[Anton]

Happy New Year everybody. I received a newsletter from John Harrison where he referred to someone  planting potatoes, against John's advice, in February, and being very successful. Has anybody else been successful in planting spuds in February? It's very cold outside tonight (I'm in Belgium) and I hear they are snowed under in Austria. Dare I risk it next month?

On another subject, three years ago I planted an early potato called "eersteling", which just means "early potato" in Flemish. It was delicous and anybody who tasted it agreed. So the last few years I have been asking for "eersteling" seed potatoes, describing the red skin and yellow interior and always ended up with something that just happened to be an early potato. In fact the true name, I've discovered, is "rode eersteling". Has anybody in Britain tried to grow this? It is really a great potato.

Anton

[Yorkie]

I think the temps in Belgium are consistently a bit colder than here in the UK - or at least when I compared the averages of Brussels and London.

To be honest I wouldn't usually risk it.  If your general temps are lower than ours, then your soil temps will also be lower.  That being said, if we continue to have a milder than usual winter, then you might risk it towards the end of March.

I'm not familiar with the variety you mention and it doesn't appear in the British Potato Variety Database.

[WirralWally]

Your "rode eersteling" is known in the UK as "Red Duke of York".
Knowing that will lead you to discover that it is very common in the UK.


Further to your opening remarks regarding the planting of potatoes very early "against advice" I have to regale you with the tale of my friend, a first-time grower, who sowed carrots in February not only too early but also by pouring a handful of seed into a number of holes ' because they grow in bunches - don't they?'.
He eventually had a good crop of carrots.
There's always someone somewhere who will come up trumps by ignoring what the rest of us would regard as 'common sense'.

If you want to try planting early then do so.
Just don't risk all your seed on such a venture.

[gobs]

Are you joking around? 

just asking.

[Anton]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I'll try just a few rows to see how it goes. I'm not what "are joking around" means, sorry.


Anton

[compostqueen]

I sowed some carrots seeds in Feb too, in some homemade compost mixed with sand and leafmould. They were very slow to germinate, not surprisingly, but they grew on and were brilliant. In a harsh winter I dare say it would have been a failure

My friend put some Lady Crystl  in a raised bed which was topped off with muck which she then covered with a cold frame. She had potatoes very early doing that and was proper chuffed 

[Salmo]

The very early potato growing areas such as Cornwall and Pembokeshire will soon be planting.

No reason not to plant in bags in the greenhouse.

Very early potatoes seldom rot if they are chitted as long as they are protected from frost.

[Anton]

When you say "The very early potato growing areas such as Cornwall and Pembokeshire will soon be planting. " how soon would that be? Early or late February?

Anton

[DD.]

Cornish earlies are mostly grown in the far west of the county where the mild winters and the rich soil provide ideal conditions for such a delicate crop. The crop is planted in late December/early January and harvested from the end of April.

[Anton]

December and April!!!!! What temperatures do you get down there? It must about  3 to 8 degrees centigrade now in Belgium.

Anton

[DD.]

It's about 11/12^oC down there at the moment.