[purron]

What size does the average potato bed have to be?
i want enough for all the family (about 8 of us).

[p00rstudent]

no idea, i have got a bed 8m x 10m set aside for potatoes next year no idea how many it will give me though, nor any idea of how many seed potatoes i am going to need.

though i am using the follwing estiamtes:
 i want two 8m rows of 1st earlies so i estiamte around 50 ish 1st early   seed potatoes
two 8m rows of second earlies = 35 ish
nine 8m rows of main crop spuds = 120 ish
 total 200 ish (205)

i have been using the garden action planting distances for the estitmate.

so working on about 20 seed potatoes = 1.5kg

i think i am going to need around 15kg of seed potatoes, thats quite a bit and that is just to feed me, not sure how many i will actually get to dig up at the end of it though.

[corynsboy]

Tricky Question.

Different varieties have different yields.   If you are stuck for space or you don't want a field of potatoes then go for high yield spuds that are suitable for your soil.

Then there are early, second early, main crop and late?  You then have to decide when you eat potatoes and when you are likely to eat the most or if you want a supply all year long.

The only real advice I can give is prepare the ground well. Make sure there is plenty of organic matter in the soil and try and order your spuds through your allotment soc or with a group of friends as postage costs on seed potatoes are scandalous!

We had 2 rows of early 3 rows of second early and 3 main crop.  I also planted a couple of rows in late July so that they would be ready for Christmas.  Each row is about 22 feet long.  Each row when earthed up 18 inches wide and has about 9 inches between each row.
The bed takes up about 1/4 of my Mum & Dad's allotment and keeps them, my Brother’s family and my Nan & Gramps (8 People) in spuds but not for every day of the week.  

See the Tuesday 20th May pictures for an idea of the gaps etc.  you can see about half the bed here.  http://growingyourownveg.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

I love the name Second early.  It reminds me of the Hobbit's "second breakfast".  It makes me feel like I'm cheating.

[crowndale]

also depends on how often and how many spuds you eat.  I have a family of 3 and a half at the moment but probably eat a lot less spuds than just one person on their own coz we eat a lot of pasta and rice instead so I only had a few rows of spuds, my rows being only around 12 feet long coz of the size of my plot.  which is another consideration, depends on your plot size coz you're going to want to grow more than just spuds I am guessing so unless space is no onbject then that needs consideration.  At the moment I have about 12'x50' of useable growing space (it'll increase to around 80' eventually and have 5 10' ish beds.  I used 15 foot of that for spuds last year.  You may also need to allow for pest damage/blight etc which affect yields, lost at least half mine this year to pests and poor yields from poor soil/blight..  

so in answer to your question, don't know really!!

[purron]

I have just dug over a section 15' x 12' yesterday, which is about 1/4 of my plot, and I stood back and i coudnt picture how many spuds I would get from it.

The 2 varieties I think I'll get are Kestrel and King Eddie as according to a few brochures they are the most versatile.

BTW my allotment societys prices for spuds are £4.00 per stone. Is that reasonable?

[woodburner]

I had an area about 4 x 4 yards down to spuds but (partly thanks to pyralid and blight(?)), I didn't get nearly enough to last a year and probably not even enough to see us through the winter. (3kg each Desiree, Pentland Javelin and Pink Fir Apple and 10 tubers each Kestrel and Charlotte.) I'll have a lot more space available next year, so plan on doing at least double that. Even if they do a lot better than the last lot, I'm not worried about over supply as I am fairly sure I can sell or at least give away the surplus.

[Salmo]

How many potatoes a week do you eat?

On average you should get about 5/6 pounds of maincrop per yard run of row. That is 2/3 pounds from each seed potato planted.

I will leave you to do the maths.

[richyrich7]

BTW my allotment societys prices for spuds are £4.00 per stone. Is that reasonable?

Very, ours are £3.50 / 3kg or there abouts

[Rampant_Weasel]

i find this site very useful

http://varieties.potato.org.uk/varietyindex.php%20?page_no=1

just about every variety u can think of and plenty u cant
tells u resistance to disease etc.

btw i grew king edward and kestrel this year, the kestrel tasted really mealy and were foul even when chipped.king edward are very prone to blight and slugs.wont be growing either of these again.
however, i grew the second early nadine and it was great, really waxy and loads of big tubers, defo growing this again.

hope this helps.