[darthpaul]

Ok being a total noobie I have been trying to read up and work out potatoes! My dad has given me some Swift seed potatoes this week that are chitted and ready to plant. I have some bags to plant them in and will be planting on the weekend once I can buy some compost.

I only have 2 bags but 9 seeds so I plan on planting 6, 3 in each bag. On the packet it says they are first earlies, does that mean I am too late to plant? Should I plant all 6 at once or stagger the planting to lengthen the time between harvests?

If I want "main crop" potatoes am I too late to buy these for planting? And if not how is best to do these in containers? 

[DD.]

"Earlies", "Second Earlies" & "Maincrop" more refer to the time of growth taken to maturity, than harvest time. Earlies take about 13 weeks, Maincrop or "Lates" about 22. Thus if all planted  at the same time Earlies will mature earlier!

If I were you, I'd get them all in at once, if you try & hold back the seed spud will start to go wizened and the chits long, you'll find you'll soon get through 3 roots of your home grown anyway.

It's still quiet early in the spud planting season, but whether the stockists have any maincrop is a different matter, you'll have to have a shop around.

Growing wise, treat them the same, but don't harvest until the haulms, (foliage), starts to die down. With earlies, when the plant is in flower, scrape away a little soil to see what's there. If not big enough, try again later.

[darthpaul]

So if I can source some maincrop seeds now will I need to chit them still or just plant them straight away?

[DD.]

Bang 'em stright in. Chances are if you can find any, they will have chitted anyway !

[darthpaul]

Marshalls Seeds seem to have some but not sure i have space to plant 25! Thats a lot of sacks!

[diggerjoe]

Last night not being able to get to plot I ventured to homebase,not to snigger at their pathetic tomato plants, but to get some more thin wire and they had loads of maincrop spuds in and I noticed in Wilkos yesterday they still had a few - not sure whether its just here in coventry  but there might be some left in your local Darthpaul - worth a try

[Iain@JBA]

Best plan is to put 3 each into 2 of your bags and then use your old compost bag to put the last 3 spuds in I have 20 old compost bags that I have made drainage holes in and have put 3 potatoes into each of them.

[darthpaul]

Have found these - http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/ they do 5 tubers and bag kits which look good as I need the bags to!

Edit - How odd I posted that as you replied Iain! Think I might be buying some from you!

[Iain@JBA]

I thought exactly the same when I saw that you had posted again. Spooky
That is what to do with your Swift as 6 potatoes in one bag would choke themselves out.

[horsepooisgood]

A couple of days ago the pound shop had lots of King Edwards in bags of 10 for.............
I'm not saying it cos you'll all laugh and say thats corny

[darthpaul]

Order placed Iain will have a look around on the weekend to see if there are any more kicking around in B & Q etc

[Iain@JBA]

You have a nice selection Paul. This has been the longest season ever for shops stocking potatoes.

[Kristen]

"they do 5 tubers and bag kits"

Supplier can be busy this time of year - it took two weeks for my Spuds and Bags order to come from Marshalls - which I can understand, but kinda spoilt my attempts to get an early crop going in the greenhouse. Should have planned earlier of course ...

... actually I should just have used some pots I had lying around 

[Ivor Backache]

I have got 6 duke of york/pentland javeline in bags. I have two in one bag and as soil is added it gets heavy to move. Eventually there will be nearly a barrow load and it will have to stay put. I have now used the reusable shopping bags with strong handles, provided by supermarkets and grow one potato in each. Much easier to move.

[darthpaul]

I have planted my swifts yesterday in tubs Do I need to put slug pellets around them as they grow?