the pot. The rest of the water follows that path leaving the main body of the compost dry.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Baldy watering spuds in containers is easy.

First ensure the containers have good drainage, spuds stood in water will rot.

Second at harvest spuds are about 90% water so keep them moist avoid letting them dry out. Some folks advocate sticking your hand deep into the growing medium to make sure it is moist all the way through.

Me being idle I water until such times as it issues from the drainage holes and if it arrives down there to quickly I will go back in 1/2 hour and do it again.

On my dustbins it's easy I leave a 4" gap between the growing medium and the rim of the bin and every day in weather like this I dump a 2gallon bucket of water straight in the top. That way I know the whole bin gets its share.

[Baldy]

^^^ yep - but I'm somewhat blaggered by working away every other week... plus no water on site - I harvest a lot of water but ran out completely last weekend and have been concentrating on just looking after the toms and chillies for a few weeks now. Just one of those things... Chillies sweetcorn toms and a few non-bolting lettuce - unusually for me I'm feeling glass-half-full

[Jay-ell]

If I'm going to grow in pots again I'm thinking of making a rain gutter watering system - or possible a kiddies paddling pool automated system.

Plenty of rain gutters lying about plus a couple of barrels/butts I can plumb into. Need to get a mini ballcock or two