Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?

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WirralWally

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Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« on: April 15, 2014, 02:29 »
Last evening my partners two 3-years-old grandchildren, in an unsupervised moment, ransacked my 3 boxes of seed potatoes that were happily chitting away, and had a potato fight . . . . . . hurling the said seed potatoes all around the room and at each other.
The result is that I now have ONE box of MIXED chitting potatoes.
That box consists of roughly equal numbers of First Early (Pentland Javelin), Second Early (Maris Peer) and Maincrop (Desiree).

There is no way that I can tell the difference between the potatoes.

Does anyone have a clue how I might work out which is which?
Or, is my only alternative to seek out a new supply of seed potatoes?

BTW, I know what to do with the grandchildren . . . . . . . . . but just how deep do you plant 3-year-old boys?


The successes and failures of each year keep me motivated for the following year.

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fatcat1955

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2014, 05:40 »
The Desiree should be a reddish colour so that one is easy. The other two i would plant them and wait for the flowers to appear. If you google the variety you should be able to find what colour each variety looks like when it is in flower. So sorry to hear of the mishap.

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snowdrops

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2014, 07:08 »
Oh dear, what naughty boys :lol: I suspected my 2 used to swap the labels round  :nowink: can't help on how to tell them apart though
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BabbyAnn

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2014, 09:02 »
As already mentioned, Desiree should be red-skinned.  Pentland Javelin are more an oval shape, Maris Peer should be fatter ... as seed potatoes, they probably look very similar so would just be a wild guess.

BTW, I know what to do with the grandchildren . . . . . . . . . but just how deep do you plant 3-year-old boys?

would they keep still long enough ... and don't forget to earth up  :lol:

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gobs

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2014, 21:57 »
Lol! They will taste good, anyway.

Funnily enough, some agricultural workers at high time of the season would dig in their children...Creche of sorts. :unsure:

Not at all full proof, but so often the earlier ones have more advanced shoots.
"Words... I know exactly what words I'm wanting to say, but somehow or other they is always getting squiff-squiddled around." R Dahl

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Hampshire Hog

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2014, 11:44 »
You need to plant them all so I would just do it perhaps being a bit more generous with spacing than usual if you can't spot the main crop . When you come to harvesting just furtle and see how they are coming on. First earlies tend to be just that but I find different sources define some second earlies as main crop. Certainly if you leave them many will bulk up no matter what they are technically meant to be.

Cheers HH
Keep digging

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Ivor Backache

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2014, 14:24 »
Separate the Desiree (red skin) The PJ and MP are both oval cream potatoes, and maybe the early PJ may have stronger chits. Anyway divide the whites as best you can.
When they flower it will be easy. PJ have white flowers and MP have purple ones.

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chrisnchris

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2014, 14:46 »


BTW, I know what to do with the grandchildren . . . . . . . . . but just how deep do you plant 3-year-old boys?

would they keep still long enough ... and don't forget to earth up  :lol:


I would plant them upside down....the same as you would a chicken :lol:

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WirralWally

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2014, 00:27 »
I have now spent so long looking at my 'heap' of seed potatoes that I've gone cross-eyed and they all look the same.

My opinion is that, without DNA testing, I will never correctly identify the variety of each seed potato.

So, a decision has been made.
Tomorrow I will make a final guess at which is which.
They will all then be planted.

This years crop will be as follows:-
Earlies - - 'Pick 'n' Mix
2nd Earlies - - 'Lucky Dip'
Main Crop - -  Murphy's Melange

I'm not a happy bunny with the ruination of my carefully prepared seed potatoes.
However, I'll get over it . . . . . . . . . . . . (maybe) . . . . . one day in the future.

The grandchildren are still well loved and will be spared from my idea of planting them in the potato patch.
They will be educated by providing labour during the planting and harvesting stages although, as anyone with young children will testify, this will only ensure that each task will take ten times as long as would normally be expected.


Matthew 19:14

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Springlands

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2014, 08:06 »
 :lol: :lol:  Grandchildren can certainly turn your life (and potatoes) upside down. When we were shopping recently my GS wanted to know if I was going to haggle with the shop assistant before paying!!

Matthew 6.14

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snow white

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #10 on: April 18, 2014, 08:14 »
It will be a talking point for years to come and you will laugh at it eventually.

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Salmo

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #11 on: April 18, 2014, 08:47 »
As mentioned, desiree are red skinned. If they all look the same try wetting them, the red should then show up.

Once you have separated out the desiree the other two will not matter being mixed as they are not a lot different. You could separate them by shape and hope for the best.

The chits may be a different colour or shape.  They are described in the potato council's variety listings.


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tangojulie

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Re: Plant the grandchildren or the potatoes?
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2014, 14:37 »
You have my sympathy....

I had a similar problem one year with my cats. Since then I have always written the variety on the potato with a sharpie. I'm sure I got that idea from someone on here.


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