[Anton]

Maybe a silly question but do you take up your new potatoes as you need them. I mean to say would they store for a while? I need a bit of space for my leeks?

Anton

[mercury]

Hi anton, store them somewhere cool and dark and dry, they don't keep as long as maincrop, but you should be ok for a while, can't put a time limit on though, depends on a number of factors  

[John]

I tend to harvest as required initially but you can just clear them. We were still eating Arran Pilot (first early) from store in December. The Anya (2nd early) stored well but we ran out in February

[Anton]

Thanks, John.

Anton

[GrannieAnnie]

I usually dig mine up as I need them, and like you Anton need the space for my leeks, but I went out this morning, and my early foliage, was looking decidely sick, don't think its blight, more likely all the water, so I stood ankle deep in mud for 5 hours digging them all up!

And I've put them in HUGE pots between layers of sawdust (thanks for the idea mercury!) and covered the tops of each pot with chook feed bags.  I wanted to weigh them, but couldn't find OH's big poultry scales and felt too tired to weigh them all on my kitchen scales, but apart from the ones I cut with the fork, I dug up 314 potatoes of varying sizes.

Also I think I may have to dig up my maincrop soon, and they are also going yellow at the bottom, but they shouldn't be ready yet, they've only been in 11 weeks.  Mind you, I dug one up, its Desiree, and got 10 good sized spuds of it!!

Oh and I think I've found my water table!!!  As I was digging, I was just leaving holes around, as the rain wasn't far off. I'll sort it later when I feel normal again, but the holes were filling with water up to about 2 inches, so the water is only a foot down on our ground, no wonder everything was so muddy!!!!

[apes1978]

out of interest, how many plants gave you 314 potatoes? i dug up some nicola and only had about 5 or 6 per plant!

[John]

First early potatoes are never as productive as maincrop. I reckon I'm getting about 1.5 Kg per plant from mine. Later diggings will be more productive, unless they've rotted in the rain or the slugs have eaten them.

[GrannieAnnie]

There were 6 rows with 5 spuds in each row, so 30 plants.  But you wouldn't believe the difference in size, some were really small, but they went to the dog so weren't in on the count!  and some were a fair size.  I dug up one of my Desiree maincrop to see what the spuds are like as the plants are yellowing a bit (probs with all the rain) and there were 11 potatoes and they weighed 3.5lbs, so considering the Desirees shouldn't be ready for another 10 weeks, they are doing well (at the moment!)

[WG.]

some were really small, but they went to the dog

 :shock: your dog eats raw potatoes??