potatoes for christmas

[cambourne7]

Hi Guys,

Question for you all?

I was thinking about starting some potatoes for christmas and wondered if these need to be grown indoors or greenhouse? Never really something i atempted before as the allotment was unusable october to feb due to the weather. So growing veg in back garden is something new to me.

Seen this offer on T&M

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/potatoes1/product/aww5381/1.html

Though about picking some similar spuds up in wilko and using the ikea blue bags as planters down the middle of the greenhouse would that give me spuds for christmas?

(either the big square blue bags http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/17228340 or the new smaller tall bags (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90161946) ikea have started to do)

cam

[cambourne7]

[Robert_Brenchley]

It would give you spuds, but I imagine you'd have them long before Christmas!

[Jeannine]

I have done it planting in June. I used to plant a few of my own earlies in a very large tub in the greenhouse and tuck it up in fleece on cold nights. Worked weel for spuds is a pot. I always used Charlottes.

XX Jeannine

[kt.]

I planted some last year and got a harvest quantity hardly greater than the amount of seed potatoes i sowed.  I also had to harvest them late September because the tops had all died back.  Won't be bothering with Xmas new spuds again .  Many people had similar outcomes though there were some who said they did well.

[brownowl23]

I planted 28 seed potatoes last august and got 5 plants and a grand total of 13 tiny spuds, never ever again

[cambourne7]

Where i moved to is quite rural i dive to the shops past fields of broad beans on one side and onions on the other and there are loads of leek and potato fields on the way as well. Bought a 55kg bag of spuds for £2 so no point growing spuds in the garden. I just thought that some nice new potatoes for christmas might be a nice change but sounds like its not worth the effort.

But on the basis this is probably the only time i will have space to try it i am still temped other than charlottes any variaties you found did not work or did work?

[Tattieman]

The secrets of Christmas potatoes are -

Plant them in containers so that you can move them indoors to protect from frost.
Give them more fertiliser than normal just to give them a quicker growing season.
They will not grow everyday up until Christmas, I would estimate die back in November for most areas.
The potatoes can be left in the containers until you wish to harvest them and should be kept in a frost free area.
You are only looking to get tasty new potatoes the size of an egg so you will not get any huge amounts of potatoes.

Hope that helps.

[Toadspawn]

The speaker at our meeting tonight said that the biggest problem with growing potatoes for harvest at the end of the year is keeping them free of blight. They will need constant spraying with an appropriate fungicide.
He also said that more potatoes suitable for this purpose are becoming available. He said they are kept in cold conditions until June and then when planted grow very quickly. He runs a garden centre and said they will be selling tubers singly.
Using potatoes from a supermarket will not work because they have been treated with a growth retardant was another comment he made.
It is also possible to produce your own seed apparently. Harvest first earlies as usual and put some egg sized tubers in the light to encourage the skin to ripen. When this has happened put the tubers in a paper bag and place this in the fridge for a few weeks before planting.

[cambourne7]

Oh, sounds intresting.... sounds like fun :)

Wilko's seed potatoes where showing massive amound of growth out of the tuber in fact 2 much i dont think you would get a great crop as the energy has not gone into makeing fruit...

I have picked up some wheels and i have some wooden frames which i plan on screwing the wheels to this will allow me to move the spuds around in the greenhouse or between raised beds when the bags full and i cant lift them. Been trying to source some soil for when i get to build by raised beds and i can get a skip full of compost for £50 from local recycling place but i can collect bags for free in the car to get the potatoes going until then.