[ex-cavator]

Just started harvesting our 1st earlies and very nice they are too - they're Rocket from Wilko's. Planted on 3rd April, they're in perfect condition and very tasty.

The largest are half way between golf ball & tennis ball in size, and we've had 5.5 Kg from a row of sixteen plants. Tbh, that's not as much as I was expecting - some plants only produced 3 or 4 potatoes.

I had watered heavily until the foliage first appeared and then earthed them up & left them to it, then late frost knocked back the first to pop their heads above the ridges. The ground is now like concrete. Is this yield normal for 1st earlies, or maybe because of the dry weather?

Should I expect more of my maincrops - Desiree & Maris Piper, planted out in the second half of April? Will more watering now increase the yield? 

[sunshineband]

More watering when the flowers appear and just ater will increase the yield.

Main crop do give more than first earlies 

Lots of us have had reduced first ealry crops this year due to the spring drought. Hrad to keep up with watering spuds sometimes. Sounds like you do at least have enough to have a good feed 

[mumofstig]

They used a lot of energy recovering from frost and a reduced yield this year was only to be expected IMO 

[JaK]

My 'rocket' spuds although yummy wern't a greta yeild this year (usually pretty good). I think this years high winds didn't do them much good as they didn't recover very well.

[Nikkithefoot]

I have to say my early spuds are much better than expected, but I think it is almost entireley due to the thick layer of cow manure that I put on the soil in December (couldn't get it any earlier) and dug in in Feb. None of my spuds got watered, and we didn't have any significant rain here in Dorset until the last few weeks, which would have been too late to make an enormous difference. The largest spud I've had so far from my Charlottes is 12.5oz. Three plants will feed 5 of of for over a week.

[digalotty]

i have a good yield§ per plant around 12 - 15 but rather smaller than i expected

[Losty]

The ground where our early potatoes were, was unused for 20+ years, and we really only put them in to break up the ground back in March

We bought our seed potatoes from an allotment shop.

The aaron pilot were superb  and bigger than I could have imagined.
The rocket stunned me with 6 or 7 spuds, and the average size being about the same as a large orange!

Plenty of Baked potatoes for tea for a few weeks!



We were lucky with the frost though, as we had only a few leaves suffer, whereas some people on the allotment were hit hard.


Cheers,
Losty