[Benny130]

Hi all, newbie help required.

Can anyone suggest which earlies I should consider. Need to get them ordered!!

[mumofstig]

If you are talking about early potatoes, you may like to read the potato survey thread 

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=66438.msg758713#msg758713

[Benny130]

LC it is then thanks!!

[Benny130]

There are just the two of us and being our first year was only thinking of doing one early variety and no maincrop.

How many tubers in quantity or weight do you think ill need??

[JayG]

Work on a spacing of around 12" for earlies, although you can go to as little as 8-9" at a push.

Bear in mind you need to leave space either side of each row to earth up your crop unless you're going for an alternative method.

Seed potatoes vary in size - a 2.5kg bag has contained between 25 and 40 depending on variety for me.

[Kristen]

How many tubers in quantity or weight do you think ill need??

Depends how many you eat ... so difficult to gauge.

We are not big potato eaters, but we do have BBQ party with family / friends most weekend. I grow 2.5kg of 1st Early, and 2.5kg of 2nd Early.

If you don't have a lot of space then the area available may determinate how many plants you can fit in, rather than how many you need for the Kitchen.

[3759allen]

the advantage of main crop is mainly that they store better so you can have a supply over winter, unless you are planning to try the Christmas potatoes varieties (most people say they get plagued with blight).

pentland javlin is my favoured earlies. i usually have too many and end up having to store them, i find they keep really well for earlies. not so sure how they'd store over a long winter though.

[ptarmigan]

There's just 2 of us as well.  Last year I had about 24 potato plants (mostly charlotte as I find them quite good small as well as letting them grow on).  And that was way too many, gave away a lot, even though it was a dry year and I was away for a month so they didn't get watered for the whole of August so the yield was probably quite low. 

This year I'm trying to restrict myself - but probably have about the same.

[surbie100]

There are just the two of us and being our first year was only thinking of doing one early variety and no maincrop.

How many tubers in quantity or weight do you think ill need??

In terms of yield, if this helps at all, last year I got approximately 3kg of spuds from 3 Pentland Javelin seed potatoes in a 40L spud bag. In the ground Lady Christl gave me 14kg from 19 spuds, Charlotte 15.5kg from 18 spuds.

I don't know if this is average or not, I didn't do anything special but last year was a good year for potatoes. We had plenty to give away and were eating them still in December/January, stored from digging up in July. In hindsight I should have left some of them in the ground a bit longer.

[Growster...]

Trying 'Swift' as first earlies this year, and also will always grow 'Charlotte' as second earlies, although I've recently seen them described just as 'Salad potatoes', which is a bit strange!

Last year, we started them in the autumn, and they were still OK well into January just passed, although we'd bagged them up and kept them in the shed!

[3759allen]

i tried swift last year and wasn't that impressed, took longer to crop and went a bit soft if stored.

the best main variety i had last year was cara, good crop and still storing and eating well now.

personally i think you'd be better off doing one small planting of earlies (you could also spread the planting out to get a longer cropping period, they are better using them fresh if you can) and one small planting of mains (to store over the winter). the only trouble with this is finding somewhere that sell such small amounts.

[ptarmigan]

My local garden independent centre stocks small bags in a wide range and another one has a pick and mix stall for potatoes so you can buy a few and try them out. On line retailers do sell them in bigger bags.

I grow mainly Charlotte as I've found them really reliable and very tasty, and I often use them as salad, that is pick them quite young. Usually experiment with another one or two though. Going to try a main crop blue this year, but expect it to get blight. Haven't tried maincrop as I think, unless unusual, they are cheap to but in shops and I don't have a lot of storage space. 

A newly dug early Charlotte though is a thing of wonder.

[Kristen]

There's just 2 of us as well.  Last year I had about 24 potato plants (mostly charlotte as I find them quite good small as well as letting them grow on).  And that was way too many, gave away a lot, even though it was a dry year and I was away for a month so they didn't get watered for the whole of August so the yield was probably quite low. 

You could plant some 1st early as well (Charlotte is 2nd early)l, for an earlier start to the crop, and you could plant them in batches, so that the later planted once mature a bit later (you'll have some smaller spuds later on, rather than them all getting big).

(1st earlies mature in 70-90 days. 2nd earlies in 90-110 days and maincrops in 110-145 days. They can all be planted on the same day - or Maincrop first if the plot for them is ready first )

Personally I wouldn't grow maincrop unless you have space. They are not easy to store - depends on variety, but many will be sprouting soon after Christmas unless you have some chilled storage - farmers have excellent chilled storage facilities and, except in bad harvest years, a sack of spuds from the farm gate is cheap

We grow Maincrop because we don't like any chemicals being put on our food ... but I would grow every other vegetable we eat before giving space to maincrop spuds;  I have plenty of space though.

An other problem with Maincrop is that because they are in the ground much longer they live on into the Blight season, so there is a much higher chance of getting diseased than an Early variety, which will be out of the ground by the time Blight becomes rife, in an average year.

[surbie100]

the only trouble with this is finding somewhere that sell such small amounts.

The poundstores do small bags of 6-8 seed potatoes. I get my Desirees from there as I don't want to grow more than 6 of them. They do small amounts of charlottes, pentland javelin etc - limited range and you need to get the spuds without huge white chits on them, but they work well for me.

[3759allen]

i've stored mine in cardboard boxes in an old filing cabinet in the shed, not really the coldest of sheds either and been a pretty mild winter. they've just started to produce sprouts now, but non longer than 4 or 5mm.

the only trouble i had is getting an infestation of mice, which decided to start to munch them as well as everything else.

i found the cara stored better than desiree, prob as i had trouble with scab on my desiree.