[DD.]

I know a lot of you were trying to grow them, but I've not heard any reports back apart from Yabba in another thread....

but my Christmas spuds were a tad ... optimistic ... ahhh well, we live and learn )¥

I may have missed them of course, but if you were attempting them, did they do any good?

If they did, lets have the full details to help others next year.

[Yabba]

The main problems with mine were that I planted them to late, I worked on "if they take 3 > 4 months to grow then....." and didn't take into account the fact that there's a damn sight less sunlight at the tail end of the year .... so, they go in earlier next year

The other ( obvious ) problem was that the first frost killed the tops .. which kinda stops them in their tracks ... That was my own fault though, I was a tad lax in moving them into a frost free greenhouse, so I've only myself to blame.

The good news is, it cost me nothing to try and has made me want to try again next year

¥

[mother hen]

The frost got mine, fleece did not help.
But luckily still got some home grown spuds from a neighbour with an excess from summer I gave him some of my early onions last year.
Aint swapping brilliant!

Was still proud to eat homegrown sprouts, parsnips, leeks, swede, PSB and herbs on Christmas day + eggs from garden in baking.

Digging parsnips on Christmas eve was fun, tops had all died back so a bit like a lucky dip, non of them massive - just a nice size to serve whole and very sweet and fresh.  Loving it, cant wait to get started again soon.

[azubah]

I tried to grow some spuds for Christmas once but I was not successful, however I accidentally dug up two large spuds that I did not know were there yesterday and they were lovely.
I seem to remember a spud plant that came up among my beans in the summer. I just ignored it and forgot about it.
I think the trick must be to plant them in summer to allow plenty of time for them to grow as Yabba suggests.

[Poolfield2]

I planted a few in old compost sacks in September and put them in the polytunnel in October and mostly forgot to water them  :oops:  and I picked about 4 x what I planted by the week before Christmas. As to variety, it was what the garden centre had ready to plant in September there was no choice.

[goose]

i didnt harvest my maincrop pots and left them in the growbags outside.  yesterday i emptied one out for new year supper..UNBELIEVABLE!!! i could have fed the entire neighbourhood with the yield and they made the most delicious roasties ive ever tasted....ive two more growbags left.

my parsnips and sprouts were very tasty too...we had them with haggis (veggie one for me) to celebrate the bells....i just need to find out what kind of spuds they were as i have never had so much success in the bags/barrels before and would definately do them again next year.

all i remember is that they were a general purpose/blight & drought resistant and have red skins with creamy yellow flesh...any ideas what they are called?

[Iain@JBA]

i didnt harvest my maincrop pots and left them in the growbags outside.  yesterday i emptied one out for new year supper..UNBELIEVABLE!!! i could have fed the entire neighbourhood with the yield and they made the most delicious roasties ive ever tasted....ive two more growbags left.

my parsnips and sprouts were very tasty too...we had them with haggis (veggie one for me) to celebrate the bells....i just need to find out what kind of spuds they were as i have never had so much success in the bags/barrels before and would definately do them again next year.

all i remember is that they were a general purpose/blight & drought resistant and have red skins with creamy yellow flesh...any ideas what they are called?

I will guess they were Desiree?

[goose]

they could have been...that sounds familiar but they had smoother skins than those on the photo.  i think i got them from T&M, perhaps i may be able to look up my previous orders.  i also think all of the rain helped the growbags this year, as usually im really bad at watering them and there wasnt a shortage of that this year.

[DD.]

Did anyone have success in growing "new" spuds though?

[Yabba]

If you'd been a Lilliputian then mine certainly would have been on the right scale to class as new spuds

I was gonna take a photo, but my camera wouldn't stop sniggering

¥

[purplebean]

Mine did not grow at all!! Not even one leaf. I planted them far too late and they clearly didn't like it.

Oh well you live and learn  

[mumsy]

Hi Dave
I grew Carlingford, I planted a tad late under a cloche. :oops:  Quite a number of weeks later, nothing was coming up, so I decided to dig it all over, Low & behold......there were lots of new pots!!!    I mentioned this at work ( ) & has never been heard of before, spuds but no haulms :?
Anyway, forgot to dig any up for Christmas day :roll:  But did today & we had  them with our roast......................................lovely

Note to self...................must sow in mid august :roll:

[DD.]

Most odd! :shock:

[matthew2riches]

It must be the weather as I didn't have any either.

I thought I had a few that I found from my first planting but they were a little worse for wear  :roll:

[p00rstudent]

i planted two varietys charlotte and julia (possibly cant rember exactly) the charlotte worked ok but had to dig them up earlier than planned due to the frost but the other one i got nothing but soggy seed potatoes.