Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Lincolnshire Floyd on July 07, 2013, 14:52
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I've just been given some seed and was wondering whether it's worth planting them this late. Anybody else planted late with some success?
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They take about 5 months to harvest - so you may hit blight and cooler weather.
If you have plenty of space - I'd still be inclined to give it a whirl - what can you lose by trying ::)
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Unfortunately PFA is a late maturing potato so the odds really are against them to be planting this late.
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Like has been said before. Pink Fir are probably the latest maturing potato at 22 weeks til harvest.
So your'e looking at late nov/early dec if you planted them today.
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I had the same last year. I tried planting them outside, but they did not really get going. If you can, I would recommend planting in a pot or tub so you can at least bring them indoors to extend the season a little. If you don't put them in, you won't get any potatoes. If you do, you may get some. Got to buy a lottery ticket to win and all those kind of sayings.
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This is true Wiggles, but just try a different spud :)
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So your'e looking at late nov/early dec if you planted them today.
Just in time for Christmas. :)
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Depending on the number you have I would try a container or two of them. A mix of compost and manure or chicken pellets and plant 3 or 4 per container and see what happens. Thinking of something like an 18" pot or tub, and an inexpensive bag of compost or two, you will need manure or similar to provide for the growing tuber.
Worst is you get not a lot or they are successful. When everyone was saying it was too early to plant/sow stuff this year I just went ahead and did so. What is coming up is probably the best I have had for 2 or 3 years. Best to consider nothing as a Rule, just as a guide line.
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Thanks for all the advice everybody. I have decided to build a sort of mini greenhouse and grow them in that straight into the soil. Plus I am going to try something I've wanted to do for a long time but never got round to it and that is make an old Victorian hot bed. I have a supply of horse manure which I watch steaming away every winter and wish I could harness all that heat. Well this year I will.
I've decided to stick to my tried and trusted method of growing spuds under black polythene and as the haulms come through I will protect them from the fresh horse manure with pots that have had their bottoms cut off. I have no doubt I will retain the heat but my main worry is the amount of light they will get towards the back end after all it's the growth above the ground that produces the tuber.
We shall see.
I'll keep you posted.