great potato yields so far

[Snow]

I've read a lot of people saying their potato crop is poor this year, on account of the heat. But mine seem to be really good. I harvested two lots of potatoes from flower buckets today, they were planted about mid April. I had a very hard time getting them out of the buckets which is often an issue but this year was extreme because there was so much potato crammed in them. Eventually I got 1,744 grams of Spunta and 1,932 grams of an unknown pink potato from each pot.

My records from a couple of years ago for the same pots, the largest crop I got from the same pot was 1,051 grams, Kestrel and they were left to grow an additional month.

My other potatoes in larger pots are vigorous plants, never known anything like it. I anticipate even better crops from them.

My potatoes are fed and watered well, which of course is important in this weather, but I've not done a lot different to previous years. The better weather seems to be the thing that is different here.

[Penellype]

I've had variable results so far.

My Lady Christl were fairly poor, some having suffered from blackleg. This is the 2nd time in 3 years that I have had blackleg issues with Lady C, which is a pity as they are lovely potatoes. They have averaged under 1kg per bucket of 3 seed potatoes.

The Nicola on the other hand have been fantastic. They have averaged about 1kg per seed potato. These were grown in the same sort of buckets as the Lady C, but on the allotment where they get a lot more sunshine than in my back garden. They were also grown with the buckets part buried in a bed of fresh horse muck for heat and extra nutrients.

Apart from the Maris Bard that weren't Maris Bard and produced a lot of small red potatoes which were very floury, I haven't harvested any others. I'm still eating the Nicola!

[Snow]

Lady C is a fantastic potato. I couldn't find any local to me this year unfortunately, I think because I was a bit late buying. What a shame you were unlucky with black leg.

[Penellype]

Lady C is a fantastic potato. I couldn't find any local to me this year unfortunately, I think because I was a bit late buying. What a shame you were unlucky with black leg.

I tried to find it from January when I bought the first of my seed potatoes. Normally I get it from Wyevale, but they didn't have it this year so I tried a local garden centre who said they had sold out as there had been a problem with it this year and stocks were low. They managed to source a bag from their Scarborough branch, but I reckon maybe the problem the growers had had was blackleg. Its slightly odd as when you look up Lady C in the potato database it says it is resistant to blackleg, but the only other variety of mine that got it last time was Sarpo Mira. Touch wood nothing else seems affected, but its definitely the potatoes rather than the conditions because I've had blackleg on the Lady C both at home and at my friend's this year.

I will persist with it, because it is my favourite potato.

Incidentally, the blackleg is quite distinctive. The affected stem and leaves wilt suddenly, then start to go black at soil level. If you pull out the affected stem it is black all the way down under the soil, and potatoes from that stem have a black mark where the stem was attached (they often fall off when harvesting). If you try to store even healthy looking ones from an affected plant they quickly rot, with a disgusting smell a bit like rotting fish.

[burnie]

I tried growing tatties in grow bags a couple of years ago and was disappointed with the results, so I lifted an area of lawn and created a bed and have to say the results this year seem so much better. Just dug in my old compost and planted and basically left them to it, no earthing up either, just made small ridges when planting. I reckon I get a kilo of spuds from each single tuber from the Charlottes and they are very tasty too. This bed will become my wildlife pond area next year, so a new bed will be made for next years tatties. Not looked at the Roosters yet.

[Penellype]

A couple more potato harvests.

Charlotte - 2 of 4 buckets harvested as these were dying down. Grown in 30 litre buckets on a raised bed against a north facing wall. Some very big potatoes in these buckets, which contained 2.3kg and 1.55kg potatoes from 3 seed potatoes each. The other 2 buckets are on the next raised bed, but these have not died down yet. Their bed was made into a hotbed with fresh horse manure, the bed on which the 2 harvested buckets were sitting was just old compost.

Lady C - as well as the 4 buckets mentioned above, which were bitterly disappointing averaging 0.29kg per seed potato, I also grew 4 plants in a quadgrow root veg planter. I did this last year and the results were good. The planter was also against a north facing wall and i harvested all 4 pots today. One of them had shown signs of blackleg, but it didn't appear to affect the yield, and I got a total of 5.2kg from 4 seed potatoes, averaging 1.3kg per seed potato. This beats the 1.1kg per seed potato from the astonishing buckets of Nicola at the allotment!

No idea how I am going to eat all these potatoes. I still have 2 buckets of Charlotte, 2 buckets of Arran Pilot, 4 buckets of Desiree, a quadgrow veg planter of Desiree and 4 buckets of Sarpo Axona to harvest, plus more buckets at my friend's!

[chillithyme]

-I started lifting my charlottes yesterday a couple of plants, considering how dry my clay soil has been and my irregular watering of the potatoes I have to say I'm pleased, charlottes never fail me, even under less than ideal conditions, I'm sure if I had watered more they would have done better.
- My main crop went in late, sometime in July, and they will be lifted in November, hopefully il keep watering them and get a decent crop

[Potstubsdustbins]

I have had only one problem this year, the drainage got blocked on one of my dustbins and I didn't notice (I'm blaming my age) when I went to harvest everything was mush. Otherwise everything is good.

At the moment I am harvesting Lady C that have been in 18 weeks plus so tonight it's baked Lady C for tea.