[HHH]

I have the following varieties planted, all within a couple of weeks of each other, all in full leaf and proud of the soil now:

Belle de Fontenay
Foremost
Charlotte
Victoria
Navan

I've shown them in what I understand to be their order of readiness, from earlies to maincrop.
My question is, what does the presence, or absence, of flowers now tell me about how well they are doing?

No flowers on the Belles
One or two flowers on the Foremost
Charlotte's profusely flowering
Some flowerheads formed (but not ye out) on the Victorias
Navans in flower

All a bit confusing as I had thought that once flowering was done, fruits would be fully formed within a few weeks.

Anyone have any experience or anecdotes?

[arugula]

Some varieties don't flower, so flowering isn't necessarily an indication of how well or otherwise they are doing.

You can get more information on specific varieties from The British Potato Variety Database

[HHH]

Thanks but the British Potato Variety Database shows  flowers for each of these varieties, without any other comment, as far as I can see. Does the fact that some are in flower, and some are not, indicate their rate of growth? Any other suggestions?

[sunshineband]

Furtling around to see what size the potatoes are is a good way to find out if there is a usable crop down there

[mumofstig]

I'd furtle your Foremost first, as your Belle de Fontenay is a saladtype so can be left a bit later and still taste good

[goodtogrow]

Some thoughts:

Flowering indicates a stage of development in the plant, i.e. maturity.

Difficult growing conditions induce early flowering/maturity.  Weak soil, water shortage, low temperatures, windy site.  In my own case I've noticed that flowering occurs earlier and yields lower each year which I attribute to declining fertility in the soil.

Your earlies we would expect to flower sooner in any case.

 Some varieties may not be as well suited to your soil as others, leading to less vigour and earlier decline/maturity.  Given the range you are growing this point is more likely than not.

While the foliage is healthy we can expect the existing tubers to increase in size, assuming there's water enough, but, IMO, we can't expect the production of more tubers in flowering plants.

Tom

[Bodmass]

I'm having a problem with early flowering too.

No flowers on my first or 2nd earlies (& 1st earlies hit 12 wks next week), but what's concerned me is one of my 9wk old Desiree is showing flowers.

So if I understand the above post correctly, no new tubers will develop, but those existing will still be developing fine so there's no need to do anything (or perhaps more to the point, nothing to be done anyway)?

[goodtogrow]

Yes, Bodmass, IMO you'll get fewer tubers from flowering plants compared with those not yet flowering, but there's plenty of water around, so I'd expect you to get fewer, but bigger, tubers while the foliage is still healthy.  So your eventual yield may not be any lower for it, when measured by weight.

There's even a case for 'stopping' potato plants early anyway, to produce 'baker' potatoes (from maincrop varieties) but that might be just me wandering into the realms of speculation......

Tom

PS:  Please all members feel free to contradict me, 'cos 'wandering into the realms of speculation' isn't always a good thing....  And please see my signature below! 

[Nikkithefoot]

According to GQT watering profusely when in flower can double your crop of spuds. Dunno how true it is though.

[mumofstig]

.There's even a case for 'stopping' potato plants early anyway, to produce 'baker' potatoes (from maincrop varieties) but that might be just me wandering into the realms of speculation......

That doesn't work, it just means that all the baby potatoes growing underground will never get big
It's been mentioned ( but I've never tried it) that restricting the number of chits, that you allow to grow on the seed potato, will give bigger ones 

[goodtogrow]

Agree, mumofstig, if we remove all of the foliage, but I was thinking of just the extending shoots...

When we 'stop' tomatoes, say, we take out the growth points, and any side-shoots which are provoked into life by the removal of the growth points, but we leave on the rest of the foliage - or at least I do - so the plant carries on without more foliage, otherwise it couldn't develop the toms, but it doesn't produce any more....

Anyway, mere speculation on my part cos I've never tried it....

Tom

[sunshineband]

According to GQT watering profusely when in flower can double your crop of spuds. Dunno how true it is though.

It will certainly increase the weight of tubers 

[MyAchingBack]

I have second earlies British Queens and I have been advised to remove the flowers. Is this correct?

[mumofstig]

It doesn't make any difference if you do, or if you don't - so why bother