Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: sumitra on November 12, 2017, 16:39
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Hi. I was not too healthy in the summer, and I was very late harvesting my potato's. My main crop was Cara. When I dug them up, most of them were huge, but some of larger ones had deep splits in them they seem to have healed over and looked OK except for the shape. I am wondering is there is any danger in eating them, there is no green and no rotting showing, "H"
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no problem to eat. splits are usually caused by rain after a dry spell.
better to have splits outsides than hollow middles!
good that you are in better health.
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I think I made a massive mistake by not harvesting my spud crop early because although we had good size spuds they have quite a bit of slug damage that is very frustrating when pealing
I have learnt my lesson :mad:and next season I'm going to harvest much earlier and the potato's will be set on another plot and as I've said before on this site we also have eelworms to contend with but hopefully sowing mustard [green manure] on last years potato ground mite rid of us of these pests trial and error comes to mind
we also had a few cut ones and have been eating them first they where also cara and desiree
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First to answer Sumintra's question, cracks like that are not uncommon and are OK to eat.
Sorry to hijack your post but I feel I must clarify Roundlandwells' problem with eelworms.
Eelworms cannot be seen with the naked eye and cause potatoes to be stunted with a birdsnest bundle of roots. They will build up if potatoes are grown too often on a plot. You can see their pinhead size egg sacks on infected roots. It is these that can be tricked into hatching by planting mustard when no potatoes are present.
What you more likely have Roundland wells is wireworms. These burrow into potatoes. They are the lavae of click beetles. They lay their eggs on grass. In the first year they are about 5mm and can live for 3 or 4 years in the soil and reach about 50mm when fully grown. They are yellow and do not squidge easily, hence wireworm You usually see damage for a few years after turf is dug in, but they may also invade a plot from grass paths, or be there because a plot is infested with couch grass. Mustard will not control these.
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your certainly a wealth of knowledge Salmo and possibly quite rite in what your saying the only thing is the worms I've seen are dark brown or black not yellow but I was told they where eelworms so I stand corrected the potato ground has been cropped for with other veg last year but no grass or turf for around 40 yrs
as you say agricultural mustard that I intend using will not rid me of these damn pests although this plot will have other crops on it next season and I think a lot of damage came from slugs its just a matter of cleaning the ground from both pests and any advise would be most useful Salmo as you seem to be knowledgeable on these matters than me :unsure: