[Yorkie]

Some questions moved from Martywolfman's Welcome post:

I do have a couple of questions that i hope you guys can help me with.

firstly, the plot i have taken over has a bunch of veg in the ground, mostly unusable, so it's going into the compost  bins as i dig it up. There are quite a lot of spuds, so a few weeks ago actually, i dug a few up, and cooked them to see if they were...edible.

They were edible, but not very nice, so i wont be eating more, so i've been digging them up to compost too.

Today while i was digging there were 2 plants that had lots of black on the potatoes, and i was wondering if they are just rotting, or whether this might be a sign of some kind of spud disease? just these two plants were affected as far as i could tell, and they were 2 neighbouring plants. I didnt want to put these spuds in the compost bin, and compost the disease for later reuse... so i've removed them from the plot.

but i just wanted to know for future reference, so i know what i'm looking at.

Secondly, there is a nice pile of composted material on the plot, which is nice. and yesterday i aquired some (not a huge amount...but some - about 10 big fertiliser sacks full) of well rotted manure. all greta so far.

From what i've read on these forums, usually its best to dig manure in where it will be needed in october time. obviously i'm not going to be able to do that. I'm thinking i will probably spread it around the 2 beds where i plan to plant spuds and the brassica family of veggies, and perhaps a little for the seperate seed bed and herb bed i have planned. over the next couple of weeks. Do you see any problems with doing it this way?

The amount of manure i have is not large as i said (hopefully i will have access to more as time goes on - it came from the neighbour of a good friend who owns a few horses - so i have my fingers crossed for a regular supply) would it be better to kind of dig it into the rows as i plant stufff instead perhaps?

Thirdly - as for spuds. I got some cheap seed potatoes in QD at the weekend, I'm not plannignto grow too many, as i dont eat many spuds - i'm a low carb diet kinda person (yeah, i lost 6 stones last year... i dont like to miss an opportunity to brag about that. but of course, i cant brag too much... it was only possible due to the fact that i allowed myself to get up to 20 stones in weight in the first place.... but anyway, i digress)

but back to the question. When do i start chitting them? I have 2 variety of first earlies (rocket and something else i cant remember right now) a second early, and a maincrop (one of which is king edward) do i start them all off at the same time? do i start chitting them now? do i really just place them in egg boxes in a light place to chit? no other action required? do i plant them all at the same tim, or is it like.. i should plant them out all at the same time?

and finally...for now (i think) weeds.

the plot is fairly well overgrown, but not hugely so. It's not completely overrun in any way, thankfully. As i mentioned there are some veggies in place too. now i'm not familiar with what all of the plants look like, from above ground expecially. the onions, sprouts cabbages etc are obvious, but there are other things that i'm not sure whther they are weeds or deliberate plants. some almost seem to be in rows accross the plot, so might be planted, others dont. can anybody suggest a good resource for pictures of weeds so i know to distiguish them, and also to perhaps recognise ones that might become a problem if i dont deal with them harshly.

Anyway, i think i've taken up enough of everybody's time for now. any help you can offer greatly appreciated

[NASH]

If you compost old potatoes you will have potatoes all over the place in years to come.

[Salmo]

The blackened potatoes are probably just frosted but may have blight. If the potatoes do not grow the blight cannot spread.

Store the seed potatoes somewhere cool but frost free until you are ready to chit them. At that stage it does not matter whether it is light or dark.

Start chitting about 6 weeks before you expect to plant i.e. sometime in February.

Bring them into warm and light conditions for a week or so to break their dormancy. When you can see the buds(chits) starting some growth put them into a cool and light place. You want them to develop slowly with short green chits.

Yorkie is very right about putting potatoes into the compost. Once in there they are well insulated and will grow. If you want to compost them spread them out on open ground so that they get frosted. When they are soft and frosted they can be composted safely. Same applies to potato peelings.

One word of warning. Any potatoes that grow in your compost heap are likely to spread blight spores to this years crop.

[martywolfman]

thanks for the replies guys...

ack - you cant compost potatoes? damn. I've got a fun job picking though the compost heaps to remove them again now. argh.

i thought all veggies were compostable

[JayG]

I've never had a problem with potato peelings growing in my dalek bins, athough I admit I'm not in the habit of composting whole potatoes!

Sometimes I do or don't do certain things because of a gut feeling about it rather than any real science; I put the kitchen waste in just one bin and don't use the compost on spuds or tomatoes "just in case" (I've already got potato eelworm on my plot; why spend good money on certified disease-free seed potatoes and then risk introducing a disease or pest from your own compost?)

[Kristen]

If you want to compost them spread them out on open ground so that they get frosted. When they are soft and frosted they can be composted safely. Same applies to potato peelings.

Good tip , had never thought of that

[Trillium]

i thought all veggies were compostable

Most are. But potatoes being tubers (basically, seeds), they're more likely to start growing again.

[Kristen]

potatoes being tubers (basically, seeds), they're more likely to start growing again.

"more likely"? Than Tomato seeds for example?