Allotments 4 All

My early crop of Swift patio potatoes are showing no signs of flowering at all (although those on the lottie are).  First time with pots in bins, so are they usually later? earlier?  There's plenty of healthy green foliage and I'm loathe to have a dig round in case it's just foliage :( 
Do the plants have to flower before you get a crop or is flowering just an indicator of how far along things are underground and when to start harvesting/ how long you can leave tubers in the ground?

Happy eating to all of you already enjoying your early potatoes!

I think it's just an indication of how far the plants have got.

Ellkebe, I have just come from the allotment and brought some swift potatoes back with me, they were not in flower and if anything could have been dug about a week ago looking at the size of them. I have just had a read up on the variety and it says that the flower buds tend to drop of before they flower.

Many potato plants don't flower, it's just an indication

Many thanks - will start grubbing about and see what I can see!

Where would I be able to find out which potatoes flower and which don't? Or is it a question of growing conditions rather than cultivars?

Also. Should I be watering them and if so how much how often?

Quote; Many potato plants don't flower, it's just an indication

I'm know expert on the matter but I think it is a 'breeding' thing.

I think some varieties have been bred 'infertile' where crop is the criteria not reproduction.

As most of my learned colleagues here will know that when we buy 'seed potatoes' these in fact are not true seed but tubers that have been stored for transplanting.

The true seed as with most plants come from the fruit / flowers, and in this case you might see some 'tomato like' fruits(same family as tomatoes) hanging from the haulms these are the true seed.

If the plants are infertile you may not get any flowers as such, possibly because; as someone said previously, the buds prematurely fall off.

I have had a go at 'breeding' these but it is a very long process, it can take up to seven years to get a decent crop and quite often the result is no better and sometimes worse than the parent was.

Does anyone agree / disagree? I for one would like to know more about why some flower and others don't

I believe that ALL potatoes flower, however I understand that sometimes sprays are used commercially to prevent flowering and fruiting, as this reduces tuber yield.

Some first earlies do not flower if they are allowed to crop potatoes.  If you want to collect seed from these then the potatoes have to be removed from the parent plant so that it survives long enough to flower.

Quote from: Tee Gee on June 10, 2006, 11:10:59

I for one would like to know more about why some flower and others don't

Tee Gee - there  is a Variety search function on the British Potato Council Website that enables you to look for potato varieties with flower characteristics such as flower colour, size, and more interestingly, flower quantity. This is at the bottom of the page on the following link. Whilst all potatoes will flower eventually, some have fewer flowers than others. If you leave all the boxes on the search page blank except for Flowers, and if you select Quantity "Rare", it comes up with a list of 13 varieties that flower much less than others.
http://www.potato.org.uk/toolbox/decision_guides/seedvarieties/index.html

Other aspects of this website are useful too. Hope this helps to clarify.

Breeders often graft onto tomato roots to force the potatoes to flower; unable to produce tubers the potato panics and chucks out loads of fruit.