[Luzypapel]

I'm new to having an allotment, this year. I've been gardening for many years, but there are some vegetables and fruit  I've not attempted before due to lack of space.

I'd like to know roughly how many potatoes would be reasonable for a family of 5.
I've sown 10 1st earlies, 10 2nd earlies but not any maincrop yet.   

Also, I know maincrop potaoes store better, but how do I do that?

Many thanks for any advice.

[Wiltshire Worms]

I think it will come down to how much space you have against the other veg you want to grow. I planted about 40 Charlotte this morning and that's all I will grow but very small plot and only 2 of us.
For storing main crop.  Wait till mature, dig up and leave to dry skin in sun for a few hours. Then in paper sacks or boxes. KEEP DARK.
and cool but frost free.  This also depends on how much garage space or other area where you can store them. Good Luck

[lettice]

I store my maincrop from late Autumn till April.
When you dig them up or remove from the bags, do not wash or scrub the soil off, just leave them to dry in the open for a few hours.
I store my potatoes in hessian bags in a small shed from August/September to late spring and early Summer.
Have not bought any shop potatoes for six years or more.
Always check through the bags over that time as occasionally some do go bad. I find about 6 lb or 3 kg about right in each sack, to rummage through.

I do also freeze a load of the potatoes as mash, roast and chips to have when you like but also for those summer months when we have no maincrop.

Mash - cook as normal with some butter and freeze for months as scoops. To serve from frozen heat gently in a saucepan, stirring well and add a tbsp of milk and butter and stir.
Roast - by par boil and dry, then freeze for months. To serve from frozen roast as you normally would.
Chips - crinkle cut, par boil, dry, 150c fry for 5 mins and freeze for months. To server from frozen fry at 180c for 5 mins.

I am using all bags from this year, as I mentioned in my post from last October on my trials. Also I list my potato yields I get from my methods and different potato types, in that posted thread here;
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=124530.0

[gobs]

This is a question with multiple unknowns: weather, nutrition, variety and your diet. And indeed, there is the space question, potatoes requiring quite some. And rather reasonably priced in the shops, however, very rewarding to grow.

I would normally plant 3 to 4 times 20 (3 of us), this gives plenty of potatoes. I always plant Charlotte, this is an early that can be grown on and stores very well. So what you said there, is only a general rule of thumb. There are main crop salad potatoes and all sorts...

[Gellideg]

Hi-does this help?-- 20 sets of earlies and 60 sets of early maincrops, planted in 28 inch wide ridges and spaced 9 inches for the earlies and 12 inches for the others gives us enough for our main meal every day from c20th of June to the beginning of March MOST years.Just two of us,we love tatties!!  John

[Rhys]

Having never planted spuds before, I hope my dad isn't looking down and shaking his head at my attempts  .





5 rows, and spaced the spuds one boot length apart (remembering how far my dad planted his when I dug them up last year). Sprinkled the trenches with potato fertiliser from the site hut. Soil has 4 barrows of muck in it as well.





I don't think they're too far apart as I'm wanting to get my rotavator between them.


I've planted 1.5kg of Sarpo Mira (two right hand rows) and 2kg of Rooster(first three rows). There's three of us to feed, sometimes four if our lass's daughter is home from college. Should be enough I think?

[gobs]

It looks perfik.

You do not want to take the rotavator in there. But that spacing is useful to pull up all that soil for earthing them up. They won't need weeding anyway, the amount of fertiliser you put in there suggests, you will have a forest of foliage on them.

The bounty should be plenty, both are heavy croppers.

That's one way of dealing with the space issue: give earlies a miss. You can use some of the main as young potatoes.

[Rhys]

It looks perfik.

You do not want to take the rotavator in there. But that spacing is useful to pull up all that soil for earthing them up. They won't need weeding anyway, the amount of fertiliser you put in there suggests, you will have a forest of foliage on them.

The bounty should be plenty, both are heavy croppers.

That's one way of dealing with the space issue: give earlies a miss. You can use some of the main as young potatoes.

Lovely, ta 
A quick hoe now and again will keep on top of the weeds anyway I guess, it's not like I've got a field full 

[engineer]

Just as a point of interest, my wife grows a number of spuds in containers, last year She grew six bags of Charlotte but we only used 4 of them. The other two where left in the garage and only discovered again in February, thinking that nothing would have become of them i delved in. I was very surprised at the amount and quality, very tasty. New spuds in February with bacon gorgeous 😁😁

[Wiltshire Worms]

Your photos look brilliant..your dad will be taking the credit not shaking his head

[snowdrops]

Well today I have planted 95 seed potatoes for 2 of us & a few to give away to our 2 children who have their own homes. 20 were early maincrop, 10 maincrop & the rest were a mix of earlier & 2nd earlies, not sure if that helps

[gobs]

I shall summarise: you might need between 60-80 more tubers and a few potato sacks towards the end of season and some frost free dark space for them.