[marp]

Hi,
Can anyone please tell me where I went wrong?  I purchased special potato barrels to grow early crops in, as here in the East Midlands our garden is exposed and the soil is heavy clay.  I bought Arran Pilot and International Kidney varieties and filled my tubs as instructed with 4" organic compost mixed with a potato fertiliser, plus just 5 well chitted potatoes.  When they produced leaves I covered them with another layer of compost and potato fertiliser.  I continued to do that until the barrel was full.  After 13 weeks when the potatoes should have been ready I was very disappointed to find a few marble-sized potatoes in the bottom and just 5 long stems reaching to the top of the barrel instead of masses of potatoes set at every level on the way up.  I left the second barrel of Internation Kidney for even longer in the hopes the yield might improve but it didn't, the potatoes were just a little larger. Can someone please help?

[muntjac]

water .. lots of it ./.. barrels sides get cold .... rubbish seed spuds can be a problem . i never chits spuds ,,,,,, why bother they are gonna grow anyways dont see farmers chitting em . others may have some ideas


 welcome to the site matey

[David.]

When they produced leaves I covered them with another layer of compost and potato fertiliser.  I continued to do that until the barrel was full.  After 13 weeks when the potatoes should have been ready I was very disappointed to find a few marble-sized potatoes in the bottom and just 5 long stems reaching to the top of the barrel instead of masses of potatoes set at every level on the way up

You need to keep adding additional layers of seed potatoes in conjunction with earthing up to get a crop all the way to the top.

[gobs]

I hope you haven't covered them leaves and all.  You say early potatoes. It's October. When did this exactly happen?

I have never grown me potatoes in a barrel. But two things spring to mind: lack of light, leggy, long, thin shoots, running after light and way too fast filing up. the tubers do not form on ordinary,any root, they form on side runners, just under the surfice, it sounds like they had no time to form.

[marp]

Yes, I should have explained that all this happened much earlier in the year, June in fact.  No, I  didn't cover them completely, just a contained form of 'earthing up'.   The potatoes were bought from a reputable supplier, the same one I have always got my main crop ones from.

I suppose I should have added that we grow maincrop potatoes in the open ground every year without any problems and get very good yields; I earth those up as they grow and get decent yields.  

It was just this year I had a fancy for a crop of second earlies.  I didn't attempt to grow first earlies, and because the weather was so bad earlier in the year, I tucked the potato barrels up at night with bubble wrap blankets

I am wondering if now I should punch a few more holes up the side of these barrels and use them for stawberries.

[marp]

Sorry David,
I forgot to mention that growing instructions say you use just 5 tubers and as you earth up, so another new layer of potatoes should form.  Well that just didin't happen.
I know they got enough water but not too much, they were not starved of light - in fact they were on a south facing patio that is sheltered on three sides, so they were grown under ideal conditions.

Could it be something to do with the varieties I chose?  Arran Pilot and International Kidney.

[DD.]

Sorry David,
I forgot to mention that growing instructions say you use just 5 tubers and as you earth up, so another new layer of potatoes should form.  Well that just didin't happen.
I know they got enough water but not too much, they were not starved of light - in fact they were on a south facing patio that is sheltered on three sides, so they were grown under ideal conditions.

Could it be something to do with the varieties I chose?  Arran Pilot and International Kidney.

The Lincolnshire Farmers manage & their fields are exposed. Should have planted them in the soil & left it to nature!

[marp]

Too true Digger Dave, but then they don't grow earlies up here.  

Most of the early new potatoes are grown in Jersey, down in Cornwall, and then later in Kent and other southern counties.  Lincolnshire seems to specialise in maincrops - hece my barrels.

[DD.]

Too true Digger Dave, but then they don't grow earlies up here.  

Most of the early new potatoes are grown in Jersey, down in Cornwall, and then later in Kent and other southern counties.  Lincolnshire seems to specialise in maincrops - hence my barrels.

Very true. What time did you plant? I've tried pots/barrels & also found it a total waste of time, compost etc. for the return. However others seem to succeed.

Now I weigh cost/effort against getting a few spuds a few weeks early.

[marp]

Hi Digger, barrels planted on 29 March with Arran Pilots, and 30 March with International Kidney.  They should have been ready 13 weeks later, i.e. the last week in June, but having scraped around and found nothing, I left them for another week and a half.
Like you, I have decided that the financial outlay would be better spent buying in earlies from someone else, but finding new potatoes with any flavour these days is a big problem, hence my own efforts.

What I might try next year, is laying down polythene for a couple of months to warm the soil (as farmers seem to do now), then plant the earlies out in the open ground - it couldn't be any more disastrous than my efforts this year.  Has anyone tried that this far north?

[gobs]

Hi, marp,

I agree with DD on this, put them out. And use the barrel for strawberries. I'm in Derbyshire and wouldn't even call a new potato early in June

I know people grow them such ways, but when I say light problems, I mean the barrel, with bags you can roll them up and down as required for height.  And see the thread: pots in tires, as well.

[marp]

Hmmmm, well - I'll chalk that one up to experience, however I might give a try to a rolled down stout bag or a few tyres next year, but I won't get my hopes up.
Thanks to everyone for their help in this matter.  

I will now get back to something I know works - making cider from our cooking and eating apples.  Now that is also something that tastes a whole lot better if made at home.

[GrannieAnnie]

Hi Marp, I'm in Lincolnshire too, just south of Boston, whereabout are you?  I've grown a few spuds in big pots, but only for Christmas, some years are better than others, but didn't bother this year when we got blighted.  I love growing earlies, as they are so expensive when they first come into the shops, whereas maincrop are cheaper usually.  

Last year I put terram down, then cut X's in it and planted seed spuds in holes in the ground.  I had a pretty good crop, apart from the fact that I had a few more slugs around because they loved it under the terram, nice and warm and dark.  This year I planted the spuds traditionally in trenches and they would have been lovely apart from the blight.

But even my pots of Christmas potatoes weren't great yields, it's just nice to have a new spud in the winter!

[DD.]

Hi Marp, I'm in Loncolnshire !

You moved grannie?

[GrannieAnnie]

That will teach me to look at what I'm doing won't it Digger???