[AndrewV]

Firstly my apologies if this has been covered before, I did do a search first and couldn't find anything relevant!

I am just wondering what peoples thoughts are on using potato planters as opposed to planting seed potatoes straight into the ground. Space is not an issue as we have a reasonable sized allotment, but me and my friend are very new to it and someone has warned me potatoes in the ground being attacked by slugs.

Not sure what to do, is it worth trying both? Does anyone use slug pellets?

I have some seed potatoes now which should be ready to plant in a couple of weeks, and not sure what to do with them now.

[mumofstig]

You may like to read this old thread

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=34771.msg416557#msg416557

but bear in mind that you would have the aditional costs of compost, pots and fertiliser.

Many of us sprinkle slug pellets in the trenches when planting, and note that some potato varieties suffer more from slug damage than others.

[bigben]

I tend to plant maincrop in the ground on my allotment - it is cheaper, I have more room there and once the frost has gone they can be pretty much left and dont need too much care. Last year some did get slugged but I intend to do what MOS suggested and sprinkle slug pellet when planting.

I also use plastic spud bags and pots to grow earlies - they come out cleaner, less slug damage and I have them at home on my patio so they are convenient to look after and harvest. MOS is again right in saying that the cost of compost can be a problem. I set aside one large 400l compost bin that I fill with garden compost and supplement with free horse muck and 3 for a £10 compost. This allows me to fill around 15 pots/ bags for not much more than a £10. The first year I grew spuds I just used shop bought compost and realised that I could buy the spuds cheaper than the cost of the compost alone!

[SG6]

Have planted in tubs for some time now. I seem to get better results. Last time I put potatos in the ground I had lots of greenery and had problems locating anything that resembled a potato.

Went back to pots and decent results.

Use compost and chicken poo pellets and whatever else may be available if I have something suitable hanging round.

Will say that I am not looking to be self sufficent in potatos so a few big pots of them suit me.

[solway cropper]

If you use those green planter sacks you'll need to put more drain holes in the bottom. The few they have are hopelessly inadequate and allow the soil to become waterlogged. I grow most of my earlies in containers. As bigben says, they come out nice and clean with little or no pest damage and if you make your own compost it costs no more than putting them in the ground.

I have 22 seed spuds in containers in the greenhouse and some are just starting to poke through the compost so I'm hoping for the first picking around mid May if the weather isn't too bad.

[Elaine G]

Excuse me for butting in, but Solway cropper is your greenhouse heated or are your containers in a cold greenhouse.

Thanks

Elaine

[Fisherman]

If it helps Elaine I plant my seed potatoes in home made bags at the beginning of February in a heated greenhouse set to a minimum temperature of 5C. If you planted them now in a cold greenhouse you should be OK but you might have to cover the tops with fleece when they come through if it freezes hard. I have just planted some outside under polythene and did the same last year and they were fine although the tops got touched with a bit of late frost in May. If you plant them now in a greenhouse they should be ready by the end of May especially if you grow one of the early earlies like Swift or Rocket.

[Kristen]

You could put them in the utility room or similar (somewhere not cold, but not hot!) until they break through the surface - that will be a couple of weeks - which gives you a bit of breathing space until they have to go out to the greenhouse.

I plant my bags in succession - 15-Feb, 01-Mar and 15-Mar (after than the outdoor ones will be ready), and we only grow enough bags [in each batch] for what we can actually eat within a fortnight

[Ma and Pa Snip]

Use compost and chicken poo pellets and whatever else may be available if I have something suitable hanging round.

Only thing i would say is beware of how much chicken pellets you use. They promote top growth.

We kept getting top growth up to 4 or 5 ft in length, I won't call it height cos it all fell down after a while. We asked one of the RHS veg gardeners at Wisley what the reason might be  and hands went up in horror when we said we used chicken pellets.

We did still get a 'reasonable' crop though, lots of spuds but only of medium size.

Despite the fact lots of people obviously have no problems with them we've decided chicken pellets are 'off the menu' this year.

[solway cropper]

Excuse me for butting in, but Solway cropper is your greenhouse heated or are your containers in a cold greenhouse.

Mine are in an unheated greenhouse but it's a south facing lean-to against a wall of the house so it does get some heat.

I cover the containers with bubble wrap at night.

[AndrewV]

Thanks for all the advice, can I ask a couple more quick questions?

Firstly, how far down do they grow? Will I be digging forever when they are ready to come up?

Secondly, what do I do about next years crop if this is successful? Can I use some of the crop as seed potatoes, or will I need to go out and buy more?

Appreciate all the responses.

[Yorkie]

Thanks for all the advice, can I ask a couple more quick questions?

Firstly, how far down do they grow? Will I be digging forever when they are ready to come up?

Secondly, what do I do about next years crop if this is successful? Can I use some of the crop as seed potatoes, or will I need to go out and buy more?

Appreciate all the responses.

1. The way you grow in spud bags is to put some compost at the bottom (perhaps only 1/4 or 1/3 of the depth), place your tubers on top and then cover them with a few more inches of compost.  As the leaves grow upwards, you add more compost (this is called earthing up) until you've run out of height.  So the spuds don't grow 'down', they start off fairly deep and then should produce more spuds off the roots as it grows upwards.

If growing in the ground, you still do the earthing up but obviously with surrounding soil rather than adding compost to the top of a bag.

2. You should ideally buy new, certified, seed spuds each year as the potential for passing on viruses and other diseases is too great.  If growing at home, the risk of transmission to other people is obviously reduced but cannot be guaranteed - and seed spuds are fairly cheap anyway so not worth it in my view.  If growing on a lotty site it's definitely a no-no as you're so close to other growers.

[AndrewV]

Thanks Yorkie!