[The Golden Heap]

My earlies, seconds and mains are chitting a treat, timing wise aiming for mid march for the earlies and half the seconds , then late march for balance of seconds and mains.  Sounds like plan ?

[al78]

Personally I'd go by the weather conditions rather than by the calendar. If some forecasts are to be believed and March is set to be a cold month you may want to put back those timings by a couple of weeks. Remember, nature can't read calendars.

[Welsh Merf]

My spuds are chitting nicely now as well. I truly believe that the seasons are changing, so I'll be planting my spuds (all of them at the same time) in late March/early April.

[The Golden Heap]

So I guess the idea of splitting the seconds into two plantings and planting the mains two or so weeks a good thing, I am aiming for mid march as that's what happened last year, lets see what the weather does.

[arugula]

I always plant all the different varieties at the same time as they take different lengths of time to mature.

[DD.]

Hear Hear!

There is a school of thought that says to plant maincrop first as they take longer to mature.

There is certainly no point in holding them back.

[mumofstig]

As the long range forecasts are for more cold weather - I'll plant the earlies mid March in the garden so that they're easily covered if needs be.
If it is still cold then - I'll leave the seconds and mains another couple of weeks.

[ian000]

Im on the Isle of Wight and am tempted to put earlies in now as the weathers good but i think i will hang on a week or two

[richy]

Im doing mine on St Patricks day, its ment to be the traditional planting day for spuds.

[Wiltshire Worms]

wont be till end of march at ealiest, then starting in bags so they can easy go in garage if necessary...only growing charlotte earlies this year

[Gandan57]

Just over half mine went in today, Lady Christl, Red Duke Of York, Sante and Charlotte. The Kestrel and Romano will go in as soon as I can find the time, and if it stays dry.

I`m on heavy clay so ground conditions rather than specific date determines planting time.

When I left the plot at half past four, there was still ice on the water in a bucket, that`s how cold it`s been today. :blink:

[MattHB]

On this subject a newbie question if I may.

I was just discussing the plot with my mother and she says that I shouldn't manure my spuds at all.

 I'm about to commence full scale dig of bed (new plot to me or I'd have done it in the winter) so could do with knowing.  Spuds are chitting in the cold conservatory.

I can get an almost unlimited supply of incredibly good rotted (almost to soil) manure.

[mumofstig]

If you have rotted manure then yes, add it to the potato bed - if not add fertiliser of some kind 

[MattHB]

If you have rotted manure then yes, add it to the potato bed - if not add fertiliser of some kind 

Cool will do. Mum said they would grow too much top and nothing underneath? Is this just 'older' thinking? (She's not grown anything for years)

[mumofstig]

Potatoes are an extremely productive crop and so a greedy crop

see here
http://www.allotment-garden.org/grow-your-own/vegetables/potatoes/fertilizer-programme