[TheSpartacat]

Hello,
this may be a daft question...
I planted all my spuds this year in June, as thats when i got my lotty, and still got a great crop of earlies, second earlies and mains.

Next year, since I'll be sowing much earlier... was wondering if I could do a succession sowing of first earlies? Like, when the first crop comes out, you immediately plant another in its place? Has anyone ever tried that?

I've noticed that potato seed was very cheap in May when i was buying it late- 50p or so for 2-3kg... so wondering if it could be an economical way to get a continual new spud harvest, particularly since they don't store well?

The ground would be well manured this Autumn, and would use organic fertiliser to help them.

[SUTTY1]

My understanding is that  the title, 1st early, 2nd early, main, relate to lenght of time between planting and harvest and not a set order to plant in. So as long as you have enough weeks after planting you can plant them any time. Personally i like all my spuds up by early September as the slugs get too many after that round here.

[zazen999]

The problem would be that by the time your second batch of first earlies went in - blight may well have ravaged your site and you'll lose them.

[Nikkithefoot]

This year I think we were very lucky as far as blight was concerned, being a very dry overall growing season blight did not strike as early as it usually does (I had me best ever out door crop of tomatoes as well)

What this means to me is that you were very lucky being able to plant so late, get a good crop and not suffer blight. I would not plan on being able to do this next year.

There is no point in trying for succession in spuds (other than maybe over a few weeks) as they will 'keep' in the ground and do store fairly well in hessian sacks in a cool dry dark place. I'm slowly getting through this years crop and should have enough to last until probably March.

[coatesi]

 Maybe not a double crop of Main but a double crop of early spuds would be worth the gamble just for the shear joy of the taste of them. Our earlies only take 60 days and two crops are the nor as long as I can pick up the seed from a supplier.
Coatesi

[digalotty]

i would use another bed just incase there are any diseases lurking

[TheSpartacat]

This year I think we were very lucky as far as blight was concerned, being a very dry overall growing season blight did not strike as early as it usually does (I had me best ever out door crop of tomatoes as well)

What this means to me is that you were very lucky being able to plant so late, get a good crop and not suffer blight. I would not plan on being able to do this next year.

There is no point in trying for succession in spuds (other than maybe over a few weeks) as they will 'keep' in the ground and do store fairly well in hessian sacks in a cool dry dark place. I'm slowly getting through this years crop and should have enough to last until probably March.

Fair point, we didn't see any early blight until Sept.
My plot neighbour  (the annoying one from one of my early posts) left his potatoes and haulms sitting rotting in the ground until only last week! So presumably that means the whole site is full of blight spores Can blight survive the winter in spore form? I always thought it was good practice to get rid of the foliage as soon as there's a problem?
 


Question on 'keeping' potatoes... I'm confused on how long you can keep first and second earlies? I've read lots of places that they only keep a couple of weeks in the fridge... (I'm flaunting that advice by over a month!)
How long can you keep them in the ground?

I pulled all mine up in early September as soon as the blight started on other people's plots, and have them in hessian sacks and cardboard veg boxes.... and am actually still using them! They don't have that brand new taste anymore but still very tasty...


I'm planning on growing an OBSCENE amount of potatoes next year, and would be nice to know of a way to keep new potatoes for as long as possible!!
Its a new plot and they were so good for breaking up the soil on the little patch I grew them, i'll be scaling up next year... (scaling waaay up!) ... My friends and neighbours will be getting free spuds for weeks!

[rowlandwells]

my opinion for what its worth is that i would never grow potatoes on the same ground after lifting the first crop as for a second season definitely a no no 

i think a rule of thumb is to rotate on a crop cycle i usually set my next years spuds where my brassicas where and so on that way the lottie then has a complete crop rotation when we set potatoes on the farm we always set on from cereals never on the same ground in case any disease was present from the previous  potato crop so far as storage i store my spuds in paper sacks the put the sack into a hessian sack stacking off the ground on a small pallet then if it gets really cold i can cover up with some more sacks

of-cause depending on where you store because  mice and rats like potatoes and they can knorr there way through hessian sacks with devastating results