[Sharonx]

Hi,
As yet I haven't bothered to water any of my Potatoes. One Guy down there is watering his every day, even though the Hallums not even through yet. When I asked him if it's necessary to water yet he reckons yes if you want a good crop. What's everyones opinion on this? I would have thought it wasn't necessary yet, but wondered if there was a point to it. Thanks

[paintedlady]

I generally don't water my spuds unless we have had a very dry spell and the soil is too dry - then I'll give it a good drenching and leave it.  Some books suggest watering during and after the flowers to increase the potato size but in recent years it's been more a case of praying that the rain would go away  

[mumofstig]

I don't think you gain from watering every day......but if we don't get any rain soon, I will give the earlies a good soaking this week. Better the occasional good soaking than a little drop every day IMO.

There is still plenty of time for the later potatoes, so I won't worry about them

[drippin]

Talking of potatoes - I made a mistake and planted my maincrops in mid-March, when the earlies should have gone, and only just got around to planting the earlies this weekend - doh!!
 Maincrop went in five weeks ago, and no sign of leaves yet,  the ground has been  very dry though for about two weeks now.  Do you think I have blown it, by planting so early or should they be popping through soon? Gave a really good soaking yesterday, so hoping that will help.

[Ivah]

I've read somewhere that if you water a lot you sacrifice flavour for quantity.

[mumofstig]

Talking of potatoes - I made a mistake and planted my maincrops in mid-March, when the earlies should have gone, and only just got around to planting the earlies this weekend - doh!!
 Maincrop went in five weeks ago, and no sign of leaves yet,  the ground has been  very dry though for about two weeks now.  Do you think I have blown it, by planting so early or should they be popping through soon? Gave a really good soaking yesterday, so hoping that will help.

All potatoes can be planted at the same time.......the only difference is the planting to harvest time...so they will be fine

[Yorkie]

You only need to make sure they are properly watered once the new tubers start to swell.  At the moment the seed tubers are providing the nutrition etc for the plant so I think it's rather premature to be worrying about watering (and wasteful of water).

Also, if you dig down a couple of inches I'm sure the ground is still fairly moist - only on the surface is it dry.

[mumofstig]

Also, if you dig down a couple of inches I'm sure the ground is still fairly moist - only on the surface is it dry.

You can tell you don't garden in Sunny Kent Yorkie ......it really is dry as a bone.....like dust  a good few inches deep Nothing is growing unless you water it............and raised beds just make it worse, don't they

[Yorkie]

Oh dear 

Watering it is then 

[andy135]

Oh dear 

Watering it is then 

They'll be having a water shortage and a hosepipe ban next month then...........! 

[Paul Plots]

I hate the idea of watering my potatoes... and would only do this if it really was a dust bowl but... since mine went in we've had just one light down-pour and then it was relatively short lived.

I'll hang on another couple of days and after that... a soaking they are going to have to have.. The soil wasn't that damp when they went in