[Grubbypaws]

I have just planted 20 bags with seed potatoes.

A friend had given me a box of Vitax organic potato food so I sprinkled a bit in the bottom of each hole , mixed it a bit and popped the seed potato in. I should have read the instructions first but you know how it is when you are all enthusiastic!  Now I read that 'it is vital to keep commercial the seed potatoes away from fertilizer as it will burn tender new roots' 

Am I doomed?

[JayG]

A few years ago I set back all my GH tomatoes for at least a month by stupidly adding fertiliser to the planters in a single layer rather than mixing it in well, although it was Growmore I was using, which being inorganic is probably a more concentrated and potentially damaging product than Vitax when misused in that way.

Could you fish out the spuds from each bag, give the compost a good stir (concentrating on mixing in the area you added the fertiliser to) and replant?

That's what I'd do to be on the safe side, you may be more of a gambler than me though. 

[Barry C]

Nice to hear people not being afraid to air their possible mistakes 

I don't mean that in a nasty way .... it's by mistakes that we all learn 

I'm another that puts a sprinkling of Growmore on often without mixing it in 

.... as for reading instructions 

[Ivor Backache]

I am not familiar with the fertiliser, but you say 'organic'. which to me means not chemical. Chemical fertilisers eg Growmore do burn, and I always wait 2 weeks before planting when I use it. But pelleted poultry manure is organic and I just mix and plant.

[mumofstig]

I am not familiar with the fertiliser, but you say 'organic'. which to me means not chemical........ pelleted poultry manure is organic and I just mix and plant.

I was just going to say the same thing. I dump a handful of chicken pellets under most things I plant, so I wouldn't worry about it tbh

[snow white]

That is all I do as well and I usually get good potatoes.

[Tenhens]

Is it too early to be planting potatoes?

[mumofstig]

I've got a few tubs planted up in the greenhouse, but I wouldn't plant in the soil yet 

[Tenhens]

Have been itching to start things off , planting up some potatoes in bags and buckets in the green house with the radio on sounds like a ' cunning plan' . Bought some growing bags a few weeks ago , waiting to give them a go.

Checked last years diary , started planting potatoes at the beginning of May. A few weeks yet. 

[al78]

Is it too early to be planting potatoes?

I'm not planting any for a couple of weeks at least, even with the lovely mild sunny spring weather today. You could probably plant in bags in the greenhouse now, I've wondered whether starting potatoes in the greenhouse in February, combined with a compost bin full of fresh manure which will rot down and give off heat in the process, would work (like a natural way of heating the greenhouse to minimise risk of frost damage).

[Grubbypaws]

I have planted in late February/early March for several years now as I am not in the UK now until June.

I always wanted to grow my own potatoes but thought that I would never be able to ; then one year I got inspired by a potato growing happily from deep within my compost bin.

I plant the seed potatoes in 55L bags with 8 inches of compost and then completely fill the bags to the top. I finish off with some slug pellets and some dry straw mulch.

The plan is that the leaves don’t make it to the outside world until the last frost has passed. This is now my 5th year of successfully growing using this technique.

I guess if we had a very mild spring and then a late frost I may come a cropper but for me it is worth the risk as I have no choice.