Seed potatoes

[lushy86]

Hi all,
I've been looking a seed spuds and thought I might order the following for my as yet uncultivated allottment:

Rocket
Charlotte
Maris Piper
Pink Fir apple - coz I love them
Cara - coz they are good weed busters?

They come in 1kilo nets from Alan Romans. Does this sound like too many varieties? and do I put them all in at the same time? - roll on Satruday so i can get stuck in!! :)

Thanks, Lushy  ;D

[lushy86]

[Barnowl]

Rocket  - First early
Charlotte - Second Early
Maris Piper - Early Main
Pink Fir apple - Late
Cara - Late Main

First and Second earlies are planted  3-4 weeks earlier than main crop potatoes usually March for earlies and April for Mains but it depends on the state of the soil.
Potatoes don't take kindly to be planted in cold, water-logged soil. we have light sandy soil so water retention is my problem. :)

I usually plant Earlies in the 2nd or 3rd week of March and Mains between the first and third weeks of April, but you can leave Mains as late as until early May if conditions are unfavourable.

[lushy86]

thanks Barnowl, really helpful advice :D

I chose them so that they would crop at different times. Not had a good look at soil conditions yet, will know more after Sat  ;D

[saddad]

For comparison Lushy I plant @ 30kg of seed potatoes... but have four allotments... PFA are great but as late mains quite tricky to get a crop before the blight. Anya are similar but earlier, but not as good!!
;D

[snowy]

are Carlingford the best seed potatoes the best for picking at Xmas time grown in a large tub Snowy

[Flunky]

Hi all,
I've been looking a seed spuds and thought I might order the following for my as yet uncultivated allottment:

Rocket
Charlotte
Maris Piper
Pink Fir apple - coz I love them
Cara - coz they are good weed busters?

They come in 1kilo nets from Alan Romans. Does this sound like too many varieties? and do I put them all in at the same time? - roll on Satruday so i can get stuck in!! :)

Thanks, Lushy  ;D

Please dont take this as gosple but I tried to order form Alan Romans and was told may be a wait or not at all. Didnt say this on the web site. i had an issue last time ordered so phoned to check. Was not happy.

i dont know if you wil be able to order them now as maybe too late. i have seen a lot in the garden centres.

Please double check because it may of been just me.

Best of luck.

F.

[lushy86]

thanks guys maybe I won't do PFA this year then and will see if I can get to a garden centre to have a look if I can get out of work at a decent hour! ;D

[Peasticks]

I have just received some from Alan Romans and was pleased with the level of service, the delivery did take about 6 weeks but to be fair I placed my order very early and expected to wait

[saddad]

Welcome to the site Snowy... (is Tin-Tin joining later?) Carlingford are very well thought of for Xmas spuds but "best" is a very subjective thing...  ;D

[littlebabybird]

i got my order from Alan Romans last week, very nice looking they are aswell,
they did take forever to arive but will be less decicated than the others when they go in.
if in doubt give them a ring

lbb

[kt.]

I used to plant 12-15 kg of potato sets because that is all I had room for.  My family of four always ran out of spuds by end of October.  Now we have a second plot I have 27kg of spuds to go in this year.

3kg Swift
3kg Pentland
9kg Kestrel
6kg Majestic
6kg Desiree

In addition, for the summer I have pre-ordered 40 tubers to plant in August for new spuds for Christmas.

[Barnowl]

PFA have never failed me. If they start to show signs of blight just remove affected leaves. They're strong plants.

[Vortex]

I've always had excellent service from Alan Romans when I've used them.

As to PFA , I plant mine within a week or two of my earlies, into raised beds in clay, which means they're ready about the end of September so don't have a problem with them succumbing to blight. I've seen neighboring plots go down with it at the beginning of the month without the PFA succumbing.

Failing to remember the exact cross I checked,  Anya are a cross of PFA with Desiree bred to give a much smaller salad potato. I've grown them in the past but never managed to get a very good yield from them. Perhaps I should try them again but this time on clay which PFA love.

[cornykev]

My PFA's have been spot on every year.  ;D ;D ;D

[lushy86]

great thanks all, not sure what is going to happen on Sat now as the mini digger we were going to get to scrape and turn the plot has fallen through and OH is planning to do it with his JCB from work now  ???!!
OMG  :o think I'll die of shame! Hve suggested we just try digging but he likes his boy toys! :-[   ;D