My first new potato....

the.fee.fairy · Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:15 pm

I pulled up one potato plant...and there were about 7 new potatoes under it, then i pulled up a little opne next to it, and there were another 5 or 6!! As well as loads of really tiny ones (seed potatoes?!).

Going to enjoy them for dinner tomorrow :)

I tried digging up a plant from another bit of the garden, but i couldn't find any potatoes underneath it!!I'm going to have another go tomorrow :)

hedgewizard · Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:51 pm

I start to lift my news as soon as flowering starts, watering neighbouring plants well when finished as they can be a bit stressed (well, wouldn't you be?) The tubers are not fully mature until the vines start to yellow and collapse, and they don't store at all well until then.

But this year my earlies are showing no signs of flowering! The maincrop have been in flower for 3 weeks now, and I'm getting a touch worried!

Millymollymandy · Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:39 am

Not all spuds flower though. Mine didn't last year and this year's earlies (different variety) only had a couple of flowers. I'd have a look see if I were you!

hedgewizard · Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:10 pm

Good advice, thanks for that! BBQ this Sat I think, so I'll lift a plant or two then...

Stonehead · Post: # 25011Post **Stonehead** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:28 am

We dug up our first ones last Friday for our barbecue - I took one from each plant along a couple of rows and ended up with a half a 10-litre bucket's worth (just under 3kg).

They were baked in an improvised fire pit for our barbecue - they went very, very quickly! (The fire pit was made of granite boulders in a square, sand infill, with a fire on top for about six hours, before putting the potatoes in the hot sand for an hour.)

A couple were quite large, but all were bigger than expected - I suspect it's down to the fact that they're growing in a pig pens on good soil heavily fertilised with old straw and pig muck.

When I was earthing up again yesterday (and phew, that was hard work), I could see there were a lot more out there so it's looking good for the main harvest. It will be interesting to work out the total yield from the 400sq m.

*stuffed* · Thu Jun 29, 2006 11:21 am

I enjoyed a lovely salad last night, okay so I didn't grow it all but the new potatoes were freshly pulled from my garden and the chives in the butter were snipped minutes before coming to the table, as were about half of the salad leaves and the radishes were pulled in the morning.
Oh yeah almost forgot we had the last of the strawberries and a couple of raspberries for pudding...YUMMY!!!!

hedgewizard · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:37 am

SOunds great! V Jealous as have no fruit in the garden until next year (reminds me, must order strawbs)

Millymollymandy · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:41 am

hedgewizard wrote: V Jealous as have no fruit in the garden until next year

Well if you hadn't hacked down that poor apple treee........ (runs away and hides!)

hedgewizard · Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:24 pm

Actually that apple is producing water shoots like fury... it was the crabby old thing next to it that gave up the ghost. I'll need to plant something else there instead but don't want to risk replant disease. Do you think I'd get away with damson?

Millymollymandy · Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:37 pm

To be honest I don't know - but if it isn't related to apple it 'should' be OK. I think!

hedgewizard · Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:53 pm

Researched this and apparently most top fruit is affected. I'll have to dig out the root ball and put the soil elsewhere, and ship topsoil down from elsewhere in the garden. Luckily I have some going spare! I'll do a 50:50 mix, boost fertility with blood and bone meal and hope for the best with my little damson.