[bonfire]

Thanks for the horror pictures Learner.

It looks like I had wireworm on  several and perhaps eelworm on two plants that died back early - all on maincrop rather than first or second earlies.

The best of both worlds?

Still most were good and we have not had to buy any potatoes since the last week in May so I will come back with enthusiasm next year. It certainly reminds me that this rotation lark - derided by a few posters on here - is built on good science and accumulated experience.

[suziet88]

Sorry if this is a daft question but being a newbe I am chosing my seed potatoes ready for next year and wonder approx how many seed potatoes there are in 3kg?  Thanks.

[Paul Plots]

Thanks for the horror pictures Learner.

It looks like I had wireworm on  several and perhaps eelworm on two plants that died back early - all on maincrop rather than first or second earlies.

The best of both worlds?

Still most were good and we have not had to buy any potatoes since the last week in May so I will come back with enthusiasm next year. It certainly reminds me that this rotation lark - derided by a few posters on here - is built on good science and accumulated experience.

Rotate, rotate....for sure. My spuds had quite a bad dose of wireworm a few years back so I avoided that particular patch of ground for about three years - this year in the same soil  hardly a hole!

Lifting the crop promptly also seemed to help - first & second earlies not a hole!
Later cropping plants had the odd few but nothing like the first well drilled crop.

My crop usually lasts well into the New Year so helps reduce the food bills and it's great to eat your own, home produced, food. You know its history - where it came from and what has happened to it. 

[mumofstig]

Sorry if this is a daft question but being a newbe I am chosing my seed potatoes ready for next year and wonder approx how many seed potatoes there are in 3kg?  Thanks.

3Kg works out at about 40/45 seed pots, depending on size of seed supplied.....(I use 1.5kg for 2 x 12ft rows of 2nd earlies)

Hope this helps

[JayG]

Now that this thread seems to be morphing into a more general discussion about potato growing (with a small helping of paxo stuffing), based on member's results this year can you recommend an eelworm-resistant early or second-early variety to grow next year (yes, some of my Charlotte crop was severely affected this year and they are listed as having quite low eelworm resistance)

My shortlist would be based on the following information:

Some potato cultivars are resistant to attack and some examples of these are:

Earlies: ‘Accent’, ‘Lady Christl’, ‘Pentland Javelin’, ‘Premiere’, ‘Rocket’, ‘Swift', ‘Winston'
Second earlies: 'Cabaret', ‘Kestrel’, ‘Nadine’, ‘Saxon’

I'm not interested in maincrop varieties as I would then also need to be looking at blight resistance, and being a man I can only concentrate on one thing at at time! 

[Paul Plots]

I'm not interested in maincrop varieties as I would then also need to be looking at blight resistance, and being a man I can only concentrate on one thing at at time! 
[/quote]

Not able to help with the rest of the questions re: eelwrom resistance but do you really avoid main crop because of possible blight?

On the couple of occasions that blight has hit fairly hard I've found (as have others) that chopping the tops off the main crop and then harvesting a couple of weeks later works well. I guess it depends how early blight is in your area 

[suziet88]

Sorry if this is a daft question but being a newbe I am chosing my seed potatoes ready for next year and wonder approx how many seed potatoes there are in 3kg?  Thanks.

3Kg works out at about 40/45 seed pots, depending on size of seed supplied.....(I use 1.5kg for 2 x 12ft rows of 2nd earlies)

Hope this helps

Brill - that's just what I wanted to know

[peanut]

First year this year and we had a good yield from our earlies, think they were Charlottes and Pentland Javelins.

Our main crops were enormous spuds (about size of a mango) but gutted as I can't remember what variety they were.  They are blooming gorgeous tho'

[waddecar]

Well matured sawdust stable bedding over heavy clay

Swift - good yield, clean potatoes, no taste. Not on next years list

Red Duke of York - good yield, clean potatoes, the grower likes the taste, the cook doesnt - not growing next year!

Maris Bard - very good yield, clean initially but some scab on later liftings. Superb taste definite for next year

Charlotte - Good yield, some scab excellent taste On next years list

International Kidney - Some blight - tops removed - tubers appear unaffected. Good yield, clean tubers excellent taste will grow again next year.

Romano - Blight - tops removed no tubers lifted yet - planning to leave in ground until Jan / Feb ( did this last year most tubers fine despite being wtaerlogged for weeks)

Cara - one plant lifted (by mistake - funny looking Charlotte I thought) Huge tubers and clean - not tasted yet

PFA, King Edward and Kerrs Pink all growing well and currently blight free

update 17/11/09:

Still got a couple of Int'l Kidney to lift - skins in poor condition but otherwise tubers sound
PFA lifting regularly - tubers sound skins clean, yields huge- only downside quite a lot have green patches because of huge yield
Kerrs Pink: large tubers, superb taste - mice think so too quite a lot nibbled underground
Most King Edwards still in ground, of the few liftyed so far significant slug damage
Romano - still not lifted any

Will have to lift many soon as the space they occupy is planned for fruit cordons, but while it is too wet to lift spuds its also too wet to plant fruit trees.....

[Paul Plots]

It's amazed me to hear that anyone still has potatoes in the ground to lift. If I'd left mine in until now they would have fed the slugs and bugs and not me!  :blink:

[Sid]

I have spuds in waiting to lift for Christmas ::)hopefully...everything crossed..they are fleeced as advised by the good peeps on here,and I check everyday and so far so good.Just prey that we don't have a heavy frost here before crimble.

[davethespread]

it would seem that its not only us eating our spuds,pesky mice are having a go too

[Salmo]

Bonfire - eelworms are nematodes and too small to see with the naked eye.

They do not bore holes in the tubers but make the roots grow frizzy so that the plant is unable to take in nutrients and the plants are stunted.

As Learner has said, all you will see are tiny cysts on the fine roots in July. These are lemon shaped and contain thousands of eggs which hatch next year to infect and potatoes planted on the same ground.

A three year rotation will usually be sufficient to keep numbers down but if you see a build up then the rotation should be widened to six or ten years i.e. pack up growing potatoes for a bit.

[jenny53]

hi Spud this year were bad..the earlys just did not give a good crop.. only 4../5 tiny pots on them.. second early better.. main well a bit sad..only had a few  so they will be gone by Christmas..

jenny