[beanqueen]

It's only tiny..but...my first shoot! just as I was gonna give up

[Dee0]

Ahhh I don't feel so bad now Dee0 

Thank you.  I just want to see it doing its thing!  Great idea about the growbags tho.

[Cazzy]

Ahhh I don't feel so bad now Dee0 

Thank you.  I just want to see it doing its thing!  Great idea about the growbags tho.

I wouldn't have thought a growbag would have worked but I've never grew them so what do I know lol.

I'll be doing mine in some dustbins I think

[Goldfinger]

Please tell me more about using either growbags or dustbins!!!!

I'm still undecided on which to use, I've got some 75 litre 'bags and I also wondered, should I add FB and B or just bonemeal to it, to help them along??

The bags I've got, are not quite filled to the top, as usual, so should I (if I use them), top them right up, or not???
I think it said on here that they grow from the top downwards....

[Trillium]

Definitely amend growbags and fill them to the top. If the weather is right, you'll get a bulging crop.

[harry]

if we plant them on the allotment do they need covering with poly tunnel 

[Tattyanne456]

Harry, I'm putting mine in the poly tunnel. I think natively they grow in a hot climate, so the warmer you can keep them the better.

[Trillium]

Tattyanne is right - they really are tropicals and need 3 months of heat and sun to produce crop, and if you can do this, they won't stint in their yield. So  yes, any sort of poly tunnel, cold frame or whatever will do. 

[Goldfinger]

you'll get a bulging crop.

BULGING CROP!!! 

Just how many tatties off one shoot/slip are we talking here???...............

More than you get off one seed potato perhaps???

[Trillium]

If they can get the warmth and sun they need, you can easily get 10 or more long thick tubers per plant. I've seen people dig up close to 20 per plant but that was under ideal conditions. The tubers form in a similar manner to dahlias - a centre main stalk with tubers coming out from all sides.

[Goldfinger]

Think I'll start praying for a long hot summer then.

I saw that we maybe having one, according to a different met office than the one that cocked-up last years forecast 

[Goldfinger]

Oh, and these are my potatoes, up to now.........







How much longer do you think I should let them keep growing??

[Paul Plots]

Triffids?  :blink: 

[Cazzy]

Goldfinger, how long did it take until the slips appeared?

[Trillium]

6-8" is a good length before snapping them off and potting them up before they eventually go outside for hardening.