[nilsatis1964]

I planted my FEs 20th March Swift variety which should take 10 weeks.  I have plannned to start harvest them in the wek after 1/2 term.  It has been very dry in Leeds in fact for Leeds this is the driest spring I can remember in the 18 years I have been here.  I want reasonable size first earlies so hence the watering.  I am a realative newbie am I doing right or wrong?

[Ice]

A large percentage of a potato is water so I am also watering mine every day.  Can't wait for some decent rain.

[solway cropper]

You might find that your planned harvest time is set back a bit this year because of the cold spring. Those cropping times are an estimate based on ideal conditions. I think watering every day is a bit excessive. Better to give them a good drench once a week.

[Zippy]

Now if you had used a no-dig method and just pushed your seed potatoes into a deep layer of home made compost and lawn mowings, you wouldn't need to water them at all. I haven't waterd mine since they went in and the compost and soil underneath they are sown into is still very moist despite the lack of rain.

Just keep topping up the compost layer with a mulch of spent growbags and weeds from colleagues at work, lawn mowings from home, leafmould  from local leaf fall last autumn etc and the potato halms will grow through all that.  Also the new potatoes are clean and soil free and taste divine.

If you plant into soil and earth them up you are setting yourself up for a growing season of regular watering.

[Diggerpete]

I haven't bothered to water my first earlies much yet. I .m growing Arron Pilot again this year as I haven't yet found anything better. I do like earlies fairly small with butter and a smattering of salt

[compostqueen]

I don't water them at all.  Too big a job. 

[Adrian]

In my little allotment-of-one I have no water supply, so watering is just for the seedlings, really. Are you sure you need to water your potatoes? Have a check a few inches under the soil surface: is it damp? Remember the plants are taking their water from at least several inches down, mostly.

If your plot of potatoes is big enough, why not try not watering one part and seeing if there's an obvious difference in size and quantity when you dig them up? There's a lot of guesswork (and old husbands' tales) in gardening: a little scientific experimentation is always interesting. Let us know if you do this and how it went.

Cheers,

Adrian